Poverty shrinks brains from birth: Studies show that children from low-income families have smaller brains and lower cognitive abilities

For IQ, here are some articles and studies on the link between genetics and IQ.

This is an article on the American Psychological Association's website that looks at the results of 124 studies on general intelligence, which is measured as IQ. near the end, it concludes that, based on the papers that claim learning ability to be fixed, you could still adjust teaching methods to produce better learning.

Another article showing how general intelligence predicts test scores.

And [this] is a study using data from 11,000 pairs of twins, showing that while genetics plays a large role, environmental factors do have an effect on IQ scores.

Also, some excerpts from my textbook:

"The long-running Minnesota Study of Twins, an investigation of identical twins raised in different homes and reunited only as adult (Bouchard, 1994, 1999; Bouchard et al., 1998; Johnson et al., 2007), found that genetic factors appear to play a surprisingly large role in the IQ scores of twins."

"Different IQ tests approach the measurement of intelligence from different perspectives. However most are designed to predict grades in school."

So while general intelligence is highly hereditary and closely linked to IQ, intelligence is still affected by environmental factors and most IQ measurements are designed to predict test scores, not post-school success. Also, IQ tests only test Linguistic and logical intelligence. However, one theory that's gaining a lot of support in psychology is Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences which shows other types of intelligences that aren't even covered under IQ tests, but play a key role in how successful someone might be.

For emotional intelligence, here's some excerpts from a psychology text book Visualizing Psychology 3rd edition to start with:

"emotional intelligence involves knowing and managing one's emotions, empathizing with others, and maintaining satisfying relationships."

"Popular accounts such as Goleman's have suggested that traditional measures of human intelligence ignore a crucial range of abilities that characterize people who excel in real life: self awareness, impulse control, persistence, zeal and self motivation, empathy, and social deftness."

None of these social skills have a direct link to measured IQ, but all are very important in real life situations. No matter how high someone's IQ is, if they can't do well in an interview, work in groups, or get along with other people, they are going to have a harder time making connections, getting hired, and moving up in a company. Here is a link to a scholarly article looking at the links between EI, GI(General intelligence or IQ), and success.

/r/psychology Thread Parent Link - scientificamerican.com