Articles: gifted / talented / high ability

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Self-esteem and self-limiting For a few decades, it’s been noted that a large percentage of all gifted students severely underestimate their own abilities. They adopt lower standards for success and expect less of themselves. They underrate the importance of effort, and they overrate how much help they need from a parent. When parents praise their children’s intelligence, they believe they are providing the solution to this problem... ensuring that children do not sell their talents short.

But a growing body of research strongly suggests it might be the other way around.  Giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it. From How Not to Talk to Your Kids, By Po Bronson

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All my life I've been registering IQ scores like that [160], so that I have the complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent... I had an auto-repair man once, who caught me on a joke. "I knew for sure I'd catch you," he said. "Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn't be very smart." And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there. Isaac Asimov - from his article What Is Intelligence, Anyway?

Sofia Coppola on being a “dilettante” and growing her talents [Developing Talent blog post by Douglas Eby] In her Variety article [Sep 2006], Evgenia Peretz writes: In her later teenage years, Sofia Coppola indulged in a variety of pursuits that struck some - including herself - as disturbingly close to those of an aimless rich girl.

“I wasn’t really great at any of those things, so it was kind of frustrating,” says Sofia, “because I liked all those things, but didn’t have the focus. She entered her first period of self-doubt. “She said, ‘Oh, Dad, am I just a dilettante’” Francis [her father] recalls. “I thought just the opposite was happening now, and I said to her, No, you don’t have to specialize - do everything that you love and then, at some time, the future will come together for you in some form.”

Addiction to Perfection - by Dr. Margaret Paul
Needing to be perfect is a form of control. The wounded, critical part of us believes that, "If I am perfect (whatever that means!) then people will like me, love me, admire me, approve of me, pay attention to me, or validate me. Then I will feel worthy...” The false belief is that if someone likes you, then you are worthy, and then you can be happy.... When you know your worth as intrinsic rather than based on your performance, life becomes so much easier and less tiring. Instead of your addiction to perfection immobilizing you, you are free to fully express yourself and manifest your gifts and talents.

Addiction to Thinking - by Margaret Paul, Ph.D.
Randall is an extremely intelligent man, but in some ways he was using his own intelligence against himself. The problem was that when Randall did have those brief moments of true connection, he immediately went into his mind to try to figure out how it happened. The moment he went into his mind, he lost the connection that he so desperately desired. The reason Randall went into his mind was that, as much as he wanted the joy of deep spiritual connection, he wanted something even more than that - control over that connection.

Adolescence and Gifted: Addressing Existential Dread - by J'Anne Ellsworth, PhD

Are Top Performers Born or Made? - By Tony DiRomualdo
Professor Ericsson and his colleagues have spent years studying top performers from many different fields - science, mathematics, sports, the arts, business, etc. The team analyzed reams of performance statistics and biographical data as well as volumes of data produced from years of their own experiments with expert performers. The verdict - experts and high achievers are made far more often than born and the driver of their performance is deliberate practice.

Are you ADD -- or just gifted?  [excerpt of interview with Stephanie S. Tolan; ERIC Digest 522]
"Very many creative people go around now announcing they are ADD. I could announce that I am, too. But I happen to know that I'm not; I'm just highly creative.." Stephanie S. Tolan. ... "Frequently, bright children have been referred to psychologists or pediatricians because they exhibited certain behaviors.. commonly associated with a diagnosis of ADHD."

Are You a Scanner? - by Barbara Sher
If you're a Scanner, you are a very special kind of thinker. Unlike those people who seem to find and be satisfied with one area of interest, you're genetically wired to be interested in many things. Because your behavior is unfamiliar -- even unsettling -- to the people around you, you've been taught that you're doing something wrong and you must try to change. But what you've been told is a mistake -- you have been misdiagnosed. You're a different creature altogether. What you've assumed is a disability to be overcome by sheer will is actually an exceptional gift. You are the owner of a remarkable, multitalented brain trying to do its work in a world that doesn't understand who you are and doesn't know why you behave as you do. [Excerpt from her book Refuse to Choose!]

