Robert Jeffrey Sternberg - Research Paper Example

Robert Jeffrey Sternberg Robert Jeffrey Sternberg is an American psychologist born on 8th December 1949 in New Jersey. In his life he has been the proud holder of many academic positions. He has around 10 honorary doctorates from various universities in Europe, South America and North American universities. He is the Adjunct professor of Education, Professor of Psychology and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. He is also associated with the University of Heidelberg in Germany as an honorary professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology. He has also held various positions in Yale University in the past before his association with Tufts University. Sternberg held many major positions in various intelligentsia forums or associations (tjhsst, 2011). His positions include: Professor of Psychology and Education in the department of Psychology at IBM Director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies and Expertise in at Yale Professor of Management in the School of Management President of the Eastern Psychological Association (2006-2007) President of International Association of Cognitive Education and Psychology. President of the American Psychological Association (2003) Stenberg’s contribution to cognitive psychology has been immense. His main areas of interest have been creativity, intelligence, leadership, various thinking styles, love and its relation with hate and war. His research career in psychology especially in human intelligence had a rather inauspicious beginning. It started at an early age of his school days following a poor failure in an intelligence test that lead his teachers to develop a low expectation of him in the future developments. This made a huge impact on him. It was not until his 4th grade that he really started to show signs of his future achievements. The credit for this goes to his teacher Mrs. Alexa who realized his potential. She challenged him and encouraged him to perform at his best. He also concluded that the test could not have been accurate and in no way can judge his overall intelligence. It is here that his quest to explore intelligence and creativity started (tjhsst, 2011). He performed very well in his academics and eventually graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Yale in 1972. It was in his 7th grade that he came up with own test to measure intelligence. He named it Sternberg Test of Mental Ability (STOMA). Since then his contributions have lead to new insight on how intelligence and creativity works, and how it can be measured. Following his graduation, he also got his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1975. He has written several articles and books relating to creativity, intelligence, styles of thinking, leadership, love and hate. His major contributions include the Triangular Theory of Love and Triarchic Theory of Intelligence. A close note of his early life and his research development can easily sketch out how his experience in the early life that transformed his entire life and gave him a definite goal. A fatal failure in his test and that posed a big challenge before him to achieve. He had given his full strength and mind to proving himself that he himself believed the failed score did not accurately predicted his intellectual capacity. This failure has been a major force behind his success; that urged him to explore the intelligence. The better understanding of the same helped him to develop it at the most. Sternberg defined intelligence as the skill in achieving whatever it is one wants to attain in his life within the socio-cultural context by capitalizing on the strengths and compensating for or correcting his weaknesses. He developed his Triarchic Theory of Intelligence in 2003 which categorized intelligence into 3 parts, namely, synthetic or creative intelligence, analytical intelligence and practical intelligence. According to him, if one had to achieve success in context to socio cultural environments then all the above abilities have to function collectively. Evaluation, analyzing, comparing and contrasting information is facilitated by the analytical abilities while creative endeavors like discovery, innovation, etc are facilitated by creative abilities. Practical abilities help an individual to make use of everything that is learnt and apply them in a appropriate settings. Hence, a person in order to be successful has to make the best of all the above three abilities and also compensate for any weaknesses in any one with another ability. Compensating involves putting effort to improve in the areas of weaknesses so as to become better equipped to adapt to the needs of the changing environment. These three categories of skills together provide a broad basis for characterizing the nature of intelligent behavior in the world. Hence, adaptability is the primary focus of his triarchic theory of intelligence. This includes adaptability within himself and adaptability within his socio-cultural context (Sternberg et al, 2009).. Sternberg explains the three components like contextual one that relates intelligence to the external world, then componential one that relates intelligence to the internal world of the individual, and lastly the two-facet that relates intelligence to both external and internal worlds of the individual. The contextual theory explains intelligent behavior that involves purposive adaptation to and shaping of the real world environments that are relevant to one’s life. The componential part is the mental mechanism that is responsible for planning, execution and evaluation of intelligent behaviors (Sternberg, 1997). The theory helps in a clear evaluation of an individual’s behavior. It is able to answer a wide range of questions with regard to the nature and measurement of one’s intelligence. The theory suggests that individual intelligence can always be measured by one’s adaptability to particular situations or more widely environments. As stated above, a general concept of intelligence as consisting of purposive adaptation to and selection of real world environments relevant to one’s life put up certain constraints. Firstly, it is in relation to behaviors in the real world environments that exclude any fantasy environment and secondly, its relevance to one’s life. It means the legitimacy of any assessment of intelligence without considering the person’s cultural environment is in question only. We cannot have the same assessment method for people of different culture or land. This means the intelligence cannot be fully understood outside the socio-cultural context, that it may differ for an individual from one context to other. Thirdly, it is purposive; that it is directed towards goals. Fourthly, intelligence is adaptive, that adaptation to one’s environment. It means trying to achieve a perfect fit between oneself and his environment, though the degree may differ. Then, there comes shaping and selection. Intelligence is measured in relation to environmental shaping. That is required when one fails to adapt to the environment only. It clearly specifies that there is no specific set of behaviors that are intelligent, because people adjust to their environments in different ways. Intelligence also involves selection of environments. When adaptation is not possible and shaping fails, one may choose an alternative environment where he is able to attain a better suit (Sternberg, 1997). Thus, Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence explains the human intelligence in an integrative way of relationships, that is relationship between intelligence and one’s internal world (mental mechanism), intelligence and his external world (applicability of mental mechanism to day-today life) and intelligence and experience - that is mediating role of one’s life between internal and external world (Sternberg et al, 2009). Sternberg has clearly analyzed the various aspects that can influence an individual’s intelligence level. We cannot judge a person based on his particular activity. His intelligence can be measured in connection with his situation where he acts. At the same time, we cannot take the same measures to judge another person of different environment. An individual’s intelligent behavior is constituted by the way his mental mechanism adapts to the environmental aspects. As we know, this is the basic of our activity. Our action is always an execution of our mental capacity to the given situation. That defines one’s special touch or called ‘identity touch’ to the action. This implies the meaning of saying one’s character is revealed in his action. Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence has a base to the reality in measuring human intelligence. Relating the implication of intelligence to one’s internal world (the mental capacity) to the external world (the environmental situation) the theory tries to explain the aspect of intelligence in an integrated way. Human intelligence is not an isolated factor that is to be understood in his mental ability only. The factor of environment where he is related to is very important in deciding his intelligence. After all, one’s mental ability itself is measured by the way he applies it into a particular situation. So, the relationship between oneself and his environment is a absolute deciding factor in considering the intelligent behavior. Sternberg’s viewpoints are in sync with reality and can be related any individuals. His views that no two individuals can be compared with respect to intelligence and creativity is true as each person will react differently depending the circumstances that they are in. References Sternberg, R.J. (1997). Successful intelligence: how practical and creative intelligence determine success in life. NY: Plume Sternberg, R.J., Kaufman, J.C. & Grigorenko, E.L. (2009). The essential Sternberg: essays on intelligence, psychology, and education. NY: Springer Publishing Compan tjhsst. (2011). Robert J. Sternberg. Retrieved May 28, 2011, from Thomas Jefferson high School for Science and Technology: http://academics.tjhsst.edu/psych/oldPsych/sternberg/ Read More