The organisation of Luo conceptions of intelligence: A study of implicit theories in a Kenyan village

This article examines the organisation of concepts of intelligence among th e Luo people in rural Kenya. In particular, it discusses what the component s of these concepts are; how these components are expressed in the DhoLuo l anguage, how they are interrelated, how they are used in judgements of othe r people, and how these components of Luo conceptions of intelligence are r elated to Western conceptions of intelligence. Peer, teacher, and adult in the community ratings of children on Luo components of intelligence are cor related with performance on conventional ability tests and with school achi evement. The Luo concept of intelligence is primarily expressed in the DhoL uo vocabulary by four concepts (rieko, luoro, paro, and winjo), which appea r to form two latent structures, social-emotional competence and cognitive competence. Indicators of only one of these concepts (rieko) and only one l atent structure (cognitive competence) correlate with scores on conventiona l Western cognitive ability tests and with school achievement in English an d mathematics. The article also presents a novel method for analysing data from people's ratings of each other's intelligence that is useful when not every one who is providing the ratings knows everyone who is to be rated, a nd when Likert rating scales are inapplicable.