Arousing the Sleeping Giant: Giftedness in Adult Psychotherapy - By Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, PhD
The psychotherapist is in a unique position to offer the gifted adult accurate information about gifted traits and what giftedness really means over the life cycle. Within a reassuring atmosphere the client can - often for the first time - feel truly understood and valued. Face to face with someone who understands, a rare opportunity arises in which gifted adults may openly discuss their inner lives and existential questions.

Being gifted without the scores - by Nora Brahim
I tried to tell my mom that i was gifted, and she avoids the conversation. My dad...well...he believes in my potential...he is gifted too. With my sisters, they simply know i am very intelligent, but i doubt they know more than that. I mean...i am not just intelligence...i am more than that...but...who cares? Thats a part that hardly they will understand.

Brain Development Rate Linked to IQ - By Robert Lee Hotz
Seeking a link between neural anatomy and mental ability, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health and McGill University in Montreal discovered a rhythm in the patterns of childhood growth. Brain development in children with the highest IQ peaked four years later than among average children.

Can You Hear The Flowers Sing? Issues for Gifted Adults - by Deirdre V. Lovecky, Ph.D.
Using observational data, the author attempts to delineate some of the positive and negative social effects of traits displayed by gifted adults. Five traits (divergency, excitability, sensitivity, perceptivity, and entelechy) seem to produce potential interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict. Unless gifted adults learn to value themselves and find support, identity conflicts and depression may result.

Career Advice for Geniuses - by Marty Nemko
You'd think that the supersmart have it made. Not so. Being highly intelligent comes with surprising workplace burdens, as I've learned during 20 years as a career coach specializing in intellectually gifted adults. Here are suggestions I've made that clients have found most helpful...

Career Planning for Gifted Adults - by Cathy Goodwin
Gifted adults often face unique career challenges. Job environments rarely reward creativity, a hallmark of the gifted, and frequently punish anyone who threatens to color outside the lines. Corporations often resemble football games, where players are rewarded for being in position to receive the ball everyone wins by executing the coach's play. Gifted people function better when their game resembles playground basketball, where you can scramble and make plays as you go.

Common Misconceptions About the Gifted by Mary Rocamora
Another misconception is that ability automatically leads to high achievement, that compelling talent will overcome all obstacles. As children, many of us heard inspiring stories about eminent men and women who did just that. However, the reality is that there are both circumstantial and psychological factors that can adversely affect the actualization of the gifted.

Coping Through Awareness - by Andrew S. Mahoney, M.S., L.P.C., L.M.F.T.
Coping for a highly gifted person requires knowing oneself and becoming more aware of what is truly involved with being highly gifted. Coping is also a process that should allow one to contend better with his giftedness throughout life. Yet coping poses many challenges and is not free of emotional strife or tension. The goal in coping must not rob one from his nature, but provide a means to explore and enhance the experience of being highly gifted.

Counseling Issues with Recognized and Unrecognized Gifted Adults by Mary Rocamora
"Many of the gifted adults I have worked with came from privileged parents that were overpowering and autocratic, who utterly eclipsed their children's abundance of intellect and talent. Despite all the elite education and tutoring provided, children of these very wealthy families were regarded as parental property, who should not be allowed to compete with the parents or to be encouraged to have creative lives of their own."

Creativity, the Arts, and Madness - by Maureen Neihart, Psy.D.
If there is a significant correlation between creative genius and mental disorders, how do we explain it? Do mood disorders lead to creativity?  Is there something about wrestling with the primitive core or with our moods, that facilitates the creative process?

Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration - By Elizabeth Mika
Development is a progression from rigid, instinctual egocentrism to conscious altruism based on empathy, compassion and self-awareness. Development takes place through the process of positive disintegration, which is the loosening and dismantling of the initial character structure during the course of one's life and replacing it by consciously created personality.

