7. Proposed domains for Life Skills derived from psychological theories

For the current purpose, the theory of successful intelligence is best seen as extending along the same dimension of psychometric models. Both describe types of thinking and have some degree of overlap. A review of psychometric models points to the importance of crystallized and fluid abilities. The successful intelligence model begins with analytical abilities, which can be seen as overlapping at least fluid abilities and perhaps crystallized abilities as well. But the successful intelligence model takes us further, addressing people's relationship to the environment through the domains of practical abilities and creative abilities. Thus, as a set of core domains of intelligence with clear relationships to success in life, would include:

• Practical Abilities—Abilities used to practice, apply, use, and implement knowledge and skills. These abilities are highly contextualized with respect to the individual's daily life and involve the management of oneself, management of others, and management of tasks.
• Crystallized Analytical Abilities—Acculturation knowledge. Evident in tasks that show an indication of the breadth and depth of the knowledge of concepts and forms of reasoning that have been developed by humans over the course of many centuries and passed on from one generation to the next. Tests of crystallized abilities primarily measure the result of previously applied information-processing skills.
• Fluid Analytical Abilities—Reasoning abilities, such as sequential, inductive, deductive, and quantitative. Tests of fluid abilities primarily measure the results of current information-processing skills.
• Creative (Coping with Novelty) Abilities—Abilities to create, invent, discover, suppose, imagine, and hypothesize. Characterized by people's abilities to deal flexibly with relatively unfamiliar problems—that is, their abilities to cope with relative novelty.