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Presents a developmental perspective on social giftedness. It is argued that by using a theoretical approach that acknowledges both the various specific forms of human intelligence and the general influences on the development of children's thought and knowledge, a view of social giftedness emerges that can increase our knowledge of the what and the how of social expertise. After a short history of social intelligence and an examination of the state of knowledge of giftedness in the social domain, the contributions of developmental and modular theories of mind to understanding social giftedness are presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Goes beyond the application of the construct of multiple intelligences to giftedness within a developmental framework of a giftedness matrix. The concepts of intelligence, giftedness, prodigiousness, precocity, expertise, and creativity are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: book)

The research reported in this chapter tests the hypothesis that talents pertinent to the classroom ecosystem can be consistently recognized by peers and teachers through the behaviors manifested by the individual. The rate of talent acknowledgment and types of talents identified also are explored. Findings suggest that when the types of valued talents increase, the pool of talented individuals likewise expands (prevalence); however, the number of students recognized as displaying multiple talents also increases (polyvalence), thereby creating a talent-incubating dynamic. In conceptualizing the investigation, Gagné implicitly endorses the power of the classroom ecosystem through his use of peers as recognizers of talent. Ss consisted of 2,432 French-speaking upper-elementary pupils, about equally distributed between the sexes and between Grades 4 to 6. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

Cognitive development that is measurably advanced beyond peers, agemates, or cohort group suggests exceptional cognitive ability or intellectual giftedness. Yet both the possibilities for intellectual growth beyond a modal point in young adulthood and a way to measure advanced cognitive development are required to determine cognitive abilities in middle and older adulthood. The current conceptualization of relativistic thinking could fulfill these 2 requirements and, in doing so, also could address the issue of cognitive giftedness across the life-span. Two studies were undertaken to address life-span development of relativistic thinking. In Study 1, 64 adolescents (mean age 14.6 yrs) completed the Preformal, Formal, or Postformal–Relativisitic Thinking Test (PFPR). In study 2, Ss (aged 12–82 yrs) completed a multiple-choice word vocabulary test using words from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. The Piagetian perspective was assessed with PFPR and 2 problem situations used in study 1. The Perry Scheme was assessed with the Measure of Intellectual Development. Results of this study do not support the idea that throughout life verbal giftedness is associated with improved reasoning ability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Reviews the implications of conceptions of individual differences in development and of giftedness for generating hypotheses about the development of giftedness in childhood. Research designs that dominate current longitudinal study of the development of giftedness are described, and their limitations for testing new hypotheses are noted. Examples from the author's own research and other studies that suggest a better strategy for designing developmental studies of giftedness are presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Notes that Vygotskian theory focuses on the development of verbal–conceptual abstract thought and the primary role language plays in mediating thought and behavior as well as in interpreting experience. The author uses Vygotskian theory as an explanatory framework for interpreting the development of the case of a high-IQ child (M. J. Morelock, 1991). Between ages of 3.7–4.5 yrs, the child experienced a cognitive leap in her capacity for abstract thought, as was inadvertently documented through successive Stanford-Binet L–M testings at those 2 ages. Accompanying the cognitive changes was a period of intense existential questioning and marked emotional turmoil. The chapter examines elements of Vygotsky's sociohistorical developmental theory. Excerpts from the case's developmental history are used to illustrate Vygotskian theoretical elements and in which implications for future research are explored. Implications of this case study for conceptualizations of giftedness are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Focuses on children who are intellectually or academically precocious, recognizing that intelligence represents one part of the spectrum of abilities. The authors argue that life-span research with gifted children can profitably start very early, both to contribute to knowledge about normal development and to understand the origins and enhancement of high competence. The authors review ways in which the inclusion of gifted children can contribute to research in developmental psychology by identifying optimal conditions of development, the origins of achievement motivation and creativity, and the contributions children make to molding their own experiences. The parental and environmental supports appropriate to the gifted child's individual and fluctuating maturity levels are also discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Reports unexpected findings regarding the nature of expertise and explores the implications for explaining and nurturing creative giftedness in adult professional and semiprofessional artists and nonartists. A brief description of the original investigation precedes the focus on the qualitative differences that emerged among the various levels of expertise. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Giftedness is a concept ingrained in our educational vocabulary. We often think of a small, elite group of academically and intellectually bright children, sitting in classrooms, hungry for bookish knowledge. In fact, "giftedness" is a narrow conception of a multifactor phenomenon better described as "talent." This chapter promotes the concept of talent and talent development, first providing some historical background information about the concept of giftedness in American education, including the nature–nurture debate. Next, some of the myths surrounding gifted education are debunked by identifying the failures of the system to recognize and foster talents. Finally, models are presented that explore the development of academic, artistic, vocational, and personal—social talents in schools and that delineate a developmental sequence of talent development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter explores Shakespeare's observation (1601/1952) that "Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Organized around these 3 central perspectives, this chapter explores the developmental process: the biological perspective—why some are born great; the sociological perspective—why some have greatness thrust upon them; and the psychological perspective—why some achieve greatness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The author identifies the general set of personal characteristics and external factors that shape the gifted woman's level of accomplishment: commitment to relationships and intimacy, difficulty in discerning one's self, serendipity in career choices, and motivational level. She then examines the contextual forces shaping women's lives in their formative years: family and home environment and opportunities for enhancing achievement. The author concludes that the complexities of women's lives require appropriately multifaceted research to uncover "appropriately nuanced patterns of gifted women's lives." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

