A scientific project locked in time. The Terman Genetic Studies of Genius, 1920s-1950s.

Lewis M. Terman is well-known in the history of American psychology for the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon intelligence tests and the Genetic Studies of Genius project. The same assumptions informed the genius project and Terman's work in intelligence testing: the notion of the fixity of the IQ at birth and the maturation theory. According to