Theories regarding the nature of Intelligence

This chapter presented theories regarding the nature of Intelligence. Two of these were Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory and Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory.

Discussion Question: Which of these two theories (only select one) do you believe best explains the concept of Intelligence? Why?

In 1920, Edward Thorndike postulated three kinds of intelligence: social, mechanical, and abstract. Building on this, contemporary theories such as that proposed by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner tend to break intelligence into separate categories (e.g., emotional, spatial, etc.).