Unified Framework for Theories of Intelligence

The fragmentation of theory and methodology remains one of psychology's central problems. Ambiguous conceptual definitions and the proliferation of competing approaches to the same phenomena both reflect and reinforce the fragmentation. As a contribution to efforts toward the unification of psychological knowledge, this article proposes a unified theoretical framework for theories of intelligence. Grounded in a process-oriented methodology, the framework conceptualizes intelligent functioning as a set of mental processes involving the transformation of representational content. The proposed procedure involves two steps: first, each theory is interpreted in process-oriented terms; second, the resulting interpretations are embedded within a common framework. The Unified Framework for Theories of Intelligence incorporates Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence, the PASS theory, and Guilford’s Structure-of-Intellect theory. The article also considers how other approaches to intelligence may be interpreted in relation to the proposed framework.