Teenage Personal Quotients

There are 4 kinds of personal or mind quotients that test our abilities, especially for teenagers which plays a crucial role considering they are in their developing years. The ideal assessment of the mind provides a rating for each of the four quotients:

• Intelligence Quotient – is the ability to learn or understand
• Emotional Quotient – is described as the capacity of the individual to perceive, assess and manage the emotions of one’s self and of others
• Creative Quotient – is known as the capacity to be creative and adventurous
• Adversity Quotient – ability to respond to change and challenges

These are the 4 quotients that influence the teenage life and also make a long lasting impact on the rest of their lives, which can be positive or negative.

What are Personal Quotients?

Dr. Howard Gardner as a model of intelligence first discovered multiple intelligence theory. This was used in setting apart intelligence into varied modalities instead of just seeing it as or being subjugated by a single general ability. There are various abilities that we use when it comes to reasoning, problem solving, learning, planning, understanding and abstract thoughts - and all of these are a part of your intelligence.

Dr. Gardner then used this model to segregate the quotients, especially for teenagers -

Emotional Quotient (EQ)

As a teen the Emotional Quotient is primarily responsible for helping them become more aware of our feelings and that of others. So for a teenager, the feeling includes but is not restricted to empathy, motivation, compassion and an ability to respond skillfully to pleasure. It is also associated with pain by understanding own emotions and the emotions of the others and to act appropriately. In the early developing years, especially when teens undergo puberty, there are a lot of emotional factors that come into account and hence knowing and helping them evolve their EQ is essential.

Intelligent Quotient (IQ)

Intelligent Quotient is the ultimate intelligence of a person and for a teenager, it is not something that can be restrictive at this age. In fact, IQ may improve usually and is described as the ability to carry out abstract thinking, to adjust yourself to your environment. Helping a teen build up a good IQ will help them secure a better educational future and consists of grasping the essentials in a given situation and responding.

Adversity Quotient (AQ)

Adversity Quotient is defined as the measure on how you respond to adversity. For teenagers, responsiveness to adversity is divisors and indicates how well you withstand adversity and your ability to surmount it. So in the long run, this is all about who gives up and who fights back and wins.

Creativity Quotient (CQ)

Creativity Quotient is defined as the ability to generate innovative ideas and manifest them from thought into reality. For a teenager, this is one of the most vital quotients because now is the time that they are exploring newer avenues and choosing streams that they prefer. A simple instance of hindering with creativity would be encouraging a teen to pick something that doesn’t involve original thinking and then producing.

Ways To Improve These Quotients

For teenagers, the tasks of improving and enhancing these quotients are something that has to be done at a comprehensive level. With a child still growing both physically and emotionally, there are chances of improving these quotients with help from parents and educators.

Role of Parent

In this reference, one of the biggest contributors and influencers of these four quotients are the parents. They can contribute to their teenager’s emotional well being by attending to the basic needs of the child and being there to support them. Parents can make an attempt to educate and encourage their teens for developing emotional intelligence and consequently improve their capacity for learning. It is at home that the entire learning procedure commences and though outside influence does matter, a strong foundation comes from the parents. Here is what they can do-

Educate them so that they are able to develop and improve on the EQ aspect. You can also help them to create a more positive environment, help out with studies and work on other adversity aspects that they are dealing with. Exposure and communication are the two pillars of ensuring that the parent contributes positively to these quotients.

Self Confidence

During the teenage years, one of the biggest problems that teens suffer from is lack of self-confidence. It is now that the parent should encourage their teen to talk rather than get into a shell. Not communicating about their feelings is one of the biggest hindrances that affect the EQ, CQ and eventually the IQ aspect. Teenagers do like talking about these aspects; it is just that parents often fail to build up that much-needed connection here. For parents, the focus should be to help the child become more aware of their problems and overcome the same. Hence shifting from ‘them' to ‘I’. At this level, parents can cite real life examples of their teenage years or even discuss their friends or other issues to help the teenager overcome their emotional behavior changes, thus building up good EQ.

Mood management

You have often seen teenagers get all moody and try to shake off a bad mood. Basically anger management is an issue that severely affects your IQ and EQ. As teens become victims of negative feelings, there is a drastic shift to poorer levels of different quotients. A lot of factors come into consideration here that includes peer and school pressure, puberty and physical changes, etc. So remember that though your teen is likely to express more of anger and mood swings during this phase, you have to help them create a positive balance to these emotions. Help them understand that anger is a normal part of life, but they have to focus on conflict resolution and cool off instead of letting these feelings linger. Any prolonged lingering of negative emotion takes a toll on EQ, which eventually has a negative impact on the other quotients too.

