Many Faces of a Gifted Personality: Characteristics Along a Complex Gifted Spectrum (original) (raw)

Communicating Love or Fear: The Role of Attachment Styles in Pathways to Giftedness

Although both giftedness and secure attachment are associated with advanced language and good socioemotional adjustment, not all gifted children are well adjusted. This article explores the consequences of attachment style on gifted development and examines whether early trauma can be rectified. The dearth of research on giftedness and attachment has necessitated the review of less direct evidence, including brain research and maternal depression. A partly empirical, partly conceptual picture is drawn to demonstrate that attachment styles can support, reduce, and even prevent giftedness. This is further illustrated by an experiment involving IQ scores that mimics the expected effects of early trauma and insecure attachment on test performance. The article concludes by suggesting that attachment style may contribute to a gifted spectrum.

Giftedness: How does it work with Sensitivities, learning disabilities, and disorders

There is a widespread opinion that gifted children – as well as gifted adults – have an over-sensitive, fragile, even vulnerable personality. This opinion is to be found both in the case study literature of gifted and creative people in all areas, among the general population, and also among gifted people who tend to explain their emotional, social and familial difficulties as a result – sometimes inevitable – of their exceptional cognitive abilities or their extremely high level of creativity. This paper aims to find out whether this opinion suits the clinical findings –both as informed by the literature and in my clinic. As expected, the results are quite mixed. Indeed, many highly gifted people have a fragile personality that might cause malfunctioning. On the other hand, many individuals with exceptional abilities, extraordinary achievements and proven achievements lead a " normal " family, social and emotional life. My conclusion is that in addition to individual characteristics of each and every child, gifted or not, with or without disabilities, the influence of giftedness on any child's wellbeing is substantially influenced by the support this child gets from school, home and the social environment he is exposed to. However, there is a large difference between a gifted child with a learning disability and a child who suffers from an emotional problem, whether caused by a disability or not. I will hereby give some examples of children belonging to both groups. In a series of case studies of highly gifted children with a variety of problems, I will confirm the assumption that giftedness per se is not directly related to emotional difficulties, but rather connected to it in many cases. There are many risk factors that contribute to the possibility of a gifted child to be prone to emotional problem; among them are creativity, non-conformity, and even being female, especially in traditional society. The article suggests a few steps aimed to help gifted children to overcome learning disabilities, as well as emotional problems.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF GIFTED CHILDREN

2013

Giftedness is a multidimensional phenomenon that despite numerous studies and different approaches remains underexplored. It is known that there is different views about gifted children in psychological theory and practice. Giftedness represents general intellectual ability, general creative ability, productive and creative ability, the sum of specific skills, the ability of thinking, specific area of intelligence and creativity. Gifted child is a child who has above average skills and specific characteristics, which play an important role in the growth, development and education of these children. Researchers confirm the importance of early socialization, family and the primary teachers in the continually development of the gifted child on intellectual, social, emotional and somatic plan. It is known that e gifted child has specific characteristics and properties, such as originality, individuality, emotional stability, a high degree of intellectual capacity, independence, verbal fluency, perfectionism. Development and manifestation of creativity in gifted children depends of their cognitive component, personality traits, motivation. Gifted child early showed a specific interest in a particular area. This kind of child has a positive self-image, high self-esteem, self-confidence, high goals, a sense of self-worth, greater independence which manifests across the non-conformism and initiative. Every child deserves the special attention of parents, school and society, especially a gifted child which is a child with special needs about their average ability and special educational needs.

The Adjustment of Gifted Children: Is Asynchrony the Only Reason for Their Problems?

The previous chapter presented an introductory review of literature on responsive caregiving, internalising and externalising, and learning disorders, all associated with attachment. This was followed by an article with a focus on attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) and related research from a number of disciplines, including aspects of giftedness that may be linked with attachment. A desktop experiment on projected IQ results of a gifted child with attachment problems was included in the article. This chapter focuses primarily on giftedness. A review on some aspects of the literature precedes a published peer reviewed book chapter on giftedness, specific problems associated with some gifted children, and the possible association of giftedness with attachment-related issues.

Forms of Giftedness in Children and Adolescents

1989

Based on the results from a longitudinal study, differences between gifted and normal students in West Germany are discussed. The research is based on a multidimensional model of giftedness. The study design took both academic and nonacademic achievements into consideration and evaluated both relevant personality traits and socialization factors. Developmental aspects and achievement analyses were the focus of the study. Among other points, the stability of test and questionnaire results, the interdependencies between giftedness, non-cognitive personality traits, and achievements, the interactions between the development of intelligence, levels of intelligence, and family environments were evaluated.