Discovering the Gifted Ex-Child - by Stephanie S. Tolan
The experience of the gifted adult is the experience of an unusual consciousness, an extraordinary mind whose perceptions and judgments may be different enough to require an extraordinary courage. For many, a complete honoring of the self must begin with discovering what sort of consciousness, what sort of mind they possess.

Emotional Intelligence of the Gifted - by Joanna Fletcher
Daniel Goleman’s popular book on the subject, Emotional Intelligence, gives some examples of high IQ people who are not achieving the heights they were destined for. He says that “Academic intelligence has little to do with emotional life” and goes on to say “...people with with high IQs can be stunningly poor pilots of their private lives.” Goleman does a good job of showing that success comes to those who have an awareness of social rules and apply them in the dominant mode of their society. I think his observation that people with high IQ may have low emotional intelligence and therefore lower success is flawed.

Emotional Sensitivity - by Vicky Moyle
While few can agree on a black-and-white definition for giftedness, one characteristic of the population that has some global acceptance is emotional sensitivity. It is a feature of personality that often plays havoc with the ability to live easily in the world. Teaching students how to operate successfully in their culture is an important skill - but not at the expense of driving feelings underground or forcing our children to give up an essential part of their character.

Encountering the Gifted Self Again, For the First Time - by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, PhD
There are many confusing notions about what giftedness is and is not. Indeed, in several respects, the life experience of the gifted individual seems paradoxical (e.g., being considered highly successful while secretly feeling like an impostor). Without any other frame of reference, living within a culture that tends to be suspicious and critical of gifted traits can seriously impair the gifted adult's quality of life.. the desire to self-actualize, to live out the promise of high potential, can be precarious, painful, and lonely.

Entitled to Be Exceptional - by Douglas Eby
Being exceptional — unusually skillful, smart, creative or otherwise more capable than the norm — may include a judgment both by others and ourselves as being an “outsider.” Gifted and talented people can experience a self-defeating aversion to expressing talents that might separate them from other people.

EQ and the IQ Connection - by Deborah L. Ruf, Ph.D.
Emotional intelligence (EQ), rather than being an inborn ability, is a skill that needs to be taught and facilitated in individuals who deviate significantly from the norm in their intellectual intelligence (IQ)... I could go on and on about how little helpful feedback highly gifted people get about how they are different and how they  are still good and valuable people.

Fostering adult giftedness: Acknowledging and addressing affective needs of gifted adults - by Sharon Lind
Giftedness in adults can be viewed through a number of lenses. For this article, I want to focus on five key affective needs of gifted adults: acknowledging your own gifts; nurturing your identity development; giving yourself permission to be a growing, changing, imperfect person; taking advantage of and coping with overexcitabilities; and learning practical coping skills.

Gifted and Stressed by Douglas Eby
For many gifted and talented people, the typical sensitivity that can help foster a 'blessed unrest' may incite or exacerbate a shadow side: this kind of chronic arousal."

Gifted And Vague - by Lesley Sword
It seems that vagueness is associated with extremely high intelligence and an introverted personality type. For people who have an introverted way of operating, the world inside their heads is often more interesting than the world outside.

Gifted People and their Problems - by Francis Heylighen, PhD
Highly gifted people have a number of personality traits that set them apart, and that are not obviously connected to the traits of intelligence, IQ, or creativity that are most often used to  define the category. Many of these traits have to do with their particularly intense feelings and emotions, others with their sometimes awkward social interactions. These traits make  that these people are typically misunderstood and underestimated by peers, by society, and usually even by themselves.

The Gifted Introvert - by Lesley Sword
Western civilisation today is dominated by the extravert viewpoint.  This is because extraverts outnumber introverts 3 to 1, are more vocal than introverts and are more understandable than introverts. However, while introverts are a minority group in society, they form the majority of gifted people. Moreover, it appears that introversion increases with intelligence so that more than 75% of people with an IQ above 160 are introverted.

