Theme 5
Individual Differences and Stereotypes
Learning goals:
Vignette 1&2
▪ What other measurement instruments are there for intelligence?
▪ Can training make up for cultural differences?
▪ Is the meaning of intelligence universal or does it differ?
Sternberg (2002). Cultural Explorations of Human Intelligence Around the World.
Cultural explorations of human intelligence around the world suggest that there is more to
intelligence than just IQ, or the general factor (g) of intelligence that some psychologists believe is at
the core of IQ.
There is More to Intelligence than IQ
Carraher & Schliemann studied a group of Brazilian street children, under great contextual pressure
to form a successful street business. They found that the same children who are able do to the
mathematics for their business are often little able or unable to do school mathematics. The more
abstract and removed from real-world contexts the problems are, the worse the children do. The
auteurs have found results consistent with the above. In a study in Usenge, Kenya, they were
interested in school-age children’s ability to adapt to their indigenous environment.
- Measurement: a test of practical intelligence for adaptation to the environment. It measured
children’s informal tacit knowledge for natural herbal medicines that the villagers believe can be
used to fight infection. Thus, tests of how to use these medicines constitute effective measures of
one aspect of practical intelligence as defined by the villagers as well as their life circumstances
in their environmental contexts. They also administered two tests for abstract-reasoning-based
abilities and crystallized of formal-knowledge-based abilities.
- Expectation and results: they expected that the scores on this test would not correlate with
scores on conventional test of intelligence. They found:
o No correlation between the test of indigenous tacit knowledge and scores on the fluid-
ability tests. However, they did find statistically significant negative correlations of the
tacit-knowledge tests with the tests of crystallized abilities. The higher the children scores
on the test of tacit knowledge, the lower they scored on the tests of crystallized abilities.
- Explanation: this is possible because of the expectations of the families. Children generally drop
out of school before graduation, and most families in the village do not value formal Western
schooling but emphasize teaching their children the indigenous informal knowledge that will
lead to successful adaptation in the environments in which they live.
This study suggests that the identification of a general factor of intelligence may tell us more about
how abilities interact with especially western patterns of schooling than it does the structure of
human abilities. Western schooling prepares children to take tests of intelligence, but this is not
universal and not even common for much of human history. Throughout history, schooling, especially
for boys was a form of apprenticeships in which you learn a craft from an early age.
The test of practical intelligence we developed for use in Kenya may seem more like tests of
achievement or of developing expertise than of intelligence, but intelligence is itself a form of
developing expertise. Fluid-ability tests have shown much greater increases in scores over the last
several generation than have crystallized-ability tests. The relatively brief period of time suggests an
1
,environmental rather than a genetic cause of the increases. The greater increase for fluid tests
suggests that they actually measure an expertise acquired through environment interactions. This
does not say that genes do not influence intelligence, but that the environment always mediates their
influence and tests of intelligence measure gene-environment interaction effects.
The forms of developing expertise that are viewed as practically or otherwise intelligent may differ
between societies or sectors. Whereas what constitutes components of intelligence is universal, the
content that constitutes the application of these components to adaptation to, shaping, and selection
of environments is culturally and even sub-culturally variable.
Many of the assumptions about intelligence held in the developed world simply do not apply.
Dynamic testing is like conventional static testing in that individuals are tested in inferences about
their abilities made. They differ in that children are given some kind of feedback to improve their
scores. Vygotsky suggested that the children’s ability to profit from the guided instruction could
serve as a measure of children’s zone of proximal development (ZPD), or the difference between
their developed abilities and their latent capacities. Testing and instruction are treated as being of
one piece rather than as being distinct processes. This make sense in terms of traditional definitions
of intelligence as the ability to learn. A dynamic test directly measures processes of learning in the
context of testing rather than indirectly as the product of past learning. Such measurement is
especially important when not all children have had equal opportunities to learn in the past.
In Sternberg’s study, children did the ability tests, after which they got a brief period of instruction to
learn skills to improve their scores, and were tested again. The gains were significant and they were
sig. greater than those for a control group who received no intervention. More importantly, scores on
the pre-test showed only weak significant correlations with scores on the post-test. This suggested
that when tests are administered statically to children in developing countries, they may be rather
unstable and easily subject to influences of training. The reason could be that the children are not
accustomed to taking Western-style tests, and so profit quickly even from small amounts of
instruction as to what is expected from them. They found that the post-test score was a better
predictor of transfer to other cognitive performance. In another study they devised a test of foreign-
language learning ability that dynamically measured participants' ability to learn an artificial
language at the time of test. They found that scores on their test correlated more highly with a test of
foreign-language learning ability than with a test of general ability.
