Welcome to my homepage.

I appreciate your stopping by my homepage, and hope that it provides useful information, as well as another way for you to share your views with me.Using the links on the right, you will find my views on the future of psychology research and practice, autobiographical information, and a form you can use to email me. On this page, I’ve listed my current research interests. You can jump directly to any of the research interests by clicking on the following links.

1. Higher Mental Functions
2. Styles of Thinking
3. Cognitive Modifiability
4. Leadership
5. Love and Hate

Most of my research is collaborative, and hence I view the work I do as part of a team effort rather than as solely an individual effort. I am happy to send preprints and reprints on work deriving from any of these research interests to parties who wish to have them. The linked webpage www.yale.edu/pace tells about current grants and contracts at the PACE Center, and about the research projects emanating from them. It also lists and describes the people who are part of the PACE team. We are a multicultural team and multidisciplinary, and are dedicated to doing multi-cultural and cross-cultural research. The PACE team is dedicated to doing research that will have a significant impact upon science as well as society.

I. Higher Mental Functions

My first set of interests is in higher mental functions, including intelligence, creativity, and wisdom.
A. Intelligence. I have proposed a triarchic theory of successful intelligence, and much of the work we do at the PACE Center is in validations of this theory. The theory suggests that successfully intelligent people are those who have the ability to achieve success according to their own definition of success, within their sociocultural context. They do so by identifying and capitalizing on their strengths, and identifying and correcting or compensating for their weaknesses in order to adapt to, shape, and select environments. Such attunement to the environment uses a balance of analytical, creative, and practical skills. The theory views intelligence as a form of developing competencies, and competencies as forms of developing expertise. In other words, intelligence is modifiable rather than fixed.

We use a variety of converging operations to test the triarchic theory--componential (information-processing) analyses, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, cultural and cross-cultural studies, instructional studies, and field studies in the workplace. The results of all of these kinds of studies have been encouraging.

Key References:
Sternberg, R. J. (1977). Intelligence, information processing,and analogical reasoning: The componential analysis of human abilities.Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (1990). Metaphors of mind: Conceptions of the nature of intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Successful intelligence. New York: Plume.
Sternberg, R. J. (1999). The theory of successful intelligence. Review of General Psychology, 3, 292-316.
Sternberg, R. J., Forsythe, G. B., Hedlund, J., Horvath, J., Snook, S., Williams, W. M., Wagner, R. K., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2000).Practical intelligence in everyday life. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2000). Teaching for successful intelligence. Arlington Heights, IL: Skylight.

B. Creativity. I have proposed an investment theory of creativity (with Todd Lubart) and a propulsion theory of creative contributions. The former theory is based on the notion that creative people are ones who buy low and sell high in the world of ideas. In other words, they defy the crowd by generating ideas that tend to be unpopular at the time they are first proposed; then they convince others of the worth of their ideas; then they move on to their next unpopular idea. The latter theory is based on the notion that creativity is a form of leadership. People try to move a field through their creative contributions, and there are various ways in which one can move a field. For example, a forward incrementation moves the field forward in the direction it already is going, whereas a redirection moves a field in a new direction.

We have used primarily correlational studies to test the investment theory and primarily multiple case-study analyses to test the propulsion theory. The results so far have been supportive.

Key References:
Sternberg, R. J., Kaufman, J. C., & Pretz, J. E. (2002). The creativity conundrum: A propulsion model of creative contributions. Philadelphia, PA.
Sternberg, R. J., & Lubart, T. I. (1995). Defying the crowd: Cultivating creativity in a culture of conformity. New York: Free Press.
Sternberg, R. J., & Williams, W. M. (1996). How to develop student creativity. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

C. Wisdom. I have proposed a balance theory of wisdom, according to which a wise person is one who uses his or her successful intelligence in order to seek a common good, by balancing intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extrapersonal interests; over the short and long terms; through the infusion of values; in order to adapt to, shape, and select environments.

We are currently testing the balance theory through a combination of psychometric analysis (tests of wisdom) and instructional analysis, via a program designed for schools to teach wisdom-related thinking.