Giftedness in the Workplace: Can the Bright Mind Thrive in Organizations? - By Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, PhD
Giftedness is more than intellectual prowess. It impacts and underlies everything because giftedness is a quantitatively, qualitatively, and motivationally different way of being. This means living and experiencing the world and responding to stimuli in ways that stand out from the crowd, differences that are often criticized by others as "off track" or excessive. Yet these differences are the very traits that are fundamental building blocks of innovation and extraordinary achievement.

Gifted, Talented, Addicted - by Douglas Eby
Writer Pearl Buck commented, “The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.” A number of people with exceptional abilities have used drugs and alcohol as self-medication to ease the pain of that sensitivity, or as a way to enhance thinking and creativity. Sometimes they risk addiction.

Gifted Women: Identity and Expression  by Douglas Eby
A wide range of personal characteristics may accompany being exceptional -- qualities that impact how gifted people see themselves, how others respond to them, and how fully they are able to realize and express their talents.

Growing Up Gifted Is Not Easy - by Elaine Aron, PhD
We have to find life meaningful, so that even in the lowest mood, that meaning holds us like a safety net. That’s the ultimate protection parents can provide an HSC [Highly Sensitive Child], especially a gifted one. And if all of the meaning of life is the expression of one’s talents, no matter how great those talents, that’s missing a lot of potential safety net.

Hedy Lamarr: Inventor   two articles on her little-known contributions to military communications

“If You're So Smart, Why Do You Need Counseling?” - by Deborah L. Ruf, PhD
A reasonably clear perception of self appears to be one prerequisite to advanced emotional development. For people who are outside the norm in any significant way, as gifted people are, obtaining accurate feedback about their abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and the acceptability of their personality characteristics is difficult.

Imaging Intelligence  by Douglas Eby
The use of advanced medical imaging technologies is yielding information not only about pathologies such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's, but also the biology underlying healthy cognitive skills.

The impact of giftedness on psychological well-being - by Maureen Neihart, Psy.D.
Results of some studies suggest that there is a significantly greater rate of mood disorders in eminent creative adults, writers and artists especially. It is clear that giftedness influences the psychological well-being of individuals. Whether the psychological outcomes are positive or negative seems to depend on at least three factors that interact synergistically: the type of giftedness, the educational fit, and one's personal characteristics.

The Inner Process of Giftedness  by Mary Rocamora and Douglas Eby

In Praise of Perfectionism by Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D.
Scratch the surface of any great artist, entrepreneur, scientist or politician, and you will likely find a perfectionist. If truth be told, it is in part their perfectionism that makes them great. Greatness stems from a confluence of perfectionism, talent and drivenness.

Internal barriers, personal issues, and decisions faced by gifted and talented females - by Sally M. Reis, PhD
"Research with talented females has revealed a number of internal barriers, personal priorities, and decisions that have consistently emerged as the reasons that many either cannot or do not realize their potential.

Is Intellect an Albatross? - by Douglas Eby
Arianna Huffington is described by her friend and author Sugar Rautbord as “probably one of the most intellectually seductive human beings on the face of the planet. She has such a powerful brain, and she exudes an intellectuality that is almost sexual." Does that sort of exceptional mind have potential negative consequences, particularly for women?

Is it a Gift to be Gifted-or is it a Handicap - By Craig Harper
"I don't know if I have a definitive answer to this one but I thought that it might be an interesting topic to explore... so let's explore." [Craig Harper (B.Ex.Sci.) is an Australian motivational speaker, qualified exercise scientist, author, columnist, radio presenter, and owner of one of the largest personal training centres in the world.]

