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Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

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Evidence · 1 claim (1 against) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description

Robert Sternberg's (1988) triarchic theory of intelligence proposes three distinct components of intelligence — analytical, creative, and practical — offered partly as a rebuttal to both Spearman's single-factor "g" and Cattell's fluid/crystallized split. Analytical intelligence is closely aligned with academic problem-solving: the ability to analyze, evaluate, judge, compare, and contrast, of the kind exercised in comparing literary characters or working a multi-step math problem. Creative intelligence is the ability to invent or imagine a novel solution to a problem or situation. Practical intelligence — sometimes compared to "street smarts" — is the ability to find solutions that work in everyday life by applying knowledge from one's own experience, and Sternberg's own research indicates it is empirically separable from the other two: a person can score high on practical intelligence without scoring comparably on analytical or creative measures, or vice versa.

Creativity itself, as measured against analytical intelligence, is not highly correlated with it (Furnham & Bakhtiar, 2008) — exceptionally creative scientists, artists, and mathematicians do not reliably outscore their less creative peers on intelligence tests (Simonton, 2000), and the brain areas associated with convergent thinking (finding the single correct answer) differ from those associated with divergent thinking (generating many possible answers) (Tarasova, Volf, & Razoumnikova, 2010; see Fostering Creative Thinking). Still, creativity draws on some of the same underlying abilities "g" measures, including learning from experience, remembering information, and abstract thought (Bink & Marsh, 2000). Across several researchers' work studying creative individuals (Ericsson, 1998; Weisberg, 2006; Hennessey & Amabile, 2010; Simonton, 1992), five components recur as important to creativity: expertise (creative people have studied and learned deeply about their domain), imaginative thinking (viewing problems in new ways), risk-taking (pursuing new but potentially unsuccessful approaches), intrinsic interest (working from genuine interest rather than external reward), and working in creative environments (being supported, aided, and challenged by others working on similar problems).

Practical intelligence has proven the hardest of the three components to validate as genuinely distinct from "g": although tests have been devised to measure it (Sternberg, Wagner, & Okazaki, 1993; Wagner & Sternberg, 1985), research has not found strong evidence that practical intelligence is separable from general intelligence or that it predicts success at particular tasks better than "g" does (Gottfredson, 2003) — it may capture certain job-specific abilities not strongly correlated with general intelligence, but the theory's claim that it constitutes a third, independent form of intelligence remains the triarchic model's weakest empirical leg.

The theory illustrates its analytical/creative/practical separability with a real-world case: during the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, one student, hearing a chained-shut exit door, crawled back through a window into a room near the danger rather than questioning why the door was chained — a response reflecting some creative problem-solving but low practical judgment. Meanwhile, a pair of students who heard gunshots nearby chose to run away rather than investigate, demonstrating high practical intelligence. Neither case turns on academic or analytical ability; the decisive factor was practical judgment specifically.

Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Learning objectives or assessments that can distinguish which kind of intelligence a task actually exercises, rather than treating "problem-solving" as a single undifferentiated skill

Constraints

  • Like other multi-component intelligence theories, valid and reliable separate measurement of the three components is not straightforward
  • A learner's low performance on an analytical task does not imply low practical or creative ability, and instructional design should not conflate the three

Target Learners

  • Learners whose strengths lie outside traditional academic/analytical measures (e.g., strong practical or creative problem-solvers who underperform on conventional analytical assessments)

Target Learning Objectives

  • Real-world, applied judgment and decision-making (practical intelligence) as a target distinct from academic analysis or generating novel solutions

Theory

Contradicting / Qualifying

  • Positioned as an alternative to Spearman's single-factor "g" model and Cattell's fluid/crystallized intelligence split, both of which treat intelligence as a smaller number of general factors rather than three functionally distinct components

Claims

  • Multiple Intelligences Theory — a more finely subdivided (eight-part) alternative to the same single-factor "g" model this theory also rejects, though the two frameworks propose different numbers and kinds of components

Examples

  • Fostering Creative Thinking — the divergent/convergent thinking distinction this principle builds on maps directly onto the triarchic model's creative-intelligence component

Key Sources

  • Sternberg, R. J. (1988). The triarchic mind: A new theory of human intelligence. Viking.
  • Spielman, R. M., Dumper, K., Jenkins, W., Lacombe, A., Lovett, M., & Perlmutter, M. (n.d.). Intelligence. In Psychology. OpenStax. Republished in R. West (Ed.), Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology. EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations/intelligence
  • Furnham, A., & Bakhtiar, A. (2008). Creativity, and personality and intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 45(7), 613-617.
  • Simonton, D. K. (2000). Creativity: Cognitive, personal, developmental, and social aspects. American Psychologist, 55(1), 151-158.
  • Tarasova, I. V., Volf, N. V., & Razoumnikova, O. M. (2010). Aspects of creative thinking and its electrographic correlates. Human Physiology, 36(6), 720-729.
  • Bink, M. L., & Marsh, R. L. (2000). Cognitive regularities in creative activity. Review of General Psychology, 4(1), 59-78.
  • Ericsson, K. A. (1998). The scientific study of expert levels of performance: General implications for optimal learning and creativity. High Ability Studies, 9(1), 75-100.
  • Weisberg, R. W. (2006). Creativity: Understanding innovation in problem solving, science, invention, and the arts. Wiley.
  • Hennessey, B. A., & Amabile, T. M. (2010). Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 569-598.
  • Simonton, D. K. (1992). Leaders of American psychology, 1879-1967: Career development, creative output, and professional achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62(1), 5-17.
  • Sternberg, R. J., Wagner, R. K., & Okazaki, S. (1993). Practical intelligence: The nature and role of tacit knowledge in work and at school. In H. Reese & J. Puckett (Eds.), Advances in lifespan development (pp. 205-227). Erlbaum.
  • Wagner, R. K., & Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Practical intelligence in real-world pursuits: The role of tacit knowledge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(2), 436-458.
  • Gottfredson, L. S. (2003). Dissecting practical intelligence theory: Its claims and evidence. Intelligence, 31(4), 343-397.
  • Arduini-Van Hoose, N. (2020). Intelligence. In Educational psychology. Retrieved from https://edpsych.pressbooks.sunycreate.cloud. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Page metadata
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type theory
title Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
description Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory holds that intelligence has three empirically separable components — analytical, creative, and practical — so a learner can score high on one without scoring high on the others.
status review
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