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Published on: September 11, 2021
Does personal intelligence exist? Evidence from a new ability-based measure
John D Mayer1, A T Panter, David R Caruso
1Department of Psychology , University of New Hampshire at Durham, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
Abstract:
Personal intelligence has been defined as the ability to reason about personality and personality-relevant information and to use that information to guide one's actions and more generally, one's life. We constructed an initial version of an ability-based measure to test whether personal intelligence can be measured and whether it exists as a unitary intelligence. In 3 studies (N = 241, 308, and 385), we administered this Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI), composed of 4 sections, to undergraduates along with criterion measures. Results suggested that a personal intelligence can be measured, that it might exist as a unified area of mental abilities, and that it represents psychological qualities that have intriguing predictive aspects.
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