Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence

 If IQ rules, it is only because we let it. And when we let it rule, we choose a bad master. We got ourselves into the test mess; we can get ourselves out of it.

Robert J. Sternberg

Starting from his own bad experience with traditional IQ measurements, Robert J. Sternberg developed an alternative intelligence model, comprising three elements of thinking processes kept in balance by metacognition. 

Taking practical experience with highly intellectual people, who aren't exactly successful in life, into consideration Sternberg describes three different kinds of intelligence in his model:

How successful a person can use these three different intelligences is not only a result of simply having high intelligence in one or more of these three intelligence domains, success also depends on how well they are balanced against each other. Through metacognition an individual decides what mode of thinking is appropriate under certain conditions.

Well aware that most people differ in their general ability to use the three intelligences Sternberg later on developed a typology of people based on his theory, differentiating seven types:

Sternberg's model has had less of an impact on the educational world than Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.

Further Information

Sources

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Matthias Giger, April 2006 (Update: 26-04-2006)
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