A Theory of Successful Intelligence
The theory of successful intelligence has 4 key elements:
1. Intelligence is defined in terms of the ability to achieve success in life in terms of one’s personal
standards, within one’s sociocultural context.
2. One’s ability to achieve success depends on one’s capitalizing on one’s strengths and correcting
or compensating for one’s weaknesses.
3. Success is attained through a balance of analytical, creative, and practical abilities.
4. Balancing of abilities is achieved in order to adapt to, shape, and select environments.
An important foundation is the importance of analytical, creative, and practical abilities to
intellectual functioning. Three separate factor-analytic studies support the internal validity of the
theory of successful intelligence.
Study 1
They used the Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT) to investigate the internal validity of the
theory. There were 326 high school student from the US who took the test. There were four subtest,
with each three multiple choice and one essay test. The content of each test was:
2
, 1. Analytical-Verbal (figuring out meanings of neologisms (artificial words) from natural contexts):
Students need to infer the meaning of a novel word from the context of the paragraph.
2. Analytical-Quantitative (number series): students have to say what number should come next.
3. Analytical-Figural (matrices): students see a figural matrix with the lower right entry missing.
They have to say which of the options fits into the missing space.
4. Practical-Verbal (everyday reasoning): students are presented with a set of everyday problems
in the life of an adolescent and have to select the option that best solves each problem.
5. Practical-Quantitative (everyday math): students are presented with scenarios requiring the use
of math in everyday life (e.g., buying train tickets), and have to solve math problems based on
the scenarios.
6. Practical-Figural (route planning): students are presented with a map of an area (e.g., an
entertainment park) and have to answer questions about navigating effectively through the area
depicted by the map.
7. Creative-Verbal (novel analogies): students are presented with verbal analogies preceded by
counterfactual premises (e.g., money falls off trees). They have to solve the analogies as though
the counterfactual premises were true.
8. Creative-Quantitative (novel number operations/math rule): students are presented with rules
for novel number operations, for example, "flix,", numerical manipulations that differ as a
function of whether the first of two operands is greater than, equal to, or less than the second.
Participants have to use the novel number operations to solve presented math problems.
9. Creative-Figural: In each item, participants are first presented with a figural series that involves
one or more transformations; they then have to apply the rule of the series to a new figure with
a different appearance, and complete the new series.
The analytical essay required students to comment on the use of security guards in schools, the
creative essay to design an ideal school, and the practical essay to state a problem they are facing in
their life and to describe three practical solutions to it. They found that the data was supportive of
the triarchic theory of human intelligence; separate and uncorrelated analytical, creative, and
practical factors. Measurement of creative and practical abilities probably ideally should be
accomplished with other kinds of testing instruments that complement multiple-choice instruments.
Study 2
Sternberg compares five alternative models of intelligence in Finland. A model featuring a general
factor of intelligence fit the data relatively poorly. The triarchic model, allowing for intercorrelation
among the analytic, creative, and practical factors, provided the best fit to the data.
Study 3
Grigorenko and Sternberg tested 511 Russian school children (ranging in age from 8 to 17 years) as
well as 490 mothers and 328 fathers of these children. Fluid analytical intelligence was measures by
two subtest of a test of nonverbal intelligence. The test of crystallized intelligence was adapted from
existing traditional tests of analogies and synonyms/antonyms used in Russia. The measure of
creative intelligence also comprised two parts: describe the world thought the eyes of insects, and
describe who might live and what might happen one a particular planet. The measure of practical
intelligence was self-report and also comprised two parts. In this study, they obtained analytical,
creative, and practical factors for the tests. With a sample of a different nationality, a different set of
tests, and a different method of analysis (exploratory), the theory of successful intelligence was
supported.
Thus the results of three sets of studies suggest that the theory of successful intelligence is valid as a
whole. Moreover, the results suggest that the theory can make a difference not only in laboratory
tests, but in school classrooms and even the everyday life of adults as well. Consider further the
elements of the theory independently.
