Robert Sternberg
Robert Jeffrey Sternberg
December 8, 1949, in Newark, New Jersey, United States
Citizenship: USA
Category: Scientists
Occupation: Psychologist, psychometrician, author, researcher, lecturer
Specification: Cognitive psychology, intelligence,
Psychology of creativity, wisdom and leadership, psychometric, thinking styles, love.
Unique distinction: Pioneer of the triarchic theory of intelligence and the triangular theory of love. Sternberg is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly in the fields of intelligence, creativity, and love.
Influenced by: Endel Tulving, Gordon Bowe, Wendell Garner
Gender: Male
Family: Spouse Karin Sternberg. Five children.
1. Creativity is in large part a decision that anyone can make but that few people actually do make because they find the costs to be too high. Society can play a role in the development of creativity by increasing the rewards and decreasing the costs.
2. Successfully intelligent people discern their strengths and weaknesses, and then figure out how to capitalize on their strengths, and to compensate for or remediate their weaknesses.
2. Successfully intelligent individuals succeed in part because they achieve a functional balance among a ‘triarchy’ of abilities… Moreover, all of these abilities can be further developed
Achievements and contributions:
Social and professional position: Professor of Human Development at Cornell University. Honorary Professor of Psychology at Heidelberg University, Germany.
The main contribution: Sternberg is best known for his groundbreaking research into intelligence, creativity, love, and cognitive styles. His theories and ideas have had a profound impact on the understanding of creativity and its relationship to intelligence, wisdom, and successful life outcomes. Among his seminal ideas are the triarchic theory of intelligence, the investment Theory of Creativity and the triangular theory of love.
Contributions to creativity, education, and social life :
1. Triarchic theory of intelligence: This theory of intelligence focuses on what he refers to as “successful intelligence” which is composed of three elements: analytical intelligence (or problem-solving abilities), creative intelligence (using prior knowledge and skills to deal with new situations), and practical intelligence (the ability to adapt to a changing world).
“I prefer to refer to it as “successful intelligence.” And the reason is that the emphasis is on the use of your intelligence to achieve success in your life. So I define it as your skill in achieving whatever it is you want to attain in your life within your sociocultural context”, -wrote R. Sternberg.
1. Analytical Intelligence refers to the traditional notion of intelligence typically measured by IQ tests. It involves the ability to analyze, evaluate, and critically think about information. Individuals high in analytical intelligence excel in logical reasoning, problem-solving, and academic pursuits. This aspect of intelligence involves skills such as abstract thinking, strategic planning, and logical reasoning.
2. Creative Intelligence relates to the capacity to generate, combine, and transform ideas, resulting in novel and valuable solutions to problems. It involves thinking outside the box, engaging in divergent thinking, and approaching challenges from different perspectives. Individuals high in creative intelligence are imaginative, open to new experiences, and willing to take risks. They excel in fields that require innovation, such as art, entrepreneurship, and scientific disco
3. Practical intelligence refers to the ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world situations effectively. It involves adapting to environmental demands, finding practical solutions, and dealing with everyday challenges. Individuals high in practical intelligence are skilled at problem-solving in practical contexts, managing interpersonal relationships, and navigating real-life situations. This aspect of intelligence is closely related to “street smarts” and is often associated with successful performance in everyday life and vocational settings.
The theory emphasizes practical intelligence or common sense, which is based on tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is acquired independently, often procedural in nature, and expressed in complex, multi-condition rules with practical value to the individual.
The theory emphasizes that these three aspects of intelligence interact and complement each other to varying degrees in different individuals and contexts.
1.1. Successful Intelligence Theory: Expands on his Triarchic Theory, emphasizing the importance of adapting to, shaping, and selecting environments.
Successful intelligence is defined as one’s ability to set and accomplish personally meaningful goals in one’s life, given one’s cultural context.
“Successfully intelligent people discern their strengths and weaknesses, and then figure out how to capitalize on their strengths, and to compensate for or remediate their weaknesses.
