Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized

Abstract

WISDOM, INTELLIGENCE, AND CREATIVITY SYNTHESIZED. Robert J. Sternberg. Cambridge, UM: Cambridge University Press, 200e. Pp. 227, $40.00. Reviewed by Gary L. Welton (Grove City College/Grove City, PA). The preface is a delightful autobiographical account of unfolding of Sternberg's thinking and research on intelligence. If you are in habit of skipping preface, you will need to make an exception. In an era in which psychological research has primarily been conducted in Western world, Sternberg provides us with varied data from around globe. The international perspective is refreshing. Sternberg summarizes in this book his notion of successful intelligence, which he defines as the ability to achieve success in life in terms of one's standards, within one's sociocultural (p. 42). The goals of his recent research have been to improve prediction of college grades while reducing ethnic differences. It surprises me that he continues to use college grades as a primary dependent variable, given that his definition focuses on personal standards. Apparently he is still forced to some extent to analyze intelligence in our traditional sociocultural context of academic performance. His preliminary evidence suggests that he will be able to accomplish both goals. For those readers who are not familiar with his triarchic model of intelligence, it would be easier to begin reading on page 71. His summary in latter pages of second chapter make earlier parts of book more manageable. Sternberg argues that intelligence consists of three relatively independent aspects, including analytical component (conventional intelligence), creative aspect, and practical aspect (wisdom). Measuring all three components, rather than just first component, would increase our ability to predict college performance. Focusing on all three components in classroom should result in better classroom performance for children across all levels of ability. I was surprised by Sternberg's contention that wisdom must inherently be creative (a contention that would blur independence of three aspects). Why must wisdom always involve creative thinking? Is it not often wise to consider wisdom of ages and base decisions on training from wise mentors? If indeed, as he later reports, creativity and wisdom have lowest intercorrelation of any pair of his triarchic model, then there would seem to be a lack of support for his notion that wise choices must be creative choices. In fact, when he defined foolishness, it sounded as if he were defining reemergence of egocentrism during adolescence. It seems that foolishness is failure to incorporate thinking of ages. Although I think that Sternberg has served us well, in questioning traditional paradigm of intelligence, I find myself unsatisfied by certain aspects of his theory, in its current form. Although he argues for relative independence of three aspects of intelligence, his definitions of three aspects are not always distinctive. …