3
Individual Differences and Stereotypes
Learning goals:
Vignette 1&2
▪ What other measurement instruments are there for intelligence?
▪ Can training make up for cultural differences?
▪ Is the meaning of intelligence universal or does it differ?
Sternberg (2002). Cultural Explorations of Human Intelligence Around the World.
Cultural explorations of human intelligence around the world suggest that there is more to
intelligence than just IQ, or the general factor (g) of intelligence that some psychologists believe is at
the core of IQ.
There is More to Intelligence than IQ
Carraher & Schliemann studied a group of Brazilian street children, under great contextual pressure
to form a successful street business. They found that the same children who are able do to the
mathematics for their business are often little able or unable to do school mathematics. The more
abstract and removed from real-world contexts the problems are, the worse the children do. The
auteurs have found results consistent with the above. In a study in Usenge, Kenya, they were
interested in school-age children’s ability to adapt to their indigenous environment.
- Measurement: a test of practical intelligence for adaptation to the environment. It measured
children’s informal tacit knowledge for natural herbal medicines that the villagers believe can be
used to fight infection. Thus, tests of how to use these medicines constitute effective measures of
one aspect of practical intelligence as defined by the villagers as well as their life circumstances
in their environmental contexts. They also administered two tests for abstract-reasoning-based
abilities and crystallized of formal-knowledge-based abilities.
- Expectation and results: they expected that the scores on this test would not correlate with
scores on conventional test of intelligence. They found:
o No correlation between the test of indigenous tacit knowledge and scores on the fluid-
ability tests. However, they did find statistically significant negative correlations of the
tacit-knowledge tests with the tests of crystallized abilities. The higher the children scores
on the test of tacit knowledge, the lower they scored on the tests of crystallized abilities.
- Explanation: this is possible because of the expectations of the families. Children generally drop
out of school before graduation, and most families in the village do not value formal Western
schooling but emphasize teaching their children the indigenous informal knowledge that will
lead to successful adaptation in the environments in which they live.
This study suggests that the identification of a general factor of intelligence may tell us more about
how abilities interact with especially western patterns of schooling than it does the structure of
human abilities. Western schooling prepares children to take tests of intelligence, but this is not
universal and not even common for much of human history. Throughout history, schooling, especially
for boys was a form of apprenticeships in which you learn a craft from an early age.
The test of practical intelligence we developed for use in Kenya may seem more like tests of
achievement or of developing expertise than of intelligence, but intelligence is itself a form of
developing expertise. Fluid-ability tests have shown much greater increases in scores over the last
several generation than have crystallized-ability tests. The relatively brief period of time suggests an
1
,environmental rather than a genetic cause of the increases. The greater increase for fluid tests
suggests that they actually measure an expertise acquired through environment interactions. This
does not say that genes do not influence intelligence, but that the environment always mediates their
influence and tests of intelligence measure gene-environment interaction effects.
The forms of developing expertise that are viewed as practically or otherwise intelligent may differ
between societies or sectors. Whereas what constitutes components of intelligence is universal, the
content that constitutes the application of these components to adaptation to, shaping, and selection
of environments is culturally and even sub-culturally variable.
Many of the assumptions about intelligence held in the developed world simply do not apply.
Dynamic testing is like conventional static testing in that individuals are tested in inferences about
their abilities made. They differ in that children are given some kind of feedback to improve their
scores. Vygotsky suggested that the children’s ability to profit from the guided instruction could
serve as a measure of children’s zone of proximal development (ZPD), or the difference between
their developed abilities and their latent capacities. Testing and instruction are treated as being of
one piece rather than as being distinct processes. This make sense in terms of traditional definitions
of intelligence as the ability to learn. A dynamic test directly measures processes of learning in the
context of testing rather than indirectly as the product of past learning. Such measurement is
especially important when not all children have had equal opportunities to learn in the past.
In Sternberg’s study, children did the ability tests, after which they got a brief period of instruction to
learn skills to improve their scores, and were tested again. The gains were significant and they were
sig. greater than those for a control group who received no intervention. More importantly, scores on
the pre-test showed only weak significant correlations with scores on the post-test. This suggested
that when tests are administered statically to children in developing countries, they may be rather
unstable and easily subject to influences of training. The reason could be that the children are not
accustomed to taking Western-style tests, and so profit quickly even from small amounts of
instruction as to what is expected from them. They found that the post-test score was a better
predictor of transfer to other cognitive performance. In another study they devised a test of foreign-
language learning ability that dynamically measured participants' ability to learn an artificial
language at the time of test. They found that scores on their test correlated more highly with a test of
foreign-language learning ability than with a test of general ability.
