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Implicit Theories

Stemberg (1985), as mentioned earlier, assessed people's implicit theories of intelligence, creativity, and wisdom, as well as the implicit theories among these constructs. The study was done among experts and laypersons in the United States, and hence does not necessarily apply beyond this country.

Nonmetric multidimensional scaling was used to assess the dimensions for each construct. The intercorrelations of ratings of behaviors on a master list for different occupations of individuals. Note that there are differences in the correlations, and that, in business; creativity and wisdom show a negative correlation!

The data show that people's conceptions of intelligence overlap with, but go beyond, the skills measured by conventional intelligence tests. Thus, the problem-solving (fluid ability) and verbal-comprehension (crystallized ability) skills measured by intelligence tests appear most prominently in the dimensions of the derived implicit theory of intelligence. Thus, the intelligent individual is perceived as solving problems well, reasoning clearly, thinking logically, displaying a good vocabulary, and drawing on a large store of information-just the kinds of things conventional intelligence tests measure.

The Basic Relationships

The Role of Components

Metacomponents. Metacomponents play a key role in intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. They form the central executive functions without which none of these three attributes could operate. To think intelligently, creatively, or wisely, one needs to be able to recognize the existence of problems, define the problems, formulate strategies to solve the problems, and so forth. The difference in their application lies in the kinds of problems to which they are applied.

In intelligence they are applied to several kinds of problems. First, when they are applied to relatively familiar kinds of problems that are somewhat strictly academic, contexts. People thus seem to be more concerned with the practical and worldly side intelligence than are intelligence testers.

Conceptions of creativity overlap with those of intelligence, but there is much less emphasis in implicit theories of creativity on analytical abilities, whether they be directed toward abstract problems or toward verbal materials. For example, the very first dimension shows a greater emphasis on nonentrenchment, or the ability and willingness to go beyond ordinary limitations of self and environment and to think and act in unconventional and even dreamlike ways. The creative individual has a certain freedom of spirit and an unwillingness to be bound by the unwritten canons of society, characteristics not necessarily found in the highly intelligent individual. Implicit theories of creativity encompass a dimension of aesthetic taste and imagination absent in implicit theories of intelligence, and also encompass aspects of inquisitiveness and intuitiveness that do not seem to enter into the implicit theories of intelligence. Implicit theories of creativity go far beyond conventional psychometric creativity tests. ^ person's ability to think of unusual uses for a brick, or to form a picture based on a geometric outline, scarcely docs justice to the kind of freedom of spirit and intellect captured in implicit theories of creativity.

Finally, the wise individual is perceived as having much the same analytical reasoning ability as the intelligent individual. But the wise person has a certain sagacity not necessarily found in the intelligent person: He or she listens to others, knows how to weigh advice, and knows how to deal with a variety of different kinds of people. In seeking as much information as possible for decision making, the wise individual reads between the lines as well as making use of the obviously available information. The wise individual is especially able to make clear, sensible, and fair judgments, and in doing so, takes a long-term as well as a short-term view of the consequences of the judgments made. The wise individual is perceived as profiting from the experience of others, and learning from others' mistakes, as well as from his or her own mistakes. This individual is not afraid to change his or her mind as experience dictates, and the solutions offered to complex problems tend to be the right ones. It is not surprising that the correlations between creativity and wisdom are the lowest of the three possible pairs (intelligence-creativity, intelligence-wisdom, creativity-wisdom) and in one case, the correlation is even negative: Whereas the wise person is perceived to be a conserver of worldly experience.

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