Personal Intelligence in the Workplace and Relationships (2013)

Undergraduate: Mariah Moore

Faculty Advisor: Abigail Panter
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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The predictive ability of personal intelligence (PI), the ability to understand and apply personality-related information, was examined in relation to the workplace and social relationships. The purpose of the study was to demonstrate the usefulness of PI as an ability-based measure of intelligence, rather than as a measure of traits or personality. We predicted that the TOPI (objective test of personal intelligence) would predict job satisfaction, indicators of leadership, organizational workplace behavior, and social support more than the SEPI (self-estimated personal intelligence). The TOPI and SEPI served as measures of PI, and various relationship and job-related measures were administered. The data from 378 American participants who work full-time was collected online from Amazon Mechanical Turk. The study found mixed results, but PI strongly related to social support in general and inside of the workplace, as well as to the absence of deviant behaviors in the workplace. PI was able to predict social outcomes and workplace behaviors above and beyond the predictive capacity of general measures of intelligence, demonstrating PI¿s usefulness as a novel form of intelligence. However, the study was limited by the low variance/reliability of the TOPI scores, so contrary to predictions, the SEPI related to more measures than the TOPI. The findings suggest that PI may support healthy relationships and relate to some positive workplace characteristics.