A Theory of Successful Intelligence
The theory of successful intelligence has 4 key elements:
1. Intelligence is defined in terms of the ability to achieve success in life in terms of one’s personal
standards, within one’s sociocultural context.
2. One’s ability to achieve success depends on one’s capitalizing on one’s strengths and correcting
or compensating for one’s weaknesses.
3. Success is attained through a balance of analytical, creative, and practical abilities.
4. Balancing of abilities is achieved in order to adapt to, shape, and select environments.
An important foundation is the importance of analytical, creative, and practical abilities to
intellectual functioning. Three separate factor-analytic studies support the internal validity of the
theory of successful intelligence.
Study 1
They used the Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT) to investigate the internal validity of the
theory. There were 326 high school student from the US who took the test. There were four subtest,
with each three multiple choice and one essay test. The content of each test was:
2
, 1. Analytical-Verbal (figuring out meanings of neologisms (artificial words) from natural contexts):
Students need to infer the meaning of a novel word from the context of the paragraph.
2. Analytical-Quantitative (number series): students have to say what number should come next.
3. Analytical-Figural (matrices): students see a figural matrix with the lower right entry missing.
They have to say which of the options fits into the missing space.
4. Practical-Verbal (everyday reasoning): students are presented with a set of everyday problems
in the life of an adolescent and have to select the option that best solves each problem.
5. Practical-Quantitative (everyday math): students are presented with scenarios requiring the use
of math in everyday life (e.g., buying train tickets), and have to solve math problems based on
the scenarios.
6. Practical-Figural (route planning): students are presented with a map of an area (e.g., an
entertainment park) and have to answer questions about navigating effectively through the area
depicted by the map.
7. Creative-Verbal (novel analogies): students are presented with verbal analogies preceded by
counterfactual premises (e.g., money falls off trees). They have to solve the analogies as though
the counterfactual premises were true.
8. Creative-Quantitative (novel number operations/math rule): students are presented with rules
for novel number operations, for example, "flix,", numerical manipulations that differ as a
function of whether the first of two operands is greater than, equal to, or less than the second.
Participants have to use the novel number operations to solve presented math problems.
9. Creative-Figural: In each item, participants are first presented with a figural series that involves
one or more transformations; they then have to apply the rule of the series to a new figure with
a different appearance, and complete the new series.
The analytical essay required students to comment on the use of security guards in schools, the
creative essay to design an ideal school, and the practical essay to state a problem they are facing in
their life and to describe three practical solutions to it. They found that the data was supportive of
the triarchic theory of human intelligence; separate and uncorrelated analytical, creative, and
practical factors. Measurement of creative and practical abilities probably ideally should be
accomplished with other kinds of testing instruments that complement multiple-choice instruments.
Study 2
Sternberg compares five alternative models of intelligence in Finland. A model featuring a general
factor of intelligence fit the data relatively poorly. The triarchic model, allowing for intercorrelation
among the analytic, creative, and practical factors, provided the best fit to the data.
Study 3
Grigorenko and Sternberg tested 511 Russian school children (ranging in age from 8 to 17 years) as
well as 490 mothers and 328 fathers of these children. Fluid analytical intelligence was measures by
two subtest of a test of nonverbal intelligence. The test of crystallized intelligence was adapted from
existing traditional tests of analogies and synonyms/antonyms used in Russia. The measure of
creative intelligence also comprised two parts: describe the world thought the eyes of insects, and
describe who might live and what might happen one a particular planet. The measure of practical
intelligence was self-report and also comprised two parts. In this study, they obtained analytical,
creative, and practical factors for the tests. With a sample of a different nationality, a different set of
tests, and a different method of analysis (exploratory), the theory of successful intelligence was
supported.
Thus the results of three sets of studies suggest that the theory of successful intelligence is valid as a
whole. Moreover, the results suggest that the theory can make a difference not only in laboratory
tests, but in school classrooms and even the everyday life of adults as well. Consider further the
elements of the theory independently.
3