Is It Good to Be Gifted? Optimal IQ and the Flipside to Giftedness, by David Palmer, Ph.D.
Having a higher IQ is certainly no guarantee that you’ll zip through life effortlessly accomplishing great things. I’ve met many people who don’t appear to be particularly bookish or intellectual, but are very successful in what they do. Then again, I've known lots of academic types who have scored extremely high on an IQ test but lack the "people skills," personal motivation, or whatever it takes to translate their abilities into outward signs of success.

Is There A Little Rain Man In Each Of Us? - by Darold Treffert, MD
In the case of the prodigious savant, it appears to me, there is a marvelous coalescence of idiosyncratic brain circuitry.. perhaps involving right hemisphere and habit memory compensatory processes, coupled with magnificent innate 'software', obsessive traits of concentration & repetition and tremendous encouragement & reinforcement from family, caretakers and teachers. Does some of that same possibility, a little Rain Man as it were, perhaps reside within each of us? I think that it does.

I Think in Pictures, You Teach in Words: The Gifted Visual Spatial Learner - By Lesley Sword
Dr Linda Silverman, the pioneer of the Visual Spatial Learner concept identifies two types of gifted visual spatial learners. The first is children identified as gifted who score extremely high on an IQ test because of their great ability both with tasks using visual spatial processing and those requiring auditory sequential thinking processes. The second is children who are brighter than their IQ scores..

Life Coaching for Gifted Teens and Adults - by Joanna Fletcher
Coaching began in the executive world to support extremely successful people as they dared to challenge themselves even more. Most gifted people experience a great longing to really engage with life, beyond the everyday markers of success. Actualizing this true authenticity is particularly challenging for a gifted person, whose awareness of the multiple paths not taken can block them from action.

Mentoring Relationships And Gifted Learners - by Sandra L. Berger
The idea of mentoring is as old as mankind. Ancient Greece introduced the concept, and it was institutionalized during the Middle Ages. Internships and apprenticeships are valuable because they allow students to learn new skills and investigate potential career interests. A mentorship, on the other hand, is a dynamic shared relationship in which values, attitudes, passions, and traditions are passed from one person to another and internalized. Its purpose is to transform lives.

Metaphor and Image in Counseling the Talented - by Jane Piirto, Ph.D.
As I wrote [my novel] I felt at peace and relieved. The integration of these two selves, my efficient career-woman self, and my mystical poetic self, took many years, and now I never speak or present myself without both of me showing. That is why I try to read a poem every time. This example from my own life as an artist illustrates the use of metaphor in healing, and in creation.

Mis-Diagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children: Gifted and LD, ADHD, OCD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder - By James T. Webb, Ph.D.
Many gifted and talented children (and adults) are being mis-diagnosed by psychologists and others as having ADHD, OCD) and Mood Disorders. These common mis-diagnoses stem from an ignorance among professionals about specific social and emotional characteristics of gifted children which are then mistakenly assumed by these professionals to be signs of pathology.

Misdiagnosis of the Gifted  by Lynne Azpeitia, M.A. and Mary Rocamora, M.A.
Most people don't know that what is considered normal for the gifted is most often labeled as neurosis in the general population and as a result, the gifted are personally and emotionally vulnerable to a variety of unique relationship difficulties at home, work, school and in the community.

My Perfect Mess - by Nancy Roman
[from the book The Right Words at the Right Time Volume 2, by Marlo Thomas] "Look," Sister Regina said quietly, "we all want everything we do to be perfect, but sometimes it just doesn't turn out that way, because we aren't perfect. If you aren't satisfied when you're done, well, then, just do it again. You can do it as many times as you like." In those few words, I learned one of the most reassuring lessons of life: that you don't have to be perfect. You only have to satisfy yourself.

Nine Myths About the Gifted - based on the book by Ellen Winner, PhD: Gifted Children : Myths and Realities
Myth #1: Giftedness, when it occurs, is generally global. The Reality: More often than not, children are unevenly gifted, often being especially gifted in one area. ... Myth 4: "Genius will out". The Reality: Families play a far more important role in the development of gifts than do schools, and are essential to the development of the gifted or talented child. Genius must be nurtured.

