Ability alone is not enough : How we think about ourselves matters too

The myth of the all-powerful IQ One of the most pervasive myths about success in school and in life has been that it mainly depends upon the level of a person’s IQ. For many years this was an assumption perpetuated by educational psychologists, whose first reaction was to reach for an intelligence test in seeking to explain educational success or failure. Various government and educational establishment initiatives underscored this approach. Efforts to identify the so-called ‘gifted and talented’ have been largely based upon high measured IQ, whist at the other end of the scale, a diagnosis of ‘moderate learning abilities’ has continued to be largely dependent upon low intelligence test scores. Meanwhile, most secondary schools across the country continue to draw upon the results of Cognitive Abilities Tests (CAT) to predict their students’ future success or failure in public examinations.