Successfully intelligent individuals succeed in part because they achieve a functional balance among a “triarchy” of abilities: analytical abilities, which are used to analyze, evaluate, judge, compare and contrast; creative abilities, which are used to create, invent, discover, imagine; practical abilities, which are used to apply, utilize, implement, and activate.
Successfully intelligent people are not necessarily high in all three of these abilities but find a way effectively to exploit whatever pattern of abilities they may have. Moreover, all of these abilities can be further developed”.
1.2. Augmented Theory of Successful Intelligence: This expanded theory includes ethical considerations and wisdom. Although Intelligence is viewed as of various kinds, the mental processes involved in creative, analytical, practical, and wise thinking are the same. Metacomponents, or higher-order executive processes, plan, monitor, and evaluate courses of thinking and action.
Wisdom or Emotional Intelligence encompasses the ability to make sound judgments and decisions that benefit both the individual and society. It is the ability to know when to apply which ability to achieve our goals in our own community. While ensuring that our ideas will help enrich our community and even the world we live in as an empowering, respectful and responsible contribution according to our personal and communal norms and values.
1.3. Theory of Adaptive Intelligence. Sternberg asserts that we no longer can afford to define intelligence merely as g or IQ. intelligence is and always has been primarily about adaptation to the environment, broadly defined. His projects involve presenting students with real-world problems and asking them to define the problems, figure out ways of addressing these problems and proposing possible solutions.
2. Investment theory of creativity: Developed in collaboration with Todd Lubart (1991, 1995) this theory of creativity is a confluence theory, which proposes that creative people are like good investors – they “buy low and sell high” in the realm of ideas. This means that creative individuals are willing to pursue ideas that are unpopular at first but have the potential to grow in value. They then work to convince others of the value of these ideas before moving on to the next undervalued idea.
Thus they are constantly generating novel ideas in the world of ideas, which are subsequently and eventually gain acceptance. After convincing others that the idea is valuable, which increases the perceived value of the investment, the creative person sells high by leaving the idea to others and moving on to another idea.
According to the investment theory, creativity requires a confluence of six distinct but interrelated resources: intellectual abilities, knowledge, styles of thinking, personality, motivation, and environment. Although levels of these resources are sources of individual differences.
Intellectual skills. Three intellectual skills are particularly important: (a) the synthetic skill to see problems in new ways and to escape the bounds of conventional thinking, (b) the analytic skill to recognize which of one’s ideas are worth pursuing and which are not, and (c) the practical–contextual skill to know how to persuade others of—to sell other people on—the value of one’s ideas. The confluence of these three skills is also important (Sternberg, 1985)
Knowledge. On the one hand, one needs to know enough about a field to move it forward. On the other hand, knowledge about a field can result in a closed and entrenched perspective. Knowledge thus can help, or it can hinder creativity.
Thinking styles. They are decisions about how to deploy the skills available to a person. With regard to thinking styles, a legislative style is particularly important for creativity
Personality. There are certain personality attributes for creative functioning. These attributes include willingness to overcome obstacles, willingness to take sensible risks,
willingness to tolerate ambiguity, and self-efficacy. In particular, buying low and selling high typically means defying the crowd, so one has to be willing to stand
up to conventions if one wants to think and act in creative ways.
Motivation. Intrinsic, task-focused motivation is essential to creativity. Motivation is not something inherent in a person: One decides to be motivated by one thing or another. People look for some angle on the work that makes this work appeal to them.
Environment. Finally, one needs an environment that is supportive and rewarding of creative ideas. One could have all of the internal resources needed to think creatively, but without some environmental support, the creativity that a person has within him or her might never be displayed. Some people let unfavourable forces in the environment block their creative output; others do not.
3. Confluence theory of creativity. Creativity is hypothesized to involve more than a simple sum of a person’s level on each component. Sternberg proposed that hypothesizes that several components must converge in order for creativity to take place: cognitive style (process); personality traits (personality); the right environment (place); and the ability to persuade others to consider or accept the idea (persuasion) (1988).
