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In this chapter, we apply personality systems interactions (PSI) theory to educational sciences. PSI theory does not only provide a rich theoretical basis but also manifold diagnostic tools for the assessment of self-competencies. A thorough diagnostic of self-competencies is useful for exploring developmental and promotional possibilities of children. Furthermore, assessing the self-competencies of pedagogues has the potential of enriching and partly redirecting many areas of educational sciences that deal with the personality and motivation of the stakeholder. According to PSI theory, pedagogues need to strengthen their own self-competencies to develop an authentic professional stance. Only pedagogues who are authentic in their pedagogic stance (e.g., on topics of inclusion) are able to successfully promote the development of children’s self-competencies in nurseries, kindergartens, and schools. A basic assumption and central finding of PSI theory is that self-competencies are developed in "good relationships.” We functionally explain this notion on the basis of PSI theory. Furthermore, we elaborate on trainings for the development of self-competencies. Taken together, our application of PSI theory to educational sciences highlights three important agendas: (a) individualization: taking into account the child’s individual personality, (b) teacher personality: including teacher personality in didactic considerations, and (c) development orientation: rethinking teaching and learning methods against the background of potential development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

In this chapter, the authors go beyond twice exceptional (2e) by taking into account the intersection of giftedness, disability, and cultural identities that can significantly shape the experience of students in school. The authors illustrate the importance of this intersection through a case study of a high-ability African American student with a learning disability, and they discuss the academic, personal/social, and career implications for bringing out the best in culturally diverse 2e students. The authors also offer practical solutions and strategies for teachers and school counselors to collaborate with families to promote the student success of 2e students with multiple identities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

The author discusses attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in this chapter. The author argues that educators should view ADHD through a new lens—as ADHG (attention divergent hyperactive gifted)—and he discusses the implications of this approach for educators as they create classrooms environments to foster creativity. The author believes that such a paradigm shift in our conceptualization of ADHD would shift the focus from remediation to the motivation, strengths, perseverance, and resilience that make students with ADHD so special. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

In this chapter, the author dives deeply into the issue of misdiagnosis and presents evidence suggesting that ADHD-related characteristics, such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, are not more common among high-ability children (focusing particularly on high-IQ children). Instead, the author argues that certain “overexcitabilities” are really the source of the issue and should not be conflated with traits and behaviors that look like ADHD. She also reviews the evidence on the link between high ability and the risk for developing a mental disorder and argues some best practices in the identification of high-ability students to determine both strengths and weaknesses for academic, social, and emotional planning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: introduction)

Some argue that paranormal individuals are suffering from a serious psychiatric disorder while others believe paranormal individuals are exceptionally gifted. The aim of our research is to explore both points of view by investigating the association between paranormal, schizotypal and alexithymia. Two hypotheses are stated: If paranormal is strongly related to the schizotypal personality disorder with interpersonal problems and inappropriate or constricted affect then paranormal subjects indeed seem to suffer from some form of psychological illness (Psychological Illness hypothesis). However, if paranormal is linked to a well-developed affect regulation with more or less 'healthy' schizotypal features (lack of social anxiety and bizarre behavior) then the contrary can be argued, e.g., then it seems more likely that the paranormal displays a kind of emotional sensitivity or sensibility (Special Giftedness Hypothesis). It should be noted that our study doesn't answer the intriguing question on whether paranormal experiences are genuine or not. Instead we'll be dealing with subjectively reported paranormal experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The topic of giftedness has many social myths. Some examples of these are being successful, having knowledge about everything, a good performance in mathematics and science, they are the first of the class, being clumsy at sports, and having social adaptation problems. However, all of them are false; the gifted population is functional socially. These myths are based on one or some cases that became famous through movies, novels or television series. These beliefs can affect this population's emotional health because their social environment expects them to act like that. Some of the psychopathologies associated to the gifted population are depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and suicide; these disorders require psychotherapy. The mental and emotional illnesses in gifted people are consequences of that social condition and some biological factors found in the last 20 years, as modifications of P300 observed in an electroencephalogram of gifted people. In giftedness, the psychotherapy is an important factor for the prevention of mental illness, as well as in crisis intervention. Attention not only for the person involved, but also for the family and teachers, which is a lot of responsibility; to care for the emotional development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

