Robert J. Sternberg

Robert J. Sternberg was born on December 8, 1949 in New Jersey. Sternberg's interest in studying intelligence was first peaked in the sixth grade after suffering from text anxiety and failing an intelligence test. Sternberg realized that this particular score did not accurately predict his intelligence, and he scored significantly higher after retaking the test in a room with students a year younger than he. In this room, Sternberg felt more confident while taking the test, thus his score was higher. Just one year later, in the seventh grade, Sternberg developed his first intelligence test: the Sternberg Test of Mental Ability, or STOMA.
Throughout his studies, Sternberg quickly realized he learned better when not required to memorize information rote. In his first year in college at Yale, he preformed so poorly in a largely rote-based Introductory Psychology course, the professor urged Sternberg to pursue a career outside of the field of psychology. As his later performance in the psychological field shows, the C Sternberg recieved in this first course did not serve as an accurate predictor of his later achievments.

Sternberg went on to earn his BA summa cum laude from Yale, and to earn the Sidney Siegel Memorial Award while pursuing his doctorate at Stanford. He returned to Yale as a member of the faculty where he continues his research today. Throughout his career, Sternberg has written several articles and books concerning the topics of intelligence, creativity and love, and has developed two major theories: the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence and Triangular Theory of Love.
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Triangular Theory of Love

Love, according to Sternberg's Triangular Theory, consists of three components: intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. Intimacy is the feeling of closeness that exists between two people, passion the drive that produces romance, physical attraction, and intercourse, and decision/commitment is the decision and commitment to further a loving relationship. With this theory, the type and strength of a couple's love is determined by both the individual strength of the three components and the interaction between the three components. Romantic love is the combination of high intimacy and passion, companionate love of intimacy and commitment, fatuous love a combination of passion and commitment, and consummate love involves all three areas relatively equally.

According to Sternberg, individuals have two different triangles of love: the triangle that characterizes their current relationship, and the triangle of their ideal relationship. Sternberg reports that the most successful couples occur when the two individuals have more compatible triangles.
Sternberg also believes that individuals begin to form their own personal theories about what love should be from the time they are born. This theory of love as a story, as he calls it, stems from watching our parents, the media, reading books, and whatever other external factors influence our beliefs about what love should be like.
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Love isn't something to be catergorized. it is the feeling in which we believe is true and what should be given. i intend to love. Sternberg's law is so consuming because this is his own theory, while others can view this as a legitimate fact, while others extend this and make their own theories. But which is true? only you can decide it..