Buscar

Giftedness is typically thought of as an individual characteristic. But the development and labeling of an individual as “gifted” is always a collective process and takes place embedded within local, sociocultural, and temporal contexts. The view of giftedness as individual is deceptive and results in faulty practice, such as the bestowal of huge advantages in development and labeling upon children whose parents have more substantial financial and other resources. This article applies a pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness to the analysis of individual, collective, and contextual factors in development and labeling and concludes that giftedness should never be viewed merely as an individual characteristic. Doing so not only distorts reality but creates procedures that tend to pass identification and development of “giftedness” inequitably through successive generations of families by virtue of the families’ resources. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Humanitarian giftedness is the deployment of one’s gifts and talents in a way that, at some level, benefits humanity. Humanitarian giftedness involves sharing one’s gifts with others in a way that makes the world a better place. It is not something people are born with—they develop it in the same way other forms of expertise are developed—through a deployment of abilities as developed by deliberate practice and a focus on giving rather than just receiving. Teachers and parents can develop humanitarian giftedness by being role models, by sharing stories of humanitarian giftedness, and by encouraging it in their students. They also must discourage use of gifts for ends that harm humanity. The road to more humanitarian deployment of gifts is not through tests and other assessments, but through the development of humanitarian gifts as a learned form of expertise—as gifts not from genes, but rather from the interaction of the person with the tasks they confront and the environmental contexts in which they live. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The article is devoted to one of the topical problems of modern psychology - the development of self-awareness in children—as it is considered in the psychology of giftedness. The study was aimed at identifying ‘self-image’ features in creatively gifted senior preschool children. It was carried out in line with the scientific approach proposed by A.M. Matyushkin to the study of giftedness as a prerequisite for the development of a creative personality. The study involved 290 children aged 6-7 years ( M = 6.6; SD = 0.54; boys = 143, girls = 147) attending preschool educational institutions in Moscow. The creative potential of the participants (senior preschool children) was identified using Figural Form A of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), as well as on the basis of observations, surveys of teachers and parents, and expert assessments of the children’s creative works. The results made it possible to identify a group of gifted senior preschoolers with high creative potential ( N = 52, boys = 26, girls = 26) and a group of their peers, equal in quantitative composition and gender distribution, whose creative potential was lower. The child’s ‘self-image’ features were revealed during a conversation based on the Twenty Statements Test - TST (M. Kuhn and Th. McPartland, modified by T.V. Rumyantseva) and the Study of the System of Children’s Self-Characteristics (O.A. Belobrykina). The analysis of the obtained data showed the relationship between the results of the Torrance Test performed by the senior preschoolers and the number of their self-characteristics. The following differences between the groups were highlighted: the gifted children named more characteristics when describing themselves than their peers; this was especially true for such subcategories of answers as ‘gender’, ‘age’, ‘role in society’, ‘role in the family’, ‘physical qualities’, ‘communication’, ‘abilities’, and ‘general’. The analysis of the ‘self-image’ structural components revealed that the group of the gifted children, to a greater extent than the group of their peers, represented the indicators of the social, communicative, physical, active and reflexive components. All this indicates a greater volume and greater degree of cognitive complexity and differentiation of the ‘self-image’ in the gifted senior preschoolers compared to their peers. At the same time, the following ‘self-image’ aspects common to both groups were identified: the predominance of self-characteristics of the subjective category (personality traits, skills, etc.) and emotionally positive responses. A comparison of the ‘self-images’ between the gifted boys and gifted girls showed that the girls had more pronounced ‘emotional characteristics (cheerful)’, ‘description of appearance (beautiful)’ and ‘role in the family’. The results obtained can be used in creating programs aimed at the emotional and personal development of gifted preschoolers, as well as in the process of consultative work on the prevention/correction of difficulties in the upbringing of preschoolers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The author explores the concept of giftedness as presented in the published scientific manuscripts of L. S. Vygotsky and in the newly