CONCLUSION
In this introduction chapter, we attempt to make a case that intellectual func-
tioning and development never occur as solely cognitive events but involve
motivation and emotion, or the whole person vis-à-vis adaptive pressures and
challenges. Going beyond cognitivism does not imply that motivational and
emotional issues are more important than or as important as cognitive proc-
esses and mechanisms. Rather, our point is that without taking into consider-
ation the motivational and emotional aspects of intellectual functioning and
development, we cannot even properly understand cognitive processes in-
volved. Reducing intellectual functioning and development to merely cogni-
tive matters is simply no longer tenable both on theoretical grounds and in
light of empirical evidence. Going beyond cognitivism follows the same prin-
ciple of moving up closer to the peaks of rationality, according to Newell’s
(1988) vision of the progressive and evolving nature of human intellectual
functioning.
Snow (1992) envisioned integration efforts as going through a process
from something like a patchwork of several different languages to something
of seamless fabric. We are far from the state of seamless fabric, if there is such
a thing. However, we have started to weave together different pieces, indeed
sometimes seemingly incompatible or discrete ones. We attempt to provide a
relatively unified framework so that a certain degree of commensurability
can be achieved between and among different perspectives and approaches.
What unifies a discipline is not its methodology, but its phenomena (Stern-
berg & Grigorenko, 2001). Division of labor is still necessary to tackle differ-
ent aspects of a phenomenon at different levels of description; yet it should be
recognized as such. We will probably never reach a complete reunion, the ul-
timate truth that we can all agree upon. Just as Newell (1988) said, the peaks
of rationality are always one or two ridges away in the temporal horizon of
our intellectual journey. At a minimum, biologically inclined and socially ori-
ented psychologists, differential and developmental psychologists, psycholo-
gists specialized in motivation and emotion, and those in cognition, can sit
and talk to each other without feeling awkward as if they live in completely
different planets and speak drastically different languages when it comes to
intellectual functioning and development. More optimistically, they will
complement each other in attaining an ever enriched and deepened under-
standing of the issue at hand. “The goal is not to choose among alternative
paradigms, but rather for them to work together ultimately to help us pro-
duce a unified understanding of intellectual phenomena” (Sternberg, 2001, p.
410). Our main charge is to make a comprehensive yet coherent account,
based on the totality of evidence, of the nature and development of human in-
telligence, expertise, and creativity, as exemplified by Kasparov or the pro-
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