Estimating Self, Parental, and Partner Multiple Intelligences: A Replication in Malaysia

Abstract

Participants were 230 adult Malaysians who estimated their own, their parents', and their partners' overall IQs and 10 multiple intelligences. In accordance with both the previous literature and the authors' hypotheses, men rated themselves higher than did women on overall, verbal, logical-mathematical, and spatial intelligences. There were fewer gender differences in ratings of parents and in those of partners. Participants believed that they were more intelligent than both parents (but not their partners) and that their fathers were more intelligent than their mothers. Regressions indicated that participants believed that verbal intelligence and—to a lesser extent—logical-mathematical intelligence were the main predictors of overall intelligence. The authors discussed results in terms of the extant cross-cultural literature in the field.

Keywords:

• cross-cultural studies
• gender differences
• self-estimated intelligence