段落A

Looked at in one way, everyone knows what intelligence is; looked at in another way, no one does. In other words, people all have unconscious notions – known as ‘implicit theories’- of intelligence, but no one knows for certain what it actually is. This chapter addresses how people conceptualize intelligence, whatever it may actually be.

But why should we even care what people think intelligence is, as opposed only to valuing whatever it actually is? There are at least four reasons people’s conceptions of intelligence matter.

段落A

从某种角度看，每个人都知道智力是什么；但从另一个角度看，没有人知道。换句话说，人们都有关于智力的潜意识观念，称为“内隐理论”，但没有人确切知道智力实际上是什么。本章讨论了人们如何概念化智力，无论它实际上是什么。

但为什么我们要关心人们认为智力是什么，而不只是重视它实际上是什么？人们对智力的概念至少有四个原因很重要。

段落B

First, implicit theories of intelligence drive the way in which people perceive and evaluate their own intelligence and that of others. To better understand the judgments people make about their own and others’ abilities, it is useful to learn about people’s implicit theories. For example, parents’ implicit theories of their children’s language development will determine at what ages they will be willing to make various corrections in their children’s speech. More generally, parents’ implicit theories of intelligence will determine at what ages they believe their children are ready to perform various cognitive tasks. Job interviewers will make hiring decisions on the basis of their implicit theories of intelligence. People will decide who to be friends with on the basis of such theories. In sum, knowledge about implicit theories of intelligence is important because this knowledge is so often used by people to make judgments in the course of their everyday lives.

段落B

首先，智力的内隐理论影响了人们对自己和他人智力的感知和评价方式。为了更好地理解人们对自己和他人能力所做的判断，了解人们的内隐理论是有益的。例如，父母对子女语言发展的内隐理论将决定他们愿意在子女言语中做出各种纠正的年龄。更普遍地，父母对智力的内隐理论将决定他们相信子女在何时能够执行各种认知任务。面试官将根据他们对智力的内隐理论做出招聘决策。人们将根据这些理论决定与谁交朋友。总之，了解智力的内隐理论很重要，因为人们在日常生活中经常使用这些知识来做出判断。

段落C

Second, the implicit theories of scientific investigators ultimately give rise to their explicit theories. Thus it is useful to find out what these implicit theories are. Implicit theories provide a framework that is useful in defining the general scope of a phenomenon – especially a not-well-understood phenomenon. These implicit theories can suggest what aspects of the phenomenon have been more or less attended to in previous investigations.

段落C

其次，科学研究人员的内隐理论最终导致了他们的外显理论。因此了解这些内隐理论是有益的。内隐理论提供了一个框架，有助于定义一个现象的一般范围，特别是对于一个不太被理解的现象。这些内隐理论可以暗示出现象的哪些方面在先前的研究中得到了更多或更少的关注。

段落D

Third, implicit theories can be useful when an investigator suspects that existing explicit theories are wrong or misleading. If an investigation of implicit theories reveals little correspondence between the extant implicit and explicit theories, the implicit theories may be wrong. But the possibility also needs to be taken into account that the explicit theories are wrong and in need of correction or supplementation. For example, some implicit theories of intelligence suggest the need for expansion of some of our explicit theories of the construct.

段落D

第三，当研究人员怀疑现有的外显理论是错误或误导时，内隐理论可能会有所帮助。如果对内隐理论的调查显示现有的内隐和外显理论之间几乎没有对应关系，那么内隐理论可能是错误的。但也需要考虑到外显理论可能是错误的，需要进行修正或补充。例如，一些智力的内隐理论暗示需要扩展我们对这一构念的一些外显理论。

段落E

Finally, understanding implicit theories of intelligence can help elucidate developmental and cross-cultural differences. As mentioned earlier, people have expectations for intellectual performances that differ for children of different ages. How these expectations differ is in part a function of culture. For example, expectations for children who participate in Western-style schooling are almost certain to be different from those for children who do not participate in such schooling.

段落E

最后，了解智力的内隐理论有助于阐明发展和跨文化差异。正如前面提到的，人们对不同年龄的儿童的智力表现有不同的期望。这些期望的差异部分取决于文化。例如，参与西式学校教育的儿童的期望几乎肯定会与未参与此类教育的儿童的期望不同。

段落F

I have suggested that there are three major implicit theories of how intelligence relates to society as a whole (Sternberg, 1997). These might be called Hamiltonian, Jeffersonian, and Jacksonian. These views are not based strictly, but rather, loosely, on the philosophies of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson, three great statesmen in the history of the United States.