released psychological dictionary co-authored by him. This article emphasizes the importance of utilizing these archival sources for contemporary research on the issue of giftedness. Through a theoretical analysis, it highlights key ideas regarding the understanding of giftedness from the perspective of cultural-historical psychology: the necessity of distinguishing between individual psychological functions and giftedness; the notion of giftedness as a “formation of the higher order”, not reducible to the level of a separate function; the systems approach to studying giftedness; the role of the concept of development in elucidating the phenomenon of giftedness. The article also demonstrates the potential of L.S. Vygotsky for advancing research on research and enhancing practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Twice-exceptional individuals experience learning and psychosocial challenges resulting from the discrepancies between their cognitive and social-emotional development. This case report illustrates the learning and psychosocial faced by a child and an adolescent who possess both neurodevelopmental disorders and intellectual giftedness, and the clinical difficulties encountered when assessing them. Psychological and cognitive assessments were instrumental in identifying the unique strengths and learning disabilities of these individuals. The parents received psychoeducation, and a strength-based approach involving them led to improved mood and functioning at home and school. By detailing the clinical challenges in assessment and the effectiveness of strength-based interventions, this study provides valuable insights into addressing the complex learning and educational needs of twice-exceptional children and adolescents in Malaysia. The findings emphasize the urgent need for comprehensive assessments and tailored interventions to support this population, whose potential is often hindered by unaddressed learning challenges. Additionally, the paper calls attention to gaps in current services and policies, advocating for improvements that can better support twice-exceptional learners in achieving their full potential. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Experts have developed varying, and sometimes conflicting, conceptions of academic talent and giftedness. Classroom and school composition often are tied to these conceptions of academic talent and giftedness, and magnet and charter schools select certain students who best "fit" their particular conception of giftedness. Educators' perceptions and attitudes regarding academic talent and giftedness thus impact what services are delivered to which students. Little is known about educators' beliefs regarding conceptions of academic talent and giftedness. The current national study surveyed 900 public school educators, including regular classroom teachers, administrators, and gifted education specialists, regarding their definitions of academic talent and giftedness. The educators believed that all traditional and popular conceptions of academic talent and giftedness were valid, but they were less likely to support definitions involving talents in less-traditional areas. Educators accepted some of the more recently conceived, and more inclusive, conceptions of academic talent or giftedness. Such results are potentially valuable to school administrators, gifted education specialists, and regular classroom teachers who work with academically talented and gifted students, as well as to those who are concerned with the factors influencing school or classroom composition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This special issue focuses on a developmental view of giftedness. A developmental perspective on giftedness is in consonance with current views that recognize the dynamic nature of developing abilities and the importance of understanding the processes involved in, and the pathways to, gifted performance. The papers span early childhood to adolescence and a variety of domains-mathematics, narrative, and spatial-artistic. Together, the papers provide a fine-grained view of what makes giftedness from a neo-Piagetian perspective, resulting in a 'design for development' that has strong educational implications. A developmental perspective on giftedness provides a way of capturing the emergent nature of giftedness through articulation of its characteristics at different points in development. Contemporary work in psychology and intelligence questions the absolute, static view of giftedness embodied in traditional notions of giftedness, as defined by superior performance on an intelligence test. There is such developmental diversity among children and adolescents with high IQs that it makes the definition of little use in fostering development in a holistic fashion. The papers in this issue highlight what constitutes giftedness in different domains and raise questions about its developmental course. They suggest that giftedness is more complex than a unitary view can capture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Comments on an article by Françoys Gagné (see record 2004-22507-002) on the Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (DMGT). A practitioner examines theoretical models not only for conceptual understanding but also in search of guidelines