Self-motivation

One of the most important aspects of developing positive personal quotients in teenagers is self-motivation. Remember that at the end of the day, all teenagers like being fiercely independent. So eventually the idea is to help them emerge as self-motivators when it comes to pushing their quotients up. For instance, if a teen is not performing well at school or is an average student but excels at sports, then the parent can urge them to enjoy what the love but focus a little bit on the educational aspect. So by nurturing and motivating their CQ and EQ levels, you are actually motivating them into improving their IQ levels too. It is with this self-motivation that teens focus on attaining more and they start believing in themselves. It is the time to nurture their inner strength to make them believe that they are able to succeed and achieve goals that are attainable. With a blend of enthusiasm and setting up of realistic goals, a slow but gradual attempt into improving different quotients can be exercised, especially IQ. For instance, gradual teaching, extra classes and a bit of tutoring combines together to help achieve smaller goals that in the long run become achievable tasks.

Positive Approach

It is also the time to promote optimism in the teenager and help them workout creative solutions thus focusing on the CQ and AQ aspects. Remember that since these quotients are interrelated, influencing them in one way can have a positive impact on other. A simple way would be through creative learning processes like using the Internet or visual mediums. Through this, not only are the CQ and IQ levels improved, but the teen also has a more motivated and positive approach to life, which in turn impacts IQ and AQ levels.

Empathy

Often teenagers have a problem that their parents are not empathetic enough and this creates a communication barrier. The point here is that any emotional barrier at this stage means that their complete personal quotient growth is restricted. At this parents can empathize with their teens and discuss their failures and how they overcame the same or talk about their teenage years. Think about what you would have done in the same situation rather than just giving them guidance. It is not easy to put yourself in this empathy model but the secret to connecting with them at this stage is rather focused on one path. Remember that empathizing again gives them motivation and a more channeled path of guidance, which influences their IQ and EQ drastically. Also, if you have a creative teen, then it makes a long lasting impact on their CQ too. You can cite examples of other teens too in this reference.

Encouragement

For any parent, encouraging the achievements of their teens is a crucial aspect of these growth years. It is not only education that should be focused on but also their emotional development, eventually they are going to influence each other. If you just keep complementing them on their IQ achievements, somewhere in the long run, the EQ takes a setback. This means lack of self-esteem, poor relationship management and lack of confidence. But teens always get a kick when their parents complement them for handling a particular relationship or tiff with a best friend with tact and grace. It is here that the teens understand that problem solving, personal growth and even emotional resilience are vital aspects of life. So do appreciate their academic grades and their IQ, but also focus on these aspects-

• Congratulate them for completing a challenging assignment and not just the grade achieved
• Applaud them when they demonstrate empathy/ graciousness for others
• Affirm them when they choose not to lash out when angry
• Encourage and appreciate their measures for choosing alternative or creative ways to solve problems
• Be there in times of distress and adversity to up their AQ and provide as much time and energy as possible
• Let them be decision maker in important household and family issues
• Make sure that you spend one on one time with your teen
  

Changing levels of Personal Quotients

A lot of teenagers also experience a change in the IQ levels in the later years or even during thee teen years. So using the 11 exam for grammar school entrance to predict academic ability is not really correct. A study by Robert Sternberg from Oklahoma State University, said that liked being a couched potato who doesn’t exercise, there is also a chance that your child’s personal quotient scores keep changing during their teen years.

Other Factors Influencing Personal Quotients

Personal quotients at all levels for the teens are affected and influenced by not only the home but other aspects too. Some of these are-

School

Your school is one of the most important influences in the different emotional, intelligent, adversity and creative quotient of the teenager. It is here that the teens form different personal bonds, make friends, relations, etc. Outside the family, the school is like a small part of the family, which contributes to these aspects. Academically, a school is the motivator and influencer in helping boost IQ. But thanks to immense exposure about the negative affects of not focusing on other quotients, schools are making an honest attempt to provide physical and psychological aid to teenagers. Counseling is perhaps the best start on this aspect. So in the school, the second layer of building and improving the personal quotient of the teenage is set.

Health

Mental and physical health combine together to contribute towards the personal quotient of any teenager. A simple example here would be an extremely obese or very thin teenager being shy, over conscious of their physical appearance and thus avoiding expressing their emotions. As a result, the tend to become more introvert, focus so much on enhancing just their IQ that creativity and emotional quotients take a set back. So again, it is the task of the school and the parents to help teenagers understand that the bodily changes are just a part of this growing process and it is something that can be controlled via discipline and self-motivation. Similarly, someone who is physically challenged could be well rank high on all other personal quotients, if they have the right support and care from family friends and peers.

In the long run, remember that IQ is not the only quotient that matters. You have to work on building a complete package. Focusing on just one aspect of any quotient would be unfair for the growing teenager, who is unaware of the other quotients. The idea is to help them develop their IQ, AQ, CQ and EQ in a positive and gradual way so that they are able to handle challenges and hurdles as they grow into adulthood, without creating an emotional havoc or hampering their teenage years.