4. The Role of Decision Making. Creativity, according to the investment theory, is in large part a decision. The view of creativity as a decision suggests that creativity can be developed. To be creative one must first decide to generate new ideas, analyze these ideas, and sell the ideas to others.
Sternberg (2001) has proposed a number of different decisions by which one can develop one’s own creativity as a decision:
(a) redefine problems, (b) question and analyze assumptions, (c) do not assume that creative ideas sell themselves: sell them, (d) encourage the generation of ideas, (e) recognize that knowledge can both help and hinder creativity, (f) identify and surmount obstacles, (g) take sensible risks, (h) tolerate ambiguity, (i) believe in oneself (self-efficacy), (j) find what one loves to do, (k) delay gratification, (l) role-model creativity, (m) cross-fertilize ideas, (n) reward creativity, (o) allow mistakes, (p) encourage collaboration, (q) see things from others’ points of view, (r) take responsibility for successes and failures, (s) maximize person–environment fit, (t) continue to allow intellectual growth.
5. Propulsion theory of creative contributions: In collaboration with James Kaufman and Jean Pretz, Sternberg developed this theory to categorize different types of creative contributions, such as redefinition and synthesis and addresses the issue of how people decide to invest their creative resources. (Sternberg, 1999b; Sternberg, Kaufman, & Pretz, 2001, 2002). Thus, creativity is, by its nature, propulsion. It moves a field from one point to another. It also always represents a decision to exercise leadership.
The basic idea is that creativity can be of different kinds, depending on how it propels existing ideas forward. According to this theory, creative contributions can be classified into different types based on the extent to which they aim to propel a field in a new direction. This theory describes eight types of creative contributions that are divided into three major categories
• contributions that accept current paradigms: replication, redefinition, forward incrementation, advance forward incrementation,
• contributions that reject current paradigms: redirection, reconstruction, reinitiation,
• paradigms that attempt to integrate multiple current paradigms: integration. This kind of creative contribution integrates two formerly diverse ways of thinking about phenomena into a single way of thinking about a phenomenon. The propulsion thus is a combination of two different approaches that are linked together.
6. Triangular Theory of Love: Describes love as comprising intimacy, passion, and commitment as the three main components of love.
1. Intimacy: This component involves feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in a relationship. It represents the emotional aspect of love, where partners share personal thoughts and feelings, and develop a deep understanding of each other.
2. Passion: This component encompasses the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, and sexual intimacy. It represents the motivational aspect of love, characterized by intense emotions and physical attraction.
3. Commitment (decision): This component involves the decision to love someone and the commitment to maintain that love over time. It represents the cognitive aspect of love, where partners decide to stay together and work through challenges.
These three components can combine in various ways to form different types of love, such as romantic love (intimacy + passion), companionate love (intimacy + commitment), and consummate love (intimacy + passion + commitment), which is considered the most complete form of love. (1986).
7. Triangular Theory of Creativity. In this theory, he posits that creative people need to not only defy the crowd (such as other people) but also be able to defy their own beliefs and values and defy the current Zeitgeist, the existing shared presuppositions of a domain. (2018).
8. WICS Model: Wisdom, Intelligence, Creativity, Synthesized – an integrated model of human abilities, and it’s become a theory of leadership.
In his later work, Sternberg explored the relationship between creativity and wisdom. He argues that true creativity should be guided by wisdom, which involves the application of intelligence, creativity, and knowledge to achieve a common good through a balance among multiple interests over the long and short terms. Sternberg has proposed that the development of wisdom-based skills should be a key educational goal alongside the cultivation of analytical and creative skills.
Balance Theory of Wisdom: Suggests wisdom involves balancing intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extrapersonal interests.
In his theory of personality, he emphasis on Attitudes in Creativity
He emphasizes the importance of attitudes such as redefining problems, taking
sensible risks, and persevering despite obstacles in fostering creativity.
