Intellectual style theories: different types of categorizations and their relevance for practitioners

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Table 3 Zhang and Sternberg’s ( 2005 ) threefold model of intellectual styles represented as a taxonomy of styles across style theories (type C categorization) ^a

The three style types ….
Degree of structuring (structure – free of structure)	Low	High	varied^c
Degree of cognitive complexity (simple – complex)	High	Low	varied^c
Degree of conformity (nonconform – conform)	Low	High	varied^c
Degree of management/control (autonomy – authority)	Low	High	Varied^c
Style construct^b	Type I styles	Type II styles	Type III styles
a. Learning approach	Deep	Surface	Achieving
b. Career-personality type	Artistic	Conventional	Realistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising
c. Mode of thinking	Holistic	Analytic	Integrative
d. Personality type	Intuitive, Perceiving	Sensing, Judging	Thinking, Feeling, Introversion, Extraversion
e. Mind style	Concrete random	Concrete sequential	Abstract random, Abstract sequential
f. Decision-making style	Innovation	Adaptation
g. Conceptual tempo	Reflectivity	Impulsivity
h. Structure of intellect	Divergent thinking	Convergent thinking
i. Perceptual style	Field-independence	Field-dependence
j. Thinking style	Legislative, Judicial, Hierarchic, Global	Executive, Monarchic, Local, Conservative	Oligarchic, Anarchic, Democratic, Internal, external
The mutual relative value-ladenness of the three types of styles	High (positive)	High (negative)	Low-high (differentiated)
The mutual relative stability of the three types of styles	More	More	Less

Table notes. a) The table is the author’s combination of Table V and the different textual descriptions of the threefold model of intellectual styles in Zhang and Sternberg (2005). b) The theoretical background for the individual styles categorized in the three major types of styles are: “^aBigs’s theory of student learning,^bHolland’s theory of career-personality types,^cTorrance’s construct of brain dominance,^dJung’s theory of personality types,^eGregorc’s model of mind styles,^fKirton’s model of decision-making styles,^gKagan’s model of reflectivity-impulsivity conceptual tempo,^hGuilford’s model of structure of intellect,ⁱWitkin’s construct of field-dependence/independence,^jSternberg’s theory of mental self-government” (Zhang and Sternberg 2005, p. 35). The Democratic style proposed by Nielsen et al. (2007), as an extension of the theory of mental self-government, is considered to be a type III style, and as such included here for completeness. c) Dependent on the stylistic demands of a particular task and the individual’s interest in the task, these styles will manifest different degrees of preference on the four preference continua (top of table) as if they were in fact type I or type II styles.