There are many reasons to believe that intellectually gifted children and adolescents display lower levels of subjective well-being than non-gifted. For example, intellectual giftedness is suspected by some to be a risk factor of socio-emotional difficulties. Further, negative stereotyping and stigmatization might impair socio-emotional adjustment and therefore subjective well-being of the gifted. On the other hand, intelligence is a highly valued characteristic in societies, which helps to achieve personal goals and might therefore increase subjective well-being. Based on clear definitions of both intellectual giftedness and subjective well-being, the present chapter first takes a gander at contrary theoretical positions regarding the subjective well-being of the intellectually gifted. Afterwards, evidence from empirical studies using different research designs is presented, including longitudinal studies focusing exclusively on gifted samples and studies directly comparing gifted and non-gifted individuals. Although some designs might be more appropriate than others, overall they paint a remarkably consistent picture: At most, only two minority groups of gifted, namely gifted underachievers and extremely gifted seem to display psycho-social problems. When the entire group of intellectually gifted children or adolescents is examined, mostly no differences appear in different indicators of subjective well-being, seemingly regardless of gender. If differences occur they are small and favor the gifted. By contrast, only few studies find more psycho-social problems among the gifted than among the non-gifted on average, but these studies are based on highly selective samples and lack of adequate comparison groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Among many definitions, it is acceptable to say that intelligence is the capacity to reason, design, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, acquire knowledge, and learn from experience. Intelligence is at the pinnacle of a model of intellectual abilities that include the cognitive domains of verbal and spatial capacities and memory. Gifted individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude (defined as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence in one or more areas. Genetic studies of gifted children are based on measuring cognitive ability using a general cognitive ability index called "g" which is the standard indicator of giftedness. The pioneers researching this field were Francis Galton, Lewis Terman, and Leta Hollingworth, who carried out studies on gifted children and concluded that giftedness is inherited. Heritability of g was estimated as 50%, therefore the rest of the variance can be attributed to environmental factors. Genotype-environment correlation plays a major role in the development of giftedness and talent and may be the reason why the heritability of intelligence increases with age. At least one project to study quantitative trait loci (QTL) of IQ has sought to establish QTLs associated with g; some of the g related genes that have been studied in this project are APOE, COMT, and AR among others. A study on monozygotic male twins argues the existence of a connection between high intelligence and high testosterone levels in the prenatal fetus; however, recently published data suggest it can be only one of the possible biological factors involved in brain organization and cognitive functions modulation. Heritability of intelligence has become increasingly more comprehensible; however, the biologic mechanism of genes involved in this heritability is not clear; therefore it is imperative to carry out multivariate genetic analyses with the power to estimate changes in gene and environmental influences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Historically, humans have attributed music with power over emotions and talents. Recently, however, with the advent of modern technologies to study the brain, such as magnetic resonance, evoked potentials and electroencephalographic readings, the actual processing of music in the human brain and its effects are increasingly available for study. Even though many studies have been conducted relating music to depression, dementia, epilepsy, palliative care, and even immunological response, one especial relation has caught the attention of both scientists and the general public: that of music and intelligence. Following the first research report of Rauscher and colleagues in 1993, describing an 8-9 increase in the Intelligence Coefficient score of college students exposed to Mozart music, a popular belief of Mozart's music as having an effect on general intelligence was formed. Although the original authors clearly stated the observed effect was temporal and did not include children as their study population, the marketing of classical music to parents consolidated as a strong sales business active up to this day. In this chapter we describe the general response to this so-called "Mozart effect" and explore the scientific literature supporting or debunking Rauscher's finding. Additionally, we recount the demonstrated positive effects of musical training as opposed to passive music listening. We come to the conclusion that listening to music does not improve general intelligence, whereas actually learning how to interpret music results in confirmed anatomical brain modifications and benefits in terms of intelligence, linguistic ability and memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

