Personal Intelligence and our Test Development Program
Personal intelligence involves the capacity to reason about personality and personality-relevant information. People high in personal intelligence are good at understanding themselves and others. In our lab, we have developed a series of ability-based tests that assess this skill, under the name of the Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI).
We generally try to keep active a full-length version of the TOPI, as well as short form(s) of the scale. The current full length versions of the TOPI are the TOPI 4R, 5G and 5E (since Spring, 2019); the current short forms are the TOPI-MINI-12 and TOPI-Brief-20.
All the test forms are highly intercorrelated (generally r = .80 to .95). You can find out more about the properties of each scale in the "Manuals for Current Versions..." section below and looking at the manuals for each test. Note that the TOPI Brief-20is now limited open source (to researchers only, upon request).
You can learn more about the Test of Personal Intelligence on this page by looking at a sample TOPI test (see link below) that contains items like those on the actual test, by reading a bit more on this and other web pages on this site, and by downloading the resources for the TOPI and TOPI MINI (Links are provided below).
A Sample Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI)
The Most Recent Full-Length Versions of theTest of Personal Inlligence (TOPI) are the TOPI 4R* and TOPI 5G
*The TOPI 1.4R has been relabeled the TOPI 4R
The TOPI 4R and TOPI 5G yield a single overall personal intelligence score. For more details please see Mayer, J.D., Caruso, D.R., & Panter, A.T. (2019). Advancing the measurement of personal intelligence with the Test of Personal Intelligence, Version 5 (TOPI 5), Journal of Intelligence, 7(1), 1-17, doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence7010004
The TOPI 1.4 and 1.4R (relabeled the TOPI 4 and 4R) yield three key scores--however, we now recommend using only the overall PI score:
Overall Personal Intelligence. People who score high overall in personal intelligence have a good understanding of themselves and other people. They perceive their own and other people’s qualities, develop reasonably accurate models of themselves and of the people around them, guide their own actions (and those of others) in a way that is consistent with their personalities, and are able to systematize and plan their lives so as to meet their goals.
Consistency-Congruence Personal Intelligence. People who score high in Consistency-Congruence personal intelligence are able to reason well about personality overall. These high consistency scorers, relative to other high scorers, are particularly attuned to the consistent traits they observe in themselves and others, and these high consistency individuals especially use that information to explain understand people behave, to find comfortable settings and interactions for themselves and others (matching their own consistent qualities to situations), and to anticipate other people’s likely behaviors in the future, using the consistent qualities they have noticed in the person’s earlier behavior.
Dynamic-Analytical Personal Intelligence. People who score high in Dynamic-Analytical personal intelligence can reason about personality in general. The high DAPI people, relative to other high scorers, are particularly attuned to understanding personality by integrating diverse sources of information about an individual into their knowledge: They are good at synthesizing sometimes conflicting information about a person—joining together a person’s reputation and first-hand observation, and at reasoning about where the information comes from and how to put it together to infer important qualities of the individual. They also are good at understanding a person’s inner conflicts—how a person’s different goals may go together or may conflict.
Manuals for Current Versions of the Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI)
- Please Note: The most current information about reliability and factor structure of the TOPI 1.4 and TOPI 1.4R is provided in Mayer, Caruso and Panter (2019). Earlier information, now superceded by the aforementioned article, can be found in the [Deprecated] Test manual for the TOPI 1.4 and in Mayer, Panter & Caruso, 2017 .
- Test manual (9th ed.) for the TOPI MINI-12
- Test manual (2nd ed.) for the TOPI Brief-20
- Translation policy
Recent Publications, Chapters, and Theses Relevant to the Validity of the Test of Personal Intelligence
Please note: If an article or other work is not available below through a link below, please e-mail the lab for a copy. (Also check our library website at https://scholars.unh.edu/personality_lab/
- Our most recent article at the Journal of Intelligence, entitled, Advancing the Measurement of Personal Intelligence with the Test of Personal Intelligence, Version 5 (TOPI 5)
- An article from Personality and Individual Differences and
- A summary conference presentation about the TOPI 1.4 from the Association for Research in Personality
- Allen, J. (2017). Personal Intelligence and Learning about Personality in Everyday Life. Doctoral Dissertation. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 135.
- Barlow, B. A. (2016). What is self-potential and how does it relate to personal intelligence? Doctoral Dissertation. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 2262.
- Bryan, V. M. (2018). Does personal Intelligence promote conflict resolution in romantic relationships? Master's Thesis. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH.
- Kenney, E. (2018). Mother-child conversations about other people: The role of mothers' personal intelligence. Doctoral Dissertation, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH.
- Himlin, L. T. (2018). Pending.
- Phillips, K. G. (2016). Navigating Barriers at Work: Exploring the Perceptions of Employees with Disabilities. Doctoral Dissertation. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 2382.
- Sylaska, K. (2016). Major Decisions: Personal Intelligence and Students' Reasoning about College Majors. Doctoral Dissertation. University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 2262.