Gene Identified For IQ
Apparently biochemistry has finally provided us with early evidence of what we all knew was self-evident.
One question I have for the experts here relating to IQ is this: is there any identifiable, scientific link between high IQ and mental illness (specifically mood disorders)? You hear much about mentall illness and "creativity," but I wonder if the same pattern is maintained with high IQ. Certainly many of the painters, artists, poets etc... studied by the likes of Kay Jamison et al. have IQ's higher than the norm, but have there been any studies done strictly based on IQ and nothing else?
I have read the Terman study of gifted children published decades ago and he seemed to believe that levels of "maladjustment" in his subjects with IQ's above 150 were much higher than those at the cut-off level of 140. He showed that this phenomenon became even more profound at a perfectly linear level as the IQ's increased, with the vast majority of his subjects with IQ's above 160 having marked mental disturbance as adults. The "maladjustment" levels increased, on average, as the IQ increased. He defined "maladjustment" broadly, but it basically meant difficulty in coping with everyday issues -- people, marriage, children and included a propensity for having "nervous breakdowns."
Interestingly, one of the children that did not make the cut-off of 140 IQ for Terman's study was Nobel prize winning physicist William Shockley who co-invented the transistor. Shockley, it seems, missed the 140 mark by a few points. Few of Terman's children, if any, grew up to be as intellectually successful as Shockley. There were plenty of PhD's, professors, lawyers, and doctors, some at the top of their fields, but none won Nobel prizes in physics or anything of that sort (as far as I can tell).
The IQ test Terman used, by the way, was his own "Terman Concept Mastery Test," which was used widely at the time, but has made way for David Weschler these days.
Apparently biochemistry has finally provided us with early evidence of what we all knew was self-evident.
One question I have for the experts here relating to IQ is this: is there any identifiable, scientific link between high IQ and mental illness (specifically mood disorders)? You hear much about mentall illness and "creativity," but I wonder if the same pattern is maintained with high IQ. Certainly many of the painters, artists, poets etc... studied by the likes of Kay Jamison et al. have IQ's higher than the norm, but have there been any studies done strictly based on IQ and nothing else?
I have read the Terman study of gifted children published decades ago and he seemed to believe that levels of "maladjustment" in his subjects with IQ's above 150 were much higher than those at the cut-off level of 140. He showed that this phenomenon became even more profound at a perfectly linear level as the IQ's increased, with the vast majority of his subjects with IQ's above 160 having marked mental disturbance as adults. The "maladjustment" levels increased, on average, as the IQ increased. He defined "maladjustment" broadly, but it basically meant difficulty in coping with everyday issues -- people, marriage, children and included a propensity for having "nervous breakdowns."
Interestingly, one of the children that did not make the cut-off of 140 IQ for Terman's study was Nobel prize winning physicist William Shockley who co-invented the transistor. Shockley, it seems, missed the 140 mark by a few points. Few of Terman's children, if any, grew up to be as intellectually successful as Shockley. There were plenty of PhD's, professors, lawyers, and doctors, some at the top of their fields, but none won Nobel prizes in physics or anything of that sort (as far as I can tell).
The IQ test Terman used, by the way, was his own "Terman Concept Mastery Test," which was used widely at the time, but has made way for David Weschler these days.