段落F

我已经提出了智力如何与整个社会有三种主要内隐理论（Sternberg, 1997）。这些可能被称为汉密尔顿的、杰斐逊的和杰克逊的。这些观点不是严格基于亚历山大·汉密尔顿、托马斯·杰斐逊和安德鲁·杰克逊三位美国历史上伟大政治家的哲学观点，而是松散地基于他们的哲学观点。

段落G

The Hamiltonian view, which is similar to the Platonic view, is that people are born with different levels of intelligence and that those who are less intelligent need the good offices of the more intelligent to keep them in line, whether they are called government officials or, in Plato’s term, philosopher-kings. Herrnstein and Murray (1994) seem to have shared this belief when they wrote about the emergence of a cognitive (high-IQ) elite, which eventually would have to take responsibility for the largely irresponsible masses of non-elite (low-IQ) people who cannot take care of themselves. Left to themselves, the unintelligent would create, as they always have created, a kind of chaos.
 

段落G

汉密尔顿的观点，类似于柏拉图的观点，认为人们天生就具有不同水平的智力，而那些智力较低的人需要更聪明的人的帮助来约束他们，无论他们被称为政府官员还是柏拉图所说的哲学君王。赫恩施坦和默里（1994）在谈到认知（高智商）精英的出现时似乎分享了这一观点，最终这些精英将不得不对那些不能自理的非精英（低智商）人群负责。如果让不聪明的人自生自灭，他们将像他们一直以来所做的那样制造一种混乱。

段落H

The Jeffersonian view is that people should have equal opportunities, but they do not necessarily avail themselves equally of these opportunities and are not necessarily equally rewarded for their accomplishments. People are rewarded for what they accomplish, if given equal opportunity. Low achievers are not rewarded to the same extent as high achievers. In the Jeffersonian view, the goal of education is not to favor or foster an elite, as in the Hamiltonian tradition, but rather to allow children the opportunities to make full use of the skills they have. My own views are similar to these (Sternberg, 1997).

段落H

杰斐逊的观点是，人们应该有平等的机会，但他们并不一定充分利用这些机会，也不一定因他们的成就而得到同等的奖励。如果给予平等机会，人们将根据他们的成就而得到奖励。低成就者得到的奖励不如高成就者。在杰斐逊的观点中，教育的目标不是像汉密尔顿传统那样支持或培养精英，而是让孩子有机会充分利用他们所拥有的技能。我的观点与这些观点相似（Sternberg, 1997）。

段落I

The Jacksonian view is that all people are equal, not only as human beings but in terms of their competencies – that one person would serve as well as another in government or on a jury or in almost any position of responsibility. In this view of democracy, people are essentially intersubstitutable except for specialized skills, all of which can be learned. In this view, we do not need or want any institutions that might lead to favoring one group over another.

段落H

杰斐逊的观点是，人们应该有平等的机会，但他们并不一定充分利用这些机会，也不一定因他们的成就而得到同等的奖励。如果给予平等机会，人们将根据他们的成就而得到奖励。低成就者得到的奖励不如高成就者。在杰斐逊的观点中，教育的目标不是像汉密尔顿传统那样支持或培养精英，而是让孩子有机会充分利用他们所拥有的技能。我的观点与这些观点相似（Sternberg, 1997）。

段落J

Implicit theories of intelligence and of the relationship of intelligence to society perhaps need to be considered more carefully than they have been because they often serve as underlying presuppositions for explicit theories and even experimental designs that are then taken as scientific contributions. Until scholars are able to discuss their implicit theories and thus their assumptions, they are likely to miss the point of what others are saying when discussing their explicit theories and their data.

段落J

智力的内隐理论和智力与社会关系的内隐理论可能需要比以前更仔细地考虑，因为它们经常作为外显理论和甚至被视为科学贡献的实验证据的基本前提。除非学者们能够讨论他们的内隐理论，因而他们的假设，否则在讨论他们的外显理论和数据时，他们可能会错过他人的观点。