for everyday work, so my comments on Gagné's DMGT are offered from this somewhat limited point of view. The Model leads me to the realm of the 'heredity-environment' issue by conceiving giftedness as innate genetic attributes and talents as outstanding skilled performance. However, by thinking of giftedness as 'the raw material' that makes talent, I am drawn back to the idea that genetics set the limits and environment shapes the expressions of human abilities--a position which has been challenged (Conlan, 1993; Clark, 1998). Furthermore, a talent so defined will not come into being without giftedness; nevertheless giftedness is only detected when 'processed' into a talent. Since it is not easy to have a hold on giftedness except through performance, that is to say through a 'talent', the only way to locate gifted students would be by spotting the 'talented students', meaning those who already show noticeable performance. Therefore, for practical purposes one is justified in thinking of talent as equal to giftedness, a point which the article disputes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

This article presents WICS as a model of giftedness. WICS stands for Wisdom, Intelligence, Creativity, Synthesized. The article considers the relation between giftedness and expertise, and argues that giftedness is, ultimately, expertise in development. One cannot clearly distinguish between giftedness and expertise, because all measures of giftedness assess some kind of expertise, at least to an extent. The article then considers intelligence, creativity, and wisdom as elements of giftedness. It then draws some conclusions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This study deals with the conception of giftedness in connection and relation to the intelligence and the intelligence quotient. In the first part the definition of intelligence, and its connection to the giftedness and creativity is examined. Models of giftedness are analyzed with emphasis on the role of intelligence in the different approaches. Afterwards the measure of mental abilities is discussed briefly, and the role of IQ in the identification of giftedness, and other possible methods are described. The study deals with some irregular and underachiever gifted groups, because the special cases may bring new aspects in the understanding of the exceptional mental achievements. Results of research studies prove that the giftedness is not simply the complex entirety of abilities, but specific group of behaviors. In the last part of the study as an illustration of the complex connections of the IQ and giftedness the abilities of gifted persons with specific learning difficulties and of prodigies, plus the savant syndrome are analyzed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Describes the theoretical and methodological foundations and selected results of the Munich study of giftedness, a longitudinal study involving more than 26,000 male and female West German school age children and adolescents (aged 6–18 yrs). The study's multidimensional concept of giftedness is analyzed, and methods for measuring the various components and correlates of giftedness are identified. Results concerning the personality correlates of giftedness and concerning gender differences in the dimensions of giftedness are emphasized. Implications for the identification of gifted children and the promotion of giftedness are discussed. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Parents' judgment of their children's cognitive ability is important for providing adequate learning environments. This study examined parents' judgment accuracy with 2346 children ( M = 8.94 years; 48.3% girls) and their parents (1283 mothers, 426 fathers, and 637 parental pairs). The data were collected between September 2012 and February 2014 in Germany. Latent regression analyses were conducted for the overall sample and by grade (n Grade1&2 = 830; n Grade3&4 = 1516). Characteristics of the child (gender, birth order) and parents (gender, socioeconomic background) were investigated as moderators. Children's cognitive ability explained 34%/25%/37% (overall sample/Grade1&2/Grade3&4) of the variance in parental judgments. Judgments depended more on children's academic achievement than on cognitive ability. Parents judged their son's intelligence more accurately than their daughter's and first‐born children more accurately than last‐born children. Higher‐educated parents showed higher judgment accuracy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This study examines some teacher sociodemographic factors and school characteristics that may influence teachers’ identification of gifted students. Teachers initially nominated a sample of 505 students aged 7–17 years ( M = 11.51, SD = 2.07), but only 359 completed a general intelligence test and 225 reached the minimum percentile to be considered potentially gifted. Only 20 of these had a previous diagnosis of giftedness. Results show that the teachers’ identification had a sensitivity of 63% and that the teacher’s sex and the type of school significantly influenced the identification of giftedness. Female teachers and teachers in private schools made more accurate identifications. There was no evidence for the influence of school setting or the educational stage. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Evaluations of gifted education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are hampered by the lack of clear policy objectives as well as practical difficulties in obtaining data. Furthermore, it is unclear if the specific needs of gifted students are unique or shared across non-gifted students. In the current research, both gifted and non-gifted Saudi students ( n = 284) and their parents completed Saudi-language versions of the Student Educational and Learning Capitals Questionnaire and the Family Educational and Learning Capitals Questionnaire, respectively, to assess the availability of 11 educational and learning capitals. Additionally, parents reported the major challenges to their child’s learning and what they did to support their children. Rasch modeling was used to assess the measurement properties of the two instruments and to transform the raw scores into Rasch scores (logits). The results indicated that gifted students and their parents differed in their evaluations of economic and social educational capitals, as well as organismic, telic, and attentional learning capitals that support their learning success, with estimates of effect size ranging from small to large. However, the differences between non-gifted students and their parents are similar, showing that the challenges facing Saudi gifted students are shared more generally among non-gifted students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

Background Teachers' and parents' judgements of pupils' cognitive abilities influence pupils' daily learning opportunities and experiences, as these judgements affect the difficulty level of materials and instruction that teachers and parents provide. Over time, these judgements thus significantly shape educational success. However, pupils' characteristics, such as special educational needs (SEN), giftedness and socioeconomic status (SES) can influence and bias judgement accuracy. Aims The present study aimed to investigate the relation between pupils' cognitive abilities and their teachers' and parents' judgements of these abilities, and potential bias in these judgements related to SEN, giftedness, and SES. Sample The sample consisted of 1073 primary school pupils from grades 4–6 from 77 classes in 16 schools, and their teachers and parents. Methods Teachers and parents rated their pupils' cognitive abilities. Pupils completed the COVAT‐3, a cognitive ability test. Results Multilevel analyses revealed that parent judgements were significantly higher than teacher judgements, but both informants' judgements were equally strong related to the cognitive ability scores. When controlling for pupils' assessed cognitive abilities, the results revealed small judgement biases: negative for SEN, positive for giftedness, and finally positive for high SES, but only in teachers. Conclusions Overall, the results indicated that teachers and parents can judge their pupils abilities to a moderate degree, but they also hold judgement biases related to SEN, giftedness and SES. As these biases can affect pupils' opportunities, it is important to increase teachers' and parents' awareness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

In this Keynote paper presentation, the author takes on a wide-ranging and deep exploration of edges as a central concept to Self-Psychology. From natural edges to psychoanalytic edges, from the consulting room to the field of psychoanalysis, from the origin of Kohut’s Self Psychology to present-day creative, and at times, maverick contemporary thinking, the author traces a history tinged with an edginess made up of giftedness and historical trauma which, together, raise important questions for us to consider. As was the case for many émigré analysts during World War II, the author sees Kohut’s immensely creative life dependent on his ability to erect and maintain a caesura regarding the impact of the Holocaust. The author suggests that Kohut’s last gift to us, his last bit of edginess, is his challenge to us to contend with the shadow of his hidden pain and its implications on contemporary creative thinking and practice. To do otherwise would compromise our creative edges and lose a part of Kohut in the process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This is a critical autoethnography informed by Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Dis/ability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit) that explores the notion of DisCrit mothering in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. I use my experiences as a disabled Latina motherscholar and mindfulness practitioner to reflect on how I mother my two young children and foster radical love in educational spaces. I present the pandemic context and how it relates to compassion fatigue and a litany for survival but also offer the pandemic as an opportunity for personal and collective transformation. I use the narrative of sacrificio, a teacher’s note from school, and a “giftedness” program to discuss how I try to resist internal and external pressures to conform to ableist mindsets and practices by cultivating radical love, solidarity, and critical questioning in myself and in my children. I end this work with hope and love for the next generation of DisCrit, social justice warriors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

