Abstract
Most accounts of intelligence are “abilities-centric.” They aim to explain intelligent behavior in terms of IQ or other measures of intellectual aptitude. However, several investigators have proposed that intelligent behavior in the wild—in everyday circumstances in which carefully framed tests do not tell people exactly what intellectual task to attempt—depends in considerable part on thinking dispositions. Definitionally, dispositions concern not what abilities people have, but how people are disposed to use those abilities. Everyday language includes a number of dispositional terms such as curiosity, open-mindedness, and skepticism. We review several dispositional constructs that researchers have investigated, sometimes under the label dispositions. The findings in trend show that dispositions are stable traits that help to explain intellectual performance over and above measures of intellectual aptitude. It is argued that a dispositional view of intelligence is warranted, and that it is an important area for continued research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Bandura, A., and Schunk, D. H. (1981). Cultivating competence, self-efficacy, and intrinsic interest though proximal self-motivation. J. Person. Soc. Psych. 41: 586-598.
Bandura, M., and Dweck, C. (1985). Self-conceptions and motivation: Conceptions of intelli-gence, choice of achievement goals, and patterns of cognition, affect and behavior. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard University.
Baron, J. (1985). Rationality and intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Baron, J. B., and Sternberg, R. S. (Eds.). (1986). Teaching thinking skills: Theory and cognition, experiential openness, and introspection. J. Prac. New York: W. H. Freeman.
Brody, N. (1992). Intelligence. New York: Academic Press.
Cacioppo, J. T., and Petty, R. E. (1982). The need for cognition. J. Person. Soc. Psych. 42(1): 116-131.
Cacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., Feinstein, J. A., and Jarvis, W. B. G. (1996). Dispositional differences in cognitive motivation: The life and times of individuals varying in need for cognition. Psych. Bull. 119: 197-253.
Carroll, J. B. (1993). Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-Analytic Studies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Chipman, S. F., Segal, J. W., and Glaser, R. (Eds.). (1985). Thinking and Learning Skills, Vol. 2: Research and Open Questions. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Costa, A. L. (1991). The School as a Home for the Mind. Palatine, IL: Skylight Publishing.
Crandall, V. C. (1969). Sex differences in expectancy of intellectual and academic reinforcement. In C. P. Smith (Ed.), Achievement-Related Motives in Children. New York: Russell Sage.
Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ Error: Emotion. Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: Avon Books.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education. New York: Harper and Row.
Dweck, C. S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. Am. Psych. 41: 1040-1048.
Elliot, E., and Dweck, C. (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement. J. Person. Soc. Psych. 54: 5-12.
Ennis, R. H. (1986). A taxonomy of critical thinking dispositions and abilities. In J. B. Baron and R. S. Sternberg (Eds.). Teaching Thinking Skills. Theory and Practice (pp. 9-26). New York: W. H. Freeman.
Ennis, R. H. (1991). Critical thinking: A streamlined conception. Teach. Philos. 14: 5-25.
Ennis, R. H. (1996). Critical thinking dispositions: Their nature and accessibility. Inform. Log. 18: 129-147.
Facione, N. C. (1997). Critical Thinking Assessment in Nursing Education Programs: An Aggregate Data Analysis. Millbrae, CA: California Academic Press.
Facione, P. A. and Facione, N. C. (1992). The California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (CCTDI) and the CCTDI Test Manual. Millbrae, CA: California Academic Press.
Facione, P. A., Sanchez, C. A., Facione, N. C., and Gainen, J. (1995). The disposition toward critical thinking. J. Gen. Educ. 44: 1-25.
Farrell, E., & Dweck, C. (1985). The role of motivational processes in transfer of learning. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Fiske, D. W. (1949). Consistency of the factorial structures of personality ratings from different sources. J. Abn. Soc. Psych. 44: 329-344.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ. New York: Bantam Books.
Hutchins, E. (1996). Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jensen, A. R. (1980). Bias in Mental Testing. New York: The Free Press.
Jensen, A. R. (1988). Psychometric g. and mental processing speed on a semantic verification test. J. Pers. Indiv. Diff. 9(2): 243-255.
Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., and Tversky, A. (Eds.). (1982). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Kangas, J., and Bradway, K. (1971). Intelligence at middle age: A thirty-eight year follow-up. Dev. Psych. 5: 333-337.
Kruglanski, A. W. (1990). Motivations for judging and knowing: Implications for causal attribution. In E. T. Higgins and R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.), The Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundation of Social Behavior (Vol. 2, pp. 333-368). New York: Guilford Press.
Kruglanski, A. W., and Freund, T. (1983). The freezing and unfreezing of lay inferences: Effects of impressional primacy, ethnic stereotyping, and numerical anchoring. J. Exp. Soc. Psych. 19: 448-468.
