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.

A   从某种角度看，每个人都知道什么是智力;而从另一个角度看，又没有人知道。换句话说，人们对智力都有潜意识层面的理解，这被称为“内隐理论”，但没有人确切知道智力到底是什么。这一章要讲的是人们如何将智力概念化，不管它实际上是什么。

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.

但是，为什么我们要关注人们对智力的看法而不只是重视它的实际价值呢?以下至少有四个原因来说明人们为什么如此重视对智慧的理解。

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.

B   首先，智力的内隐理论影响着人们感知和评价自己和他人智力的方式。为了更好地理解人们对自己和他人能力的判断，了解内隐理论是很有帮助的。例如，父母对孩子语言发展的内隐理论将决定他们在孩子几岁愿意对其言语进行各种纠正。更普遍地说，父母关于智力的内隐理论将决定他们认为孩子在什么时候可以执行各种认知任务。面试官会根据他们关于智力的内隐理论做出雇佣与否决定。人们会根据该理论来决定和谁交朋友。总之，关于智力的内隐理论的知识是很重要的，因为在日常生活中，人们通常用这些知识来做出判断。

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.

C   第二，科学研究者的内隐理论最终形成了他们的外显理论。因此，弄清这些内隐理论是非常有益的。内隐理论提供了一种框架，这种框架对定义现象的一般范畴很有用，特别是对一个难以理解的现象。这些内隐理论可以表明，在以前的研究中，这一现象的哪些方面或多或少受到了关注。

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.

D   第三，当研究者怀疑现有的外显理论是错误的或有所误导的时候，内隐理论也是有用的。如果对内隐理论的研究发现，现存的内隐理论与外显理论之间几乎没有对应关系，那么这个内隐理论就很有可能是错误的。但也要考虑到这种可能性，即外显理论是错误的，需要纠正或补充。例如，一些有关智力的内隐理论表明，我们需要扩展一些关于构想的外显理论。

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.

E   最后，理解有关智力的内隐理论有助于阐明发展和跨文化差异。正如之前提到的，人们对不同年龄儿童的智力表现的期望是不同的。这些期望的不同部分是由于文化的作用。例如，对参加西式教育的孩子的期望几乎与不参加西式教育孩子的期望截然不同。

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.

F   我曾提出有三种主要的关于智力如何与整个社会相联系的内隐理论(斯滕伯格,1997)。这些可能被称为汉密尔顿主义者，杰弗逊主义者和杰克逊主义者。这些观点并非很严谨，而是比较宽泛地建立在亚历山大·汉密尔顿、托马斯·杰斐逊和安德鲁·杰克逊这三位美国历史上伟大的政治家的哲学基础上。

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.

G   汉密尔顿的观点更类似于柏拉图的观点，是人们生来就带有不同级别的智力，而那些不太聪明的人则需要更聪明的人工作的办事处来让他们能够保持秩序，无论这些人是被称为政府官员或是用柏拉图的术语来说--哲学之王。赫恩斯坦和默里(1994)似乎也认同这一观点，他们在一篇关于认知(高智商)精英出现的文章中写道，这些精英最终将不得不为那些基本上不负责任、无法照顾自己的非精英(低智商)人群承担责任。如果任其自生自灭，不聪明的人就总是会制造混乱。

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).

H   杰弗逊的观点是人们应该有平等的机会，但他们不一定能平等地利用这些机会，也不一定能平等地获得相应的成就。如果给予人们平等的机会，人们会因他们所取得的成就而得到回报。低成就者的奖励没有高成就者的那么多。在杰弗逊主义看来，教育的目的不是像汉密尔顿主义传统那样培养或偏爱精英，而是让孩子们有机会充分利用他们所拥有的技能。我自己的观点与之相似(斯滕伯格,1997)。

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.

I   杰克逊的观点是，所有的人都是平等的，不仅是作为人，而且就其能力而言，一个人在政府、陪审团或几乎任何需要负责任的职位上都是平等的。按照这种民主的观点，除了具有专业技能的人以外其他人基本上是可以相互替代的，以为他们所掌握的这些技能都是靠学习来的。在这种观点下，我们不需要也不想要任何可能会偏袒某个群体的制度。

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.

J   关于智力的内隐理论，以及智力与社会的关系也许需要比以往更仔细地加以考虑，因为它们往往是外显理论的基本前提，甚至是后来被视为具有科学贡献的实验设计。在学者们有能力讨论内隐理论及其假设之前，他们很可能会先讨论外显理论及其数据时会忽略其他人所说的要点。