With a prevalence rate of 7-9% in school-age children and 2.5-4% in adults, with twice as many boys diagnosed as girls, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most frequently encountered neurodevelopmental disorder. This condition has a negative impact on the quality of life of the patients, affecting their school performance and significantly, representing a serious risk factor for developing substance abuse. ADHD is characterized by persistent symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that interfere with, or hinder academic or occupational performance, as well as social interactions, and its onset is prior to having reached 12 years of age. Symptoms must be evident in two or more settings (home, school, work, friends, relatives...) and there are three distinct presentations recognized, according to the different combination of symptoms. However, the severity of the disorder varies in the same patient and from patient to patient. ADHD is considered a polygenic disorder, such that epigenetic factors including environmental, social and other factors can modulate its presentation and outcome. In many patients other comorbid conditions frequently coexist that further aggravate patient well-being, including oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, substance abuse and learning disorders. There are several books, websites, etc., that tout ADHD as a gift, presenting this disorder as a privilege. However, there is no scientific evidence to support these assertions and even successful adults with untreated ADHD complain about the suffering the condition has caused to them. So, neither a gift nor a hint of giftedness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

In a profound reflection, today, at the age of 50 and in all sincerity, I am convinced that my entire life I have only focused on one thing that has been in the least bit useful or transcendental to me, and that one thing is consciousness. I consider that I spent at least 40 years of my life in an unconscious state, before I discovered that intelligence is not equivalent to consciousness, and that intelligence, like science and technology, is innocuous in its essence. Rather, it is the level of consciousness of those who possess such intelligence that makes them virtuous or perverse, as is the case for those influenced by them. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Giftedness is a concept that refers to subjects with high motivation and high capacities in different domains. Such individuals are more proactive than their peers and they obtain an IQ score of at least 130 according to the Wechsler scale. This concept has been modified as a result of the studies of Galton and Binet, who started to study the phenomenology of giftedness, and more recently, those of Gagne and Grinder who focused on multidisciplinary attention. Gifted children share some common characteristics and they can be grouped into 6 profiles according to their feelings, behavior and needs. A variety of psychological batteries are available to help diagnose giftedness and hence, the basic principles and concepts related to giftedness have been established. Nevertheless, it is necessary to also consider social, biological, pedagogical and institutional issues, since giftedness is clearly a multifactorial condition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Giftedness (or high intellectual ability) is a functional brain condition evident in nearly 8% of children worldwide. Despite this high prevalence and the fact that gifted young people are actually a vulnerable social group, only a few countries adopt specific educational programs to manage this condition of extreme intellectual performance, and there are considerably fewer where it is considered a priority. However, in some developed and some emerging countries high intellectual capacity is not only recognized as worthy of special attention, but it is considered to be important to enhance the development of the nation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

There are multiple reasons why high ability children may experience academic challenges. Researchers typically have focused on two possibilities—underachievement, or achieving below one's ability level, and twice-exceptionality, or possessing both high ability and one or more disabilities. In this chapter, we review the research within these domains to identify characteristics associated with both underachievement and twice-exceptionality. We specify the most common disabilities and mental health diagnoses associated with academic problems among gifted students: specific learning disabilities, ADHD, depression, and anxiety. We provide suggestions for students and their families to address these concerns to increase students' likelihood for academic advancement and success. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

In this chapter we provide a selective review of some quantitative/qualitative characteristics of the math gifted brain. The initial discussion highlights the significant bilateral engagement of both hemispheres by the math gifted when performing a variety of cognitive tasks, this in contrast to their average math ability counterparts, who rely on either their left or right hemispheres in a more unilaterally dominant fashion. The review also includes a brief overview of several studies that have employed task related Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) and/or Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) techniques to provide converging evidence for increased activation of various brain areas and heightened white matter connectivity between regions in the math gifted brain. In addition, differences in structural characteristics (e.g., surface area, volume and cortical thickness) of the math gifted brain are briefly presented along with a discussion of how math exceptional individuals tend to rely on mental imagery ('visualize') to solve many types of problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter discusses the theoretical formulation of intelligence and the conceptual links between intelligence and giftedness from a historical perspective. It examines the evolution of multitrait theories of intelligence, the impact of advances in psychometrics on gifted assessment, and the increase in the number of theory-based cognitive measures. The chapter describes the refinement of theory of intelligence centering on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model. It emphasizes the need for a better understanding of the relationships between screening procedures and the final decision outcomes based on intelligence tests. The chapter provides an extensive review of factor-analytic research, and explores the multidimensional abilities of gifted children with commonly used measures of intelligence. A major issue in identification of gifted students relates to the representation of minority students in gifted programs. Alternative approaches are provided for identifying gifted children with learning disabilities. English-language learners are underrepresented in programs that serve gifted students. The use of a single cognitive test composite score as the primary criterion for determining giftedness is highly common within schools. One of the crucial decisions made by any school system is where to set the intelligence quotient (IQ) "cutoff" score. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

