Self-assessed Intelligence in Adults: The Role of Gender, Cognitive Intelligence, and Emotional Intelligence

Dennis Dahl

Authors

Dennis Dahl Lifework Design Group

Keywords:

self-assessment, intelligence, gender, cognitive intelligence, adult, emotions, emotional intelligence

Abstract

The contribution of psychometrically assessed cognitive intelligence (g)* and emotional intelligence (EI) in predicting self-assessed intelligence (SAI) was examined for both men and women. Adults participating in a career exploration program were asked to estimate their cognitive intelligence, then given an objective measure of cognitive ability followed by an ability-based EI assessment. Overall, objective measures of intelligence accounted for 30% of the variance in SAI suggesting that SAI can be a useful tool in career counselling. Gender provided 2% of variance. Men tended to overestimate and women underestimate SAI but men were more accurate estimators of their own abilities than women (r = .61 vs .48). Ability based EI provided about 1% extra variance regardless of degree of accuracy in SAI. Results suggest that EI overall does not mediate between SAI and objective measures and is likely not a good predictor of SAI accuracy.

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