On Giftedness - an interview with Mary Rocamora, Founder of the Rocamora School
Giftedness these days in the research community is being understood more as an inner experience or process than external products like symphonies and films and dance companies.. the research community is far more interested now in studying the nature of that inner process.. beyond just high intelligence..

Overexcitabilities in Gifted Children - By Lesley Sword
Overexcitabilities are an abundance of physical, sensual, creative, intellectual and emotional energy that can result in creative endeavours as well as advanced emotional and ethical development in adulthood. Overexcitabilities feed, enrich, empower and amplify talent.

Overexcitability and the gifted - by Sharon Lind
A small amount of definitive research and a great deal of naturalistic observation have led to the belief that intensity, sensitivity and overexcitability are primary characteristics of the highly gifted.

Parenting Emotionally Intense Gifted Children - by Lesley Sword
Giftedness has an emotional as well as intellectual component. Intellectual complexity goes hand in hand with emotional depth.

Perfectionism - by Douglas Eby
"I'm a maniacal perfectionist. And if I weren't, I wouldn't have this company. It's the best rap!"  Martha Stewart goes on to say, "Nobody's going to fault me for that. I have proven that being a perfectionist can be profitable and admirable..” But Monica Basco, Ph.D., notes in her book "Never Good Enough.." that perfectionists "can have great difficulty in taking risks..”

Perfectionism: Bane or blessing? - by Joanna Fletcher
Perfection is all about meeting a standard. When a gifted person sets a standard, it is likely to be very high because they have a clearer picture of what perfect would be... One can hold a high standard as an ideal, but reduce one’s internal demand to meet it. Here are some ideas about how to deal with perfectionism in your own life.

The Problem of Pain - by Stephanie S. Tolan
Life for highly gifted children and their families can still be enormously difficult.  What the parents who call me are dealing with is pain -- often intense pain -- their children’s and their own. Pain isn’t a subject that we often address directly, and that may be one reason why we don’t cope with it very well. Our culture’s attitude is anything but helpful.

Prodigy and Savant Syndrome: Are they related? - by Darold Treffert, MD
The expert [a calculating prodigy] seemed to develop a long term episodic memory by borrowing from other areas of long term memory, just as a computer extends the capacity of RAM by using swap space on the hard drive to create a larger 'virtual' memory,' and recruited much of that from right sided structures.

The Prodigy as Narcissistic Injury - by Sam Vaknin
The prodigy - the precocious "genius" - feels entitled to special treatment. Yet, he rarely gets it. This frustrates him and renders him even more aggressive, driven, and overachieving than he is by nature. ... Not all precocious prodigies end up under-accomplished and petulant. Many of them go on to attain great stature in their communities and great standing in their professions.

Psychological Factors in the Development of Adulthood Giftedness from Childhood Talent - by Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, PhD
In early childhood, some children come to the attention of parents and teachers because of very advanced abilities or exceptional interest in an area. However, many of these children will not go on to be very exceptional in adulthood. Some will not receive the proper kind of guidance and support to sustain their involvement within the domain. A few, burdened by the overinvolvement of parents, will burn out in adolescence or early adulthood. Many will acquire expert levels of knowledge and perform at a high level in their area. But, only a very few will become eminent in adulthood... A major issue for the field of gifted education is why so few highly gifted children grow up to be renowned and creative producers.

The psychology of creativity: redeeming our inner demons - interview with Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D.
"Creativity is one of humankind's healthiest inclinations, one of our greatest attributes... Our impulse to be creative can be understood to some degree as the subjective struggle to give form, structure and constructive expression to inner and outer chaos and conflict. It can also be one of the most dynamic methods of meeting and redeeming one's devils and demons."

Psycho-social Needs: Understanding The Emotional, Intellectual and Social Uniqueness Of Growing Up Gifted - By Lesley Sword
Gifted children not only think differently to other children, they also feel differently. Their intellectual complexity combines with their emotional intensity to give them a qualitatively different way of experiencing the world.