Thinking and writing about creativity immediately causes us to reflect upon our own experiences and wonder whether or not we think of ourselves as being creative people. This chapter describes an approach to developing creative activities and creativity in children, particularly, ways of influencing teacher behaviors to identify, promote, and develop creative teaching and the strategies for infusing creativity in educational experiences. The chapter provides a brief description on new directions in creativity program (NDC); the three-ring conception of giftedness; the schoolwide enrichment model; and the challenge of change in the real world of schools. The NDC includes five volumes: Mark A, Mark B, Mark I, Mark 2, and Mark 3. The NDC program is designed to help teachers develop the creative thinking abilities of primary and middle grade youngsters, and the premise of NDC is that almost all children have the potential to think creatively and that creative production can be improved by providing systematic learning experiences that foster the use of imagination. The general purpose of NDC can best be explained by contrasting the creative or divergent production abilities with the convergent production abilities emphasized in most elementary school classrooms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

The conceptions of giftedness are diverse because they are determined by the culture that decides which skills are valued and which do not influence the identification and acceptance or rejection of individuals with exceptional skills. In explicit theories conceptions are based on scientific data and implicit theories, conceptions are formed by the beliefs of people, and one of their uses is to evaluate the behavior of others. The gifted are people who, like the others, have a period of formal education where they receive the consequences of conceptions of giftedness with positive and negative components of their peers that can favor or obstruct their academic development and emotional well-being. The objective of this study was to analyze the conceptions of giftedness of high performance university students and regular university students. The study design was descriptive, cross-sectional and qualitative. The sample was nonprobabilistic of 28 participants, 14 students of high performance and 14 regular students. A questionnaire with two open questions was applied. The results show that in the conceptions of giftedness of high performance students and regular students, superior intelligence and superior cognitive abilities and socialization problems predominate as identification factors. These two aspects are found in explicit theories and implicit theories of giftedness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter addresses some of the most frequent misconceptions about the talent development framework. The misconceptions include: emphasizing domains of talent over general giftedness means that everyone is gifted in something; including a wider range of students may lead to talent development programs being watered down; talent development supporters do not value IQ or general ability; talent development ignores psychological needs by not focusing on the "whole child"; in a talent development framework, it is possible to 'lose' one's giftedness, whereas with the IQ model, once gifted, always gifted; a talent development framework does not serve underachievers; everyone could be gifted if they just had the right opportunities; and talent development only focuses on individuals who can become eminent. Gifted education will continue to evolve and change as new information is learned from basic and applied research studies. New conceptions of intelligence, giftedness, and talent development may emerge as a result. Revision of prevalent models based on new understandings keeps a field fresh and relevant. Talent development offers a new perspective on how to serve gifted and talented students with a greater focus on a broader range of students as well as a broader range of talents and abilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)

This chapter briefly discusses programming options for the primary grades, intermediate grades, and upper grades. Adopting a talent development framework for gifted education services in schools requires significant shifts in perspective and practice, but these are shifts that many administrators find appealing and that communities will support. A talent development approach expands the traditional concept of a gifted education program. Gifted education programs that emphasize domains of talent instead of a notion of global giftedness are easily understood and embraced, not only by other education professionals, but also by the public, which can lead to expanded parental, legislative, and corporate support for services for gifted students. With this support from important stakeholders, parents of gifted learners and K–12 educators are able to address a wide variety of challenges that impede school districts from providing appropriate services across all grade levels on a day-to-day basis for students with gifts and talents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)