This is an accepted version of this page Robert J. Sternberg (born December 8, 1949)[1] is an American psychologist and psychometrician.

A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Sternberg as the 60th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.

When he later retook a test in a room that consisted of younger students, he felt more comfortable and his scores increased dramatically.

Neither of Sternberg's parents finished high school, and he attended Yale only by achieving a National Merit Scholarship and receiving financial aid.

Determined to succeed, Sternberg earned a BA summa cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, gaining honors and exceptional distinction in psychology.

His major aim was to push the "development of ethical leadership in students, faculty and staff".

[8] Therefore, Sternberg wanted to change the University of Wyoming's test-based selection process of applicants towards an ethics-based admission process: "The set of analytical skills evaluated in the ACT [American College Testing] is only a small sliver of what you need to be an ethical leader.

[11] In the Chronicle of Higher Education, November 15, 2013 ("President of U of Wyoming Abruptly Resigns" by Lindsay Ellis), Sternberg's tenure was described as "a period that saw rapid turnover among senior administrators and unsettled the campus."

According to Peter Shive, a professor emeritus, Sternberg asked everyone to wear the school colors, brown and gold, on Fridays.

Sternberg holds thirteen honorary doctorates, including some from universities outside the United States.

[19] In response to the letter and from pressure on social media, Sternberg resigned in late April 2018 from his position of editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science, over a year and a half before his term was scheduled to end.

[20] In the APA Monitor on Psychology, Sternberg has been rated as one of the top 100 psychologists of the twentieth century.

The ISI has rated Sternberg as one of the most highly cited authors in psychology and psychiatry (top .5 percent).

Sternberg has criticized IQ tests, saying they are "convenient partial operationalizations of the construct of intelligence, and nothing more.

Sternberg believes that this focus on specific types of measurable mental abilities is too narrow.

There are, for example, many individuals who score poorly on intelligence tests, but are creative or are "street smart" and therefore have a very good ability to adapt and shape their environment.

According to Sternberg (2003), giftedness should be examined in a broader way incorporating other parts of intelligence.

Context, or how one adapts, selects and shapes their environment is another area that is not represented by traditional measures of giftedness.

Sternberg added experimental criteria to the application process for undergraduates to Tufts University, where he was Dean of Arts and Sciences, to test "creativity and other non-academic factors."

Calling it the "first major university to try such a departure from the norm," Inside Higher Ed noted that Tufts continues to consider the SAT and other traditional criteria.

Indeed, a good fit between a person's preferred cognitive profile and his abilities can create a powerful synergy that outweighs the sum of its parts.

The local style focuses on more specific and concrete problems, in extreme case they "can't see the forest for the trees".