The Savant Syndrome: Islands of Genius - by Darold A. Treffert, M.D.
The movie Rain Man depicted an autistic savant and that term became almost a household word. It is important to remember, however, that not all autistic persons are savants, and not all savants are autistic.

Scientist at Work  "Ellen Langer's specialty may seem a little odd for a psychologist: she studies mindlessness." [NY Times]

Self-Knowledge, Self-Esteem and the Gifted Adult  by Stephanie S. Tolan
Self-identification as a gifted adult is complicated by the great diversity among the gifted adult population. What does a gifted adult look like? Unfortunately, for many gifted adults, it looks like somebody else. Using a metaphor of Dots and Spaces, the author explains how we tend to see our own deficits (spaces) but others' gifts (dots). This negatively affects self-esteem and often causes gifted assets to be viewed as mere "weirdness."

The Shame of Genius - by Julie E. Creech
I have a high IQ. Those words construct a sentence I am unable to write without pause. I could write other, similar, sentences all day without a problem: I am a poet. I am an artist. I am a philosopher. Yet, this other aspect of who I am, this ‘intellectual giftedness’, is something I feel guilty and ashamed about.

Social & Emotional Issues: What Gifted Adults Say About Their Childhoods - by Deborah L. Ruf, Ph.D.
Because I believe that giftedness is an inborn trait, I also believe the qualities of giftedness are present throughout people's lives, even if they are underachievers or hide their abilities. It follows, therefore, that I believe former gifted children become gifted adults. Adults have experience and hindsight. I asked gifted adults what they thought of their childhood experiences at home and in school.

Social & Emotional Needs of the Gifted, Adults and Children - by Deborah L. Ruf, Ph. D.

Sofia Coppola on being a “dilettante” and growing her talents [Developing Talent blog] - by Douglas Eby

So Smart It Hurts - by John Clark
In movies and books, geniuses are nearly always troubled. That way, we can feel better about ourselves. An all too common stereotype is that geniuses must be miserable. In Hollywood, you can never be too rich or too thin, but you can be too smart. It's OK to have a beautiful face. It's not OK to have a beautiful mind.

Support for Gifted Mothers: America Is Not a World Leader - by Marylou Kelly Streznewski

Taking Care of Ourselves - by Marylou Kelly Streznewski
One of the greatest assets a gifted child can have is to be parented and educated by self-aware gifted adults.

Theory of Positive Disintegration as a Model of Personality Development For Exceptional Individuals
   - By Elizabeth Mika
Kazimierz Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD) shows great promise as a universal theory of development. It is the first theory in psychology that postulates levels of personality development and methods of measuring them, and also describes and explains mechanisms of emotional development.

The Too Many Aptitudes Problem - by Hank Pfeffer
Most people have about four or five strong talents out of the roughly two dozen independent aptitudes known to exist. Most jobs require about four or five. As many as 10% of the population has double that number of aptitudes - and that is a problem for them and their employers.

Underachievement in Talented Females - by Sally M. Reis, Ph.D.
The women who realized their talents as adults were not always superlative students, but they certainly displayed creative and productive behaviors... Most exhibited specific personality traits including determination, motivation, creativity, patience, and the ability to take and, in some cases, thrive on risks. The one trait clearly exhibited by every woman was determination.

Understanding Empathy - By Jenna Avery
As a sensitive soul, you are likely to have a high degree of empathy. Empathy is the ability to feel another person’s emotions as if they are your own. In many ways, being empathic is a gift, because it allows you to fully experience, understand, and support others. In other ways, it can feel intrusive, overwhelming, and frustrating to have your personal space “invaded” by other people’s emotions and energies, and sometimes, even their physical symptoms.