Key References:
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). A balance theory of wisdom. Review of General Psychology, 2, 347-365.
Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Why schools should teach for wisdom: The balance theory of wisdom in educational settings. Educational Psychologist, 36(4), 227-245.

II. Styles of Thinking

I have proposed a theory of mental self-government, which is a theory of thinking styles. Styles are not abilities, but rather, preferences in how people would choose to use their abilities in their lives. According to the theory, people operate much in the same way that governments do--they need to perform the same operations on themselves that governments do on communities or states. For example, people need to perform three different functions of mental self-government, and different people prefer different functions. A legislative person enjoys generating ideas and doing things his or her own way. An executive person prefers to follow guidelines established by others and to utilize the ideas of others to do his or her work. A judicial person prefers to evaluate the ideas of others. People are not wholly one style or another, but rather, some blend. There are 11 styles in all in the theory.

Key Reference:
Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Thinking styles. New York: Cambridge University Press.

III. Cognitive Modifiability

I have proposed a theory of cognitive modifiability, which I have applied primarily to organizations but that also applies to people. The theory is based on the extent to which someone or some organization (a) wishes to change, (b) wishes to appear to change, and (c) believes he or she or it is capable of change. I use a mineralogical metaphor in order to describe different combinations of these three factors. For example, a rusted-iron school is one that does not wish to change, that does not wish to appear to change, and that believes that change is impossible. A diamond-in-the-rough school, in contrast, wishes to change, wishes to appear to change, and believes that it is capable of change.

I have also been interested in cognitive modifiability as it can be assessed by dynamic testing. We believe that dynamic testing--where one learns at the time of test--can provide insights that one cannot learn from static testing.

Key References:
Sternberg, R. J. (2000). Making school reform work: A "mineralogical" theory of school modifiability. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.
Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2002). Dynamic testing. New York: Cambridge University Press.

IV. Leadership

Much of our work on leadership has derived from work we have done on tacit knowledge, or what one needs to know to adjust to an environment that is not usually verbalized and that often is even concealed. More recently, I have proposed a new WICs theory of leadership, according to which good leadership requires a balance of wisdom, intelligence, and creativity.

Key Reference:
Sternberg, R. J., & Vroom, V. H. (2002). The person versus the situation in leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 13, 301-323

V. Love and Hate

A. Love. I have proposed a triangular theory of love, according to which love has three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Different combinations of these three components yield different kinds of love. For example, intimacy and passion together produce romantic love, intimacy and commitment together produce companionate love, passion and commitment together produce fatuous love, and so forth. All three components together produce consummate love. I have also proposed a theory of love as a story, which specifies how people come to form the different love triangles. According to this theory, from early in life, people are exposed to various love stories, and as a function of this exposure and their personalities, they create a hierarchy of preferred stories. Examples of such stories are the business story (love is like a business, with two business partners contributing to the business venture), the collector story (no one person can fulfill all one's love needs, so one needs to collect people who in combination, hopefully, will serve to fulfill those needs), the fairy-tale story (love is a story about a prince and a princess), and the war story (love is war). There are roughly two dozen stories in the theory at present.

Key References:
Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Construct validation of a triangular love scale. European Journal of Scoial Psychology, 27, 313-335.
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). Cupid's arrow. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (1998). Love is a story. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sternberg, R. J., Hojjat, M. & Barnes, M. L. (2001). Empirical aspects of a theory of love as a story. European Journal of Personality, 15, 1-20.

B. Hate. I have proposed a duplex theory of hate, according to which hate has both triangular and story components. The triangular components are negation of intimacy, passion, and commitment. Different combinations of these three components lead to different kinds of hate. For example, burning hate is a combination of all three: The individual cannot imagine intimacy with the target, passionately hates the target, and is cognitively committed to this hate. Examples of stories are the vermin story (e.g., the hate object is like a rat), the rapist story (e.g., the hated object is a rapist, literally or figuratively), and so forth. There are about 20 stories in all in the current version of the theory.

Key Reference:
Sternberg, R. J. (2003). A duplex theory of hate: Development and application to terrorism, massacres, and genocide. Review of General Psychology. 7(3), 299-328.