Langer, E. (1989). Mindfulness. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Langer, E., Bashner, R., and Chanowitz, B. (1985). Decreasing prejudice by increasing discrimination. J. Pers. Soc. Psych. 49: 113-120.
Langer, E., Hatem, M., Joss, J., and Howell, M. (1989). The mindful consequences of teaching uncertainty for elementary school and college students. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard University.
Langer, E., and Piper, A. (1987). The prevention of mindlessness. J. Pers. Soc. Psych. 53: 280-287.
Leary, M. R., Sheppard, J. A., McNeil, M. S., Jenkins, T. B., and Barnes, B. D. (1986). Objectivism in information utilization: Theory and measurement. J. Pers. Assess. 50: 32-43.
Licht, B. G., and Dweck, C. (1984). Determinants of academic achievement: The interaction of children's achievement orientation with skill area. Dev. Psycho. 20: 628-636.
Licht, B. G., and Shapiro, S. H. (1982, August). Sex difference in attributions among high achievers. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
Nickerson, R., Perkins, D. N., and Smith, E. (1985). The Teaching of Thinking. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Murray, H. A. (1938). Explorations in personality. New York: Oxford University Press.
Perkins, D. N. (1995). Outsmarting IQ: The Emerging Science of Learnable Intelligence. New York: The Free Press.
Perkins, D. N., Jay, E., and Tishman, S. (1993). Beyond abilities: A dispositional theory of thinking. Merrill-Palmer Qu. 39(1): 1-21.
Peters, R. S. (1974). Psychology and Ethical Development. George Allen and Unwin; London.
Petty, R. E., and Jarvis, B. G. (1996). An individual difference perspective on assessing cognitive processes. In N. Schwartz and S. Sudman (Eds.), Answering Questions: Methodology for Determining Cognitive and Communicative Processes in Survey Research (pp. 221-257). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ritchhart, R. (1997). Thinking dispositions: Toward clarifying a construct. Unpublished Qualifying Paper, Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Cambridge.
Ritchhart, R., and Langer, E. (1997). Teaching mathematical procedures mindfully: Exploring the conditional presentation of information in mathematics. In J. A. Dossey, J. O. Swafford, M. Parmantie, and A. E. Dossey (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education.
Ritchhart, R., and Perkins, D. N. (2000). Life in the mindful classroom: Nurturing the disposition of mindfulness. J. Soc. Iss.
Ryle, G. (1949). The Concept of Mind. London: Hutchinson House.
Sadowski, C. J., and Gulgoz, S. (1992). Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Need for Cognition Scale. Percep. Mot. Skills. 74:610.
Sanchez, C. A. (1993). An exploration of cognitive strategies and dispositions in relation to ego resiliency. Unpublished Masters Degree manuscript, University of California, Riverside.
Scheffler, I. (1977). In praise of the cognitive emotions. Teach. Coll. Rec. 79: 171-186.
Schunk, D. H., and Zimmerman, B. J. (Eds.) (1994). Self-Regulation of Learning and Performance: Issues and Educational Applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Segal, J. W., Chipman, S. F., and Glaser, R. (Eds.). (1985). Thinking and Learning Skills, Vol. 1: Relating Instruction to Research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Smiley, P. A., and Dweck, C. S. (1994). Individual differences in achievement goals among young children. Child Dev. 65: 1723-1743.
Stanovich, K. E. (1994). Dysrationalia as an intuition pump. Educ. Res. 23(4): 11-22.
Stanovich, K. E., and West, R. F. (1997). Reasoning independently of prior belief and individual differences in actively open-minded thinking. J. Educ. Psych. 89(2): 342-357.
Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Stipek, D. and Hoffman, J. (1980). Development of children's performance-related judgments. Child Dev. 51: 912-914.
Tishman, S., Jay, E., and Perkins, D. N. (1993). Thinking dispositions: From transmission to enculturation. Theory Prac. 32(3): 147-153.
Tishman, S., Perkins, D. N., and Jay, E. (1995). The Thinking Classroom: Learning and Teaching in a Culture of Thinking. Needham, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Troldahl, V. C., and Powell, F. A. (1965). A short form Dogmatism Scale for use in field studies. Soc. Forces 44: 211-214.
Webster, D. M., and Kruglanski, A. W. (1994). Individual differences in need for cognitive closure. J. Pers. Soc. Psych. 67(6): 1049-1062.
Zimmerman B. J., and Schunk, D. H. (Eds.) (1989). Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: Theory, Research and Practice. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Perkins, D., Tishman, S., Ritchhart, R. et al. Intelligence in the Wild: A Dispositional View of Intellectual Traits. Educational Psychology Review 12, 269–293 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009031605464
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009031605464