Understanding The Emotional, Intellectual and Social Uniqueness Of Growing Up Gifted - by Lesley Sword
It is the combination of complex and deep thinking with rich and intense emotion that produces the gifted persons’ greater potential for high achievement. Supporting and interacting with each other, the emotion and the intellect produce the strong will to achieve.

The Universal Experience of Being Out-of-Sync - by Linda Kreger Silverman
When giftedness is defined as asynchronous development, it is not limited by ethnic, gender, age, socio-economic, geographical or political boundaries, nor is it dependent upon recognition.  In all cultures, there are children who progress through the intellectual milestones at a more rapid rate than their peers.  While others look upon the gifted as being advantaged in a race for personal gain, the experience of being different in cultures that value sameness, coupled with acute awareness of the pain and suffering in the world, make the gifted feel distinctly disadvantaged.

Unrecognized Giftedness: The Frustrating Case of the Gifted Adult - by Marylou Kelly Streznewski
Overall, I have concluded that there are large numbers of frustrated gifted adults, who can be located by anyone who knows what to look for, who do not find outlets for their potential. We are not paying enough attention to trying to teach gifted people how to cope with their lives in the adult world.

What is a Scanner? - by Barbara Sher
The conventional wisdom was overwhelming and seemed indisputable: If you’re a jack-of-all-trades, you’ll always be a master of none. You’ll become a dilettante, a dabbler, a superficial person -- and you’ll never have a decent career. But one thought wouldn’t leave my mind: If the world had just continued to accept them as they were, Scanners wouldn’t have had any problems. Almost every case of low self-esteem, shame, frustration, feelings of inadequacy, indecisiveness, and inability to get into action simply disappeared the moment they understood that they were Scanners and stopped trying to be somebody else.

What Is Genius Made Of? by Susan Adams  "When physicist Michio Kaku hits a wall in his research on string theory, he straps on a pair of ice skates and heads out onto a New York City rink. The cocreator of string theory twirls around and around and around. "Once I'm on the ice, it's just me and Isaac Newton," says Kaku, a professor at the City University of New York. Filmmaker Michael Apted borrows Kaku's quirky comment for the title of his charming, poetic new film on how scientists create.

What Is the Common Thread of Creativity? - by Robert J. Sternberg
Creativity refers to the potential to produce novel ideas that are task-appropriate and high in quality. Creativity in a societal context is best understood in terms of a dialectical relation to intelligence and wisdom. In particular, intelligence forms the thesis of such a dialectic. Intelligence largely is used to advance existing societal agendas. Creativity forms the antithesis of the dialectic, questioning and often opposing societal agendas, as well as proposing new ones.

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> also see related article pages:

articles : teen / young adult - including some articles on giftedness

ADD / ADHD: articles sites books

intensity / sensitivity : articles sites books

introversion resources : articles  sites  books....

perfectionism 3 : quotes articles books.

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other sites:

SENG / Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted Articles & Resources
 
Davidson Institute for Talent Development articles index
 

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Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D. - The psychology of creativity: redeeming our inner demons
"Creativity is one of humankind's healthiest inclinations, one of our greatest attributes. ... Our impulse to be creative can be understood to some degree as the subjective struggle to give form, structure and constructive expression to inner and outer chaos and conflict. It can also be one of the most dynamic methods of meeting and redeeming one's devils and demons."

Marylou Kelly Streznewski   Author: "Gifted Grownups: The Mixed Blessings of Extraordinary Potential"

Stephanie Tolan   novelist, consultant; co-author: "Guiding the Gifted Child"
 

**more :*interviews

***some related topic pages:

GT Adults  giftedness / exceptional ability........giftedness : front page...... HighAbility.org

giftedness self-tests*****gifted / talented arts celebrities

characteristics*****personal qualities*****Dabrowski on advanced development

impostor feelings*****intensity / sensitivity

introversion / shyness*******learning differences

perfectionism*****perfectionism 3 quotes articles books

questions / responses*****giftedness/ talented sites ***** giftedness : books

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article pages index......Talent Development Resources..home page