This study analyses Executive Functions (EF) and Creativity among neurodivergent students -including students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Dyslexia, Intellectual Disability (ID), Giftedness-, and a group with Neurotypical development. A sample of 181 secondary school students participated in the study. Creativity was assessed by using the PIC-J test, focusing on verbal and figural components of divergent thinking, while EF were evaluated through Nesplora Ice-Cream, a virtual reality tool assessing flexibility, working memory, and inhibition. Results showed statistically significant differences in Verbal Creativity, especially in Originality: students with ADHD outperformed their Neurotypical peers, while those with ID showed the lowest scores. Although no statistically significant differences emerged in Figural Creativity, students with ADHD showed the lowest scores in Elaboration or Figural details, whereas those with Dyslexia exhibited high levels of Figural Originality, similar to their Neurotypical peers. Concerning EF, students with ID had the highest scores in Interference and Perseveration, indicating poorer Flexibility. In contrast, Gifted students performed better than the other groups in Working Memory, while students with ADHD did not exhibit special difficulties in EF. These findings emphasize the importance of personalized interventions for Neurodivergent students, that recognize and capitalize on their unique strengths while addressing specific challenges. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

A perennial topic of research on giftedness has been individuals’ perceptions of and attitudes towards giftedness, the gifted, and gifted education. Although giftedness is a culturally constructed concept, most examination of the term’s meanings and implications has used reactive measures (i.e., surveys) to tap respondents’ giftedness-related perceptions and attitudes within the context of formal education. To provide a better understanding of the cultural meanings associated with giftedness—the term’s cultural framing—we investigated the depiction of giftedness within a professional cultural product removed from education, namely, a large corpus of US fictional texts. We examined patterns of word usage in the vicinity of the term gift*, when used in the dictionary senses related to giftedness, in a large corpus of US fictional texts of recent decades, consisting of 485,179 text samples and 1,002,889,754 word tokens. Via inductive methods of quantitative text analysis, we explored themes occurring in the vicinity of gift*; and with an existing lookup dictionary, we assessed deductively the overall emotional valance of the writing near gift*. Our investigation revealed ways in which the literary exploration of giftedness coheres with and distinguishes itself from the outlooks on giftedness noted for survey-based research in education settings. In fictional texts, giftedness evinces special associations with humanities domains and beauty and, on balance, correlates positively with emotionally positive words. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)

The debate over whether intellectual giftedness acts as a protective or a risk factor for various socioemotional difficulties has persisted in gifted studies for almost a century, with two contrasting views of giftedness still coexisting in the literature. Our goal was to investigate if early adversity could contribute to reconcile these views, specifically by investigating if Early Adverse Experiences (ACEs) could account for some of the vulnerabilities (e.g., anxiety, daydreaming, heightened emotional reactivity) sometimes associated with intellectual giftedness (Intellectual Quotient, IQ ≥ 130). For that purpose, 245 intellectually gifted adults ( M age = 41.71, M IQ = 137.87) and 205 control adults ( M age = 33.36, M IQ = 116.11) were surveyed. Main results revealed comparable high rates of ACEs among both groups. Severe ACE exposure correlated with heightened anxiety ( r = 0.23, p < 0.001) and absorption in thoughts ( r = 0.26, p < 0.001). Heightened emotional reactivity was associated with the duration of exposure ( r = 0.11, p < 0.05). Parental verbal abuse correlated with reduced scores in positive relationships with others ( r = 0.12, p < 0.05) and purpose in life ( r = 0.13, p < 0.05). Conversely, IQ was not associated with these difficulties, except for a small protective effect against absorption ( r = − 0.10, p < 0.05). These findings suggest that ACEs contribute to distinguishing gifted adults who experience socioemotional issues. However, subthreshold Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and the limited protective effect of IQ on this condition may have led to underestimating the clinical assessment of their early environment, and to conflate early adversity effects with intelligence-related traits. Despite limitations and some nuances in our results, this study was the first to assess maltreatment and neglect in gifted adults. By contributing to fill the gap between two historical views of giftedness, it may inform improved clinical practices with intellectually gifted adults while better understanding them. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)