The author's thesis is that genetic engineering and all its possibilities are not likely to be used for positive eugenic purposes. The reasons, he claims, center around current societal values that do not include high intelligence. Hanson points to prevailing attitudes such as right-to-life, religious fundamentalism, and popular priorities (appearance and health rather than mental or physical ability) as having great influence over personal choices to use or not use genetic engineering options such as sperm banks and artificial insemination. The chapter has implications for social policy as well as the psychobiology of talent. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

Three major themes are discussed in this chapter. The first is the uniqueness of each creative person. The chapter explores a possible rapprochement of ideas about giftedness, creativity, and human variability and draws on Piaget's thinking, but not so much his well-known ideas about universals of human development as his ideas about creativity, including his own. Approaching the subject from this angle leads to the insistence on the uniqueness of each creative person. The second theme is the question of collaboration. If each creative person is unique, how can unique individuals enjoy a social existence? Can they collaborate, and if so, how? The last theme is the evolving systems approach to creative work. The chapter sketches briefly the evolving systems approach to creative work and attempts to show how it contributes to our understanding of human diversity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The author analyzes two key Pacific Rim cultures (China and Japan) relative to how they view and develop giftedness and talent. Stevenson suggests that the US may be on the wrong track as a society in its approaches to defining and nurturing giftedness and talent. Through these case presentations, Stevenson investigates the impact of society and culture on the emergence and shaping of talent. He raises questions about defining giftedness and educating gifted children, and relates the answers to the setting of societal goals. In trying to ensure that their most able students will further the culture's progress, each of the 3 cultures has taken a very different path, from ignoring the term giftedness altogether but educating all students with the hope that some will emerge (Japan); to heeding the term and educating this group differentially but enforcing their common socialization (China); to halfway acknowledging the term, halfway attempting differentiated education, and halfway encouraging common socialization in the US. An interesting area for future research is which approach best matches the values of a particular society and culture. Has each country selected its "best" or its "only" method because of the maximum benefits of interaction for able learners with that culture's parameters? As Stevenson points out, we have much to learn from what we can see occurring in other cultures, about best practices as well as unproductive strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

The authors review 8 different cognitive conceptions of expertise: (a) general process (speed and accuracy in executing applicable cognitive processes in a given task); (b) quantity of knowledge (extensive stored knowledge about task or field); (c) organization of knowledge (attention to the deep structures of problems); (d) automaticity (mental efficiency in information processing); (e) analytical ability (making inferences beyond given information); (f) creative ability (application of insight to novel problems); (g) practical ability (application of tacit knowledge or "savvy"); and (h) labeling (getting oneself "recognized"). The authors conclude that no single conception captures the essence of expertise: All are necessary. The authors then propose a ninth, synthetic view, in which expertise (and giftedness) become a prototype against which a person is compared and recognized as gifted, depending on the degree to which she or he resembles the expert prototype. What is exciting about this proposal is that it requires use of a clear, independent criterion in identifying individuals as gifted. In a time of "talent development" and a move toward eliminating the use of the term gifted, the authors' conceptualization allows us to maintain a manageable field of study that is based on current theories of cognition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

The authors trace the historical and cultural factors that have led the education establishment to ignore outstanding potential in the many subcultural groups that make up our society. Much of the blame, these authors assert, must be laid at the door of the testing movement and the narrow definitions of giftedness and talent it engendered. As an alternative to the current system of gifted education, Callahan and Hiatt envision schools of talent development, in which talent identification is based on authentic assessments of performance or production to find those with "expertise;" in which the procedures are inclusive, not exclusive; and in which all subcultural groups are equitably represented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

Addresses issues surrounding giftedness and exceptional talent (G/ET) in the cognitive or intellectual domain during infancy. The authors are writing as developmental psychologists with a research focus on early cognition. The extant literature on the prediction of cognitive and intellectual status from infancy is reviewed. By reviewing some of the traditional approaches for studying early manifestations of G/ET, the authors aim to turn readers' attention to current approaches to developmental causation. It is argued that these approaches provide a more accurate account of developmental processes and determinants than the traditional nature–nurture dichotomy. Furthermore, these approaches call for consideration of developmental course in the empirical investigation of emergent phenomena, and that the future of research on the development of G/ET will require an intensive longitudinal approach. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter has two purposes: to provide a review of the existing research on the characteristics of families of gifted children, and to make suggestions for future research on such families from a systemic perspective. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)