A page dedicated to his life's work.


Bobbing Bob made by Ian Dale
A Brief History...
Robert J. Sternberg was born on December 8, 1949 in New Jersey. Sternberg's interest in studying intelligence was first peaked in the sixth grade after suffering from text anxiety and failing an intelligence test. Sternberg realized that this particular score did not accurately predict his intelligence, and he scored significantly higher after retaking the test in a room with students a year younger than he. In this room, Sternberg felt more confident while taking the test, thus his score was higher. Just one year later, in the seventh grade, Sternberg developed his first intelligence test: the Sternberg Test of Mental Ability, or STOMA.

Throughout his studies, Sternberg quickly realized he learned better when not required to memorize information rote. In his first year in college at Yale, he preformed so poorly in a largely rote-based Introductory Psychology course, the professor urged Sternberg to pursue a career outside of the field of psychology. As his later performance in the psychological field shows, the C Sternberg recieved in this first course did not serve as an accurate predictor of his later achievments.

Sternberg went on to earn his BA summa cum laude from Yale, and to earn the Sidney Siegel Memorial Award while pursuing his doctorate at Stanford. He returned to Yale as a member of the faculty where he continues his research today. Throughout his career, Sternberg has written several articles and books concerning the topics of intelligence, creativity and love, and has developed two major theories: the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence and Triangular Theory of Love.



Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence consists of three categories, or types, of intelligence. The first category consists of analytic, or componential intelligence. This category also has three subcategories, which will be discussed later. The second category is called either creative intelligence, or the experiential dimension of intelligence. Again with this category as with the componential dimension, there are subcategoreis. The third and final portion of Sternberg's Triarchic Theory is known as the practical, or contextual aspect of intelligence.

Analytic or Componential Dimension - The methods people use to process and analyze information. Also known as the critical portion of intelligence. This aspect of intelligence can be further divided into Metacomponents, Performence components, and Knowledge-acquisition components.

  • Metacomponents - This subcategory consists of the higher-order, or executive processes such as the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of the performance of a task.
  • Performance Components - This category includes the execution of plans and strategies developed by the metacomponents, and plays a role in relating new information to novel situations through previously inferred concepts.
  • Knowledge-acquisition Components - These lower-order processes consist of selective encoding, when relevent information is seperated from irrelevent, selective combination, when new and old information is organized, and selective comparison when new information is compared to previous cognitive constructs to update the metcomponents.

    Creative or Experiential Dimension - This aspect of intelligence examines how people approach new and unfamiliar tasks. This is also considered the insightful dimension to a person's intelligence. The experiential dimension can be further divided into two categories: novelty and automatization.
  • Novelty - This is how a person reacts with the first exposure to a new scenario.
  • Automatization - This is how a person handles repeated tasks, or practice.

    Practical or Contextual Dimension - The individual's intelligence as it relates to their environment/sociocultural context. How an individual adapts to their current environment, shapes their current environment, and selects a better environment all make up this practical aspect of intelligence. Also called "street smarts".

    What sets Sternberg's Triarchic Theory apart from other intelligence theories is how it encompasses the creative and practical aspects of one's intellect. Sternberg believes that no intelligence test can ever fully account for the cultural discrepancies which he represents in the contextual dimension of his theory. Despite this unavoidable flaw inherant in all intelligence tests, Sternberg has been working on developing his own Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT). This test yields separate scores for the three separate intellectual skill areas, and places a greater emphasis upon learning than on memorization.


    • Triangular Theory of Love
    Love, according to Sternberg's Triangular Theory, consists of three components: intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. Intimacy is the feeling of closeness that exists between two people, passion the drive that produces romance, physical attraction, and intercourse, and decision/commitment is the decision and commitment to further a loving relationship. With this theory, the type and strength of a couple's love is determined by both the individual strength of the three components and the interaction between the three components. Romantic love is the combination of high intimacy and passion, companionate love of intimacy and commitment, fatuous love a combination of passion and commitment, and consummate love involves all three areas relatively equally.
    Quality Triangle made by Stephanie Grant


    According to Sternberg, individuals have two different triangles of love: the triangle that characterizes their current relationship, and the triangle of their ideal relationship. Sternberg reports that the most successful couples occur when the two individuals have more compatible triangles.

    Sternberg also believes that individuals begin to form their own personal theories about what love should be from the time they are born. This theory of love as a story, as he calls it, stems from watching our parents, the media, reading books, and whatever other external factors influence our beliefs about what love should be like.


    Current Research
    Sternberg's current research projects include:
  • Further research into the Triarchic Theory, focusing specifically on cultural differences
  • Continuing development on measuring the three intellectual skills
  • Developing more effective techniques for teaching to the three intelligences in the classroom
  • Examining human creativity
  • Further development of his Triangular Theory of Love and theory of love as a story
    For more information on his current research, refer to the Links page.


    • Links

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    sgrant@tjhsst.edu