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The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
11–20 of 48 posts
Re: The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
#12We have demonstrated in a previous study that a high degree of worry in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) correlates positively with intelligence and that a low degree of worry in healthy subjects correlates positively with intelligence.
Much simpler alternate hypothesis: Generalized Anxiety Disorder is more accurately diagnosed in intelligent people.
(As for the study, the small sample size etc makes it an object lesson into how to create a study that won't replicate. Why is this on HN?)
Re: The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
#13We have demonstrated in a previous study that a high degree of worry in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) correlates positively with intelligence and that a low degree of worry in healthy subjects correlates positively with intelligence. Much simpler alternate hypothesis: Generalized Anxiety Disorder is more accurately diagnosed in intelligent people. (As for the study, the small sample size etc makes…
Your alternate hypothesis is interesting. I wonder if that was considered. As far as why it's on HN though, presumably because many of us find it interesting, despite its drawbacks. (Or even because of them, since it encourages interesting comments like the first part of yours!)
Re: The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
#14I think we need more data than that before we draw any conclusions. That's a rather small sample size.
This reminds me of an excerpt from The Sports Gene about Met and Val alleles in the COMT[1] gene, though:
"Cognitive testing and brain imaging studies have found that subjects with two Met versions - both animals and humans - tend to do better and require less metabolic effort for cognitive and memory tasks, but that they are also more prone to anxiety and more sensitive to pain. Conversely, Val/Val carriers seem to do slightly worse on cognitive tests that require rapid mental flexibility, but may be more resilient to stress and pain."
Re: The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
#15Ugh, they went out of their way to create a mobile interface which breaks vertical scrolling (you have to hit the "next" button to see the next (non-scrollable) page. Guys, seriously, stop breaking the mobile web by "improving" it :(
Did you try swiping left/right? That definitely works for me.
Unlike you, I actually found this refreshingly nice, especially considering it's a government site. Usually you get one broken experience, this has lots of options which all work well (albeit some not fitting well for all styles of consumption, but still well implemented otherwise).
Re: The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
#16"We have demonstrated in a previous study that a high degree of worry in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) correlates positively with intelligence and that a low degree of worry in healthy subjects correlates positively with intelligence." Woot! As a happy person who doesn't worrry much I was pleasantly surprised to find out I'm not necessarily and idiot.
From the first sentence of the conclusion: > It should be noted, however, that... the mean IQ for the GAD group was elevated in comparison to the control group (a mean of ∼119 versus a mean of ∼109). Further, the IQ means for both the GAD group and the control group were significantly higher than the average IQ of the general population (∼100). Results should thus be interpreted with the consideration that the study…
I've always wondered about this when talking to friends of mine who are psychology grad students about the studies they work on. Since most of them rely upon volunteers attracted via mechanisms like flyers put up on a university campus or the raffle of a free iPad in a college town, aren't these types of volunteer-based studies going to tell you a lot about college kids and (potentially) very little about the general population?
Re: The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
#17"We have demonstrated in a previous study that a high degree of worry in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) correlates positively with intelligence and that a low degree of worry in healthy subjects correlates positively with intelligence." Woot! As a happy person who doesn't worrry much I was pleasantly surprised to find out I'm not necessarily and idiot.
So if I'm having high levels of anxiety and feel dumber every day, it means I'm not having a generalized anxiety disorder?
You could be experiencing imposter syndrome.
Re: The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
#18Ugh, they went out of their way to create a mobile interface which breaks vertical scrolling (you have to hit the "next" button to see the next (non-scrollable) page. Guys, seriously, stop breaking the mobile web by "improving" it :(
I got downvoted for calling that out on one of their last articles. Side scrolling is absolutely non-intuitive and painfully limits ones ability to easily read an article on mobile. /ot The article is interesting though in that it calls out with medical evidence a correlation I think of as relatively obvious. I've met some seriously smart people in the world with personality peculiarities that seem to stem from anxie…
Side-scrolling is shit. There, I said it.
Re: The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the first sentence of the conclusion: > It should be noted, however, that... the mean IQ for the GAD group was elevated in comparison to the control group (a mean of ∼119 versus a mean of ∼109). Further, the IQ means for both the GAD group and the control group were significantly higher than the average IQ of the general population (∼100). Results should thus be interpreted with the consideration that the study…
I've always wondered about this when talking to friends of mine who are psychology grad students about the studies they work on. Since most of them rely upon volunteers attracted via mechanisms like flyers put up on a university campus or the raffle of a free iPad in a college town, aren't these types of volunteer-based studies going to tell you a lot about college kids and (potentially) very little about the general…
Yep - college undergrads are the white mice of psychology, just not as cute (usually).
Re: The Relationship Between Intelligence and Anxiety
#20We have demonstrated in a previous study that a high degree of worry in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) correlates positively with intelligence and that a low degree of worry in healthy subjects correlates positively with intelligence. Much simpler alternate hypothesis: Generalized Anxiety Disorder is more accurately diagnosed in intelligent people. (As for the study, the small sample size etc makes…
Given the mean IQ of the participants with GAD was 119 in this study this hypothesis has certainly not been excluded.
It is like 99% of these studies - of limited applicability and almost certainly unable to be replicated in a larger study. There is a name for these sort of studies, but I am trying to be charitable.