Анотація:
The article is devoted to the captivating, though controversial phenomenon of the role
of the intellectual facilities of human beings (measured by the standardized intelli
gence tests) in the dynamic relation tying the place in the social structure occupied by a
given family with one’s own position in adult life and one’s career. I based my analysis
on the Warsaw panel research being conducted during almost 25 years, starting in
1974 (when IQ and its sociocultural dimensions were analyzed in the entire
14thousand population of the Warsaw teenagers) and finishing in 1995–1999)
(with the study geopuc of life careers and actual intellectual facilities of the 30year
olds from the original sample with a high and low IQ in their childhood). The results of
analysis show that IQ seems a good prognostic of life career, understood in the terms of
objective categories of social status. However, its role should not be overestimated,
because there are other factors difficult to measure empirically — such as ancestry or
traits of personality, which co-determine one’s life career.