“Intelligence-creative intelligence is a part of creativity, but I believe in large part creativity is in an attitude toward life. It’s in a set of- It’s in a frame of decision-making, where you’re willing to take risks and defy the crowd and surmount obstacles and do things that other people are just not willing to do. It’s about having courage. People who one way or another defied the crowd, become kind of giants in the field.
9. A Person x Task x Situation synergistic model of creativity. R.Sternberg and C.Tromp, have proposed a model according to which creativity is dynamic and can be fully understood only as an interaction of all 3 of the elements. P × T × S proposal highlights (a) the need to include the other 2 elements as moderators, regardless of which element is the central or starting point of the analysis, (b) the idea that the extent to which each element influences the others and the degree of overlap among elements can vary, and (c) the dynamic aspect of creativity, associated with changes in different persons across the lifespan, for different creative tasks, and for different situations.( 2022)
10. Transformational and Transactional Creativity: The Link between Creativity, Wisdom, and the Solution of Global Problems.
Creativity is viewed as multiply, as divisible into two types. Transformational creativity is deployed to make a positive, meaningful, and potentially enduring difference to the world. It serves the common good, with integrity and leads the world to be a better place. Transactional creativity, is creativity deployed in search of a reward, whether externally or internally generated. transactional creativity, in which original work is produced to serve personal or contractual goals (2021, 2023, 2024).
Transformational giftedness—how people can use their gifts to transform the world in a positive way, rather than using those gifts transactionally, merely for the benefit of themselves and members of their perceived “tribe.”
11. Development of Measures for Supplementing Traditional Assessments
1. Sternberg has developed measures to supplement traditional assessments in education, aiming to recognise and nurture different thinking and learning style
2. He criticized IQ tests: Argued they are “convenient partial operationalizations of the construct of intelligence, and nothing more”
He developed his very first intelligence test, which he named the Sternberg Test of Mental Ability (STOMA).
12. Experimental Admissions Process at Tufts University. As Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, Sternberg spearheaded an experimental admissions process that aimed to quantify and test the creativity, practical skills, and wisdom-based skills of applicants, in addition to traditional academic measures. This approach recognized that intelligence and potential for success involve more than just analytical abilities and sought to identify students with diverse strengths. He used similar techniques when he was provost at Oklahoma State University.
Honours and Awards:
Robert Sternberg has won more than two dozen awards for his work, including:
1. Sidney Siegel Memorial Award from Stanford University, 1975.
2. Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association, 1981.
3. Cattell Award from the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology, 1982.
4. Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Gifted Children in 1985.
5. The James McKeen Cattell Award from the Association for Psychological Science in 1999.
6. E.L. Thorndike Award for Achievement in Educational Psychology from the APA in 2003.
7. Sir Francis Galton Award International Association of Empirical Aesthetics in 2008.
8. Grawemeyer Award University of Louisville in 2018.
9. Florence L. Denmark Award for Significant Contributions to Psychology, Psychology Department, Pace University, 2019.
10. William Stern Award, Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, 2023.
1.Sternberg served as the President of the American Psychological Association in 2003,
Eastern Psychological Association, 2007–2008, International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology, 2009-2011, Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2012-2013. He also is past-Treasurer of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2011-2013. Sternberg also has been president of four divisions of the American Psychological Association.
Sternberg is a member of the National Academy of Education, 2011- , the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1995 – , the Society of Experimental Psychologists, 2002-, the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, 2002 -, the Association for Psychological Science, the American Educational Research Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Elective Societies:
Phi Beta Delta (Honorary Member), 2011-
Phi Kappa Phi (Honorary Member), 2011-
Psi Chi (Distinguished Member), 2005-
Kappa Delta Pi (Laureate Chapter), 2003-
Sigma Xi, 1977-
Phi Beta Kappa, 1971-
1. Dr Sternberg was named at number 60 in an APA Monitor on Psychology report on the top 100 psychologists of the 20th century.
2. He is the #1 cited author over the past 10 years by global h-index;
3. He has been listed as one of the “30 Most Influential Psychologists Working Today”, 2019;
4. Listed as one of the “Top 33 Psychologists for Psychology Textbook Citations”,
5. Ranked #7 among American psychologists and #15 among psychologists in the world by research.com in 2023
Major works
He is the author of roughly 2,000 articles, chapters, and books.
1. Sternberg, R. J. (1972). A decision rule to facilitate the undergraduate admissions process. College and University, 48, 48–53. (His very first publication.)
2. Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
3. Sternberg RJ. A triangular theory of love. Psychological Review. 1986;93(2):119-135. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.93.2.119
4. Sternberg, RJ. The Triarchic Mind: A New Theory of Human Intelligence. New York: Viking; 1988.
5. Sternberg, R. J. (1996). Successful Intelligence. New York: Simon & Schuster. (Paperback edition: New York: Dutton, 1997).
6. Sternberg, R. J., & Spear-Swerling, L. (1996). Teaching for Thinking. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
7. Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Thinking Styles. New York: Cambridge University Press.
8. Sternberg, R. J. (1999). The Theory of Successful Intelligence. Review of General Psychology, 3(4), 292-316.
9. Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2000). Teaching for Successful Intelligence. Arlington Heights, IL: Skylight Training and Publishing Inc.
10. Sternberg, R. J. (2007). Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity Synthesized. New York: Cambridge University Press.
11. Sternberg, R. J. (2007). A systems model of leadership: WICS. American Psychologist, 62 (1), 34-42.
12. Sternberg, R. J. (2013). Measuring love. The Psychologist, 26(2), 101.
13. Sternberg, R. J., Fiske, S. T., & Foss, D. J. (Eds.) (2016). Scientists making a difference: One hundred eminent behavioral and brain scientists talk about their most important contributions New York: Cambridge University Press.
14. Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.) (2020). Human intelligence: An introduction. New York: Cambridge University Press. An edited textbook on intelligence.
15. Sternberg, R. J. (2020). The nature of intelligence and its development in childhood. New York: Cambridge University Press.
16. Sternberg, R. J. (2021). Adaptive intelligence: Surviving and thriving in a world of uncertainty. New York: Cambridge University Press.
17. Sternberg, R.J. (2021). Transformational creativity: The link between creativity, wisdom, and the solution of global problems. Philosophies 6, 75.
18. Sternberg, R. J., & Glück, J. (2022). Wisdom: The psychology of wise thoughts, words, and deeds. Cambridge University Press.
19. Sternberg, R. J., & Lubart, T. (2022). Beyond defiance: An augmented investment perspective on creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior
20. Sternberg, R. J. (2023). Cultural creativity: A componential model. In D. D. Preiss, M. Singer, & J. C. Kaufman (Eds.), Innovation, culture, and change across cultures (pp. 363-387). Springer.
21. Sternberg, R. J. (2023). Intelligences. In G. R. Goethals, S. T. Allison, & G. J. Sorenson (Eds.), Sage encyclopedia of leadership studies. Sage.
22. Sternberg, R. J. (2023). Introduction: Intelligence, creativity, and wisdom: A brief intellectual history of the theory and research on their interrelationships. In R. J. Sternberg, J. C. Kaufman, & S. Karami (Eds.), Intelligence, creativity, and wisdom: Exploring their connections and distinctions (pp. 1-20). Palgrave-Macmillan.
23. Sternberg, R. J., & Rodriguez-Fernandez, M. I. (2023). Humanitarian giftedness. Gifted Education International, 40 (1), 92-115.
Career and personal life:
Family background:
Sternberg was born and grew up in a Jewish family in New Jersey. His early life experiences were marked by a strong emphasis on education and intellectual curiosity, which shaped his future pursuits.
Sternberg’s interest in psychology began early in life. After experiencing test anxiety and doing poorly on an exam, he realized tests were not an accurate measure of his knowledge and abilities. When he retook the same test in a different room with a group of younger students, he found he felt more confident and scored much higher as a result. It later influenced his research interests in intelligence and cognitive abilities.
“And the first project I did on intelligence-the first concrete manifestation of the interest-was when I was in seventh grade. I was about thirteen. And I did a science project on mental testing. And part of that was to create my own IQ test, which you’ve probably heard of-The Sternberg Test of Mental Abilities, or STOMA”
Education background:
In 1968 Sternberg graduated from Teaneck High School, New Jersey.
He went on to graduate from Yale with a bachelor’s ( in summa cum laude, with exceptional distinction in psychology) psychology in 1972
While attending university he worked as a Part-Time Research Assistant, Office of Institutional Research (Yale University, 1970–1971).
Sternberg earned his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1975 under advisor Gordon Bower.
From 1975 to 1976, he did his postdoctoral training at Stanford University (1975-1976).
Career highlights:
Yale University (1977-2005):
After earning getting his Ph.D, Sternberg returned to Yale University, Department of Psychology, New Haven, CT, where he worked as:
assistant professor, 1975-1980,
associate professor, 1980-1983,
professor of psychology and education, 1983-1986,
IBM Professor of Psychology and Education, beginning 1986 -2005.
Previously Professor of Management, and Director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Excellence at Yale University.
Tufts University (2005-2010):
Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University.
Founder and Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT), 2005-2008.
Founder and Director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise (PACE Center), 2005-2010.
Professor of Psychology and Education, 2006–2010.
Oklahoma State University (2010-2013):
He was a professor of psychology at Oklahoma State University 2010-2011.
Regents Professor of Psychology and Education, 2011-2013.
Provost, Senior Vice President, and George Kaiser Family Foundation Chair of Ethical Leadership at Oklahoma State University 2012-2013.
University of Wyoming (2013-2014):
President and Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of Wyoming.
Cornell University (2014-present):
He is currently a professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University and also Honorary Professor of Psychology at Heidelberg University, Germany.
He, and his wife Karin Sternberg are the co-founders of the Sternberg Center for Successful Relationships.
He is a member of the editorial boards of numerous journals, including American Psychologist, Journal of Creative Behavior, Educational Psychology, Philosophical Psychology, Journal of Intelligence and many others.
He was Board of Directors (Vice-Chair) of the OSU Center for Innovation and Economic Development, Inc., 2010-2013; Board of Directors of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2010-2015; Board of Directors, Creative Oklahoma, 2011-2013; Board of Directors, International Association of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 2007-2013 and many other.
Personal life:
Robert married his first wife at the age of 29 and they had two children. The children are now grown, happily married with successful careers. Later in life, at the age of 61, he is married to Karin Sternberg, who is also a psychologist and collaborator in his research. Sternberg and his current wife were blessed with triplets, marking the beginning of his second family. “I have a lovely wife and five wonderful kids. Can’t ask for more than that”, – said Robert.
Karin Sternberg, Ph.D., a research associate at Cornell University and the co-founder and director of the Sternberg Center of Successful Relationships. She has a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She currently is working on projects pertaining to child development.
Personality: Robert Sternberg is known for his innovative thinking, perseverance, and willingness to challenge established norms in psychology and dedication to applying psychological research to real-world problems. Colleagues describe him as intellectually curious, hardworking, and passionate about education and human potential.
His graduate mentor was Gordon Bower. Sternberg said that Gordon was terrific-from whom he learned a lot. “And I think one of the most important things I learned from him is the importance of leadership in a field. …and what you have to do is be somewhat picky in the studies you decided to do, and do ones that you hope will really have an impact on the field”.
Zest and Interesting facts:
He holds 13 honorary doctorates from 11 countries and received more than $20 million in grant funding throughout his career.
Sternberg is an avid cello player. Among his hobbies are reading, hiking, and investing.
His favourite books: The Trial by Franz Kafka, Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, and Measuring Intelligence by Lewis Terman.
When Questioned by a reporter: “If you were to write an autobiography – what would it be called?, he replied: “You Don’t Succeed, Try Again…and Again and Again and Again”.
Links:
robertjsternberg.com, encyclopedia.com, verywellmind.com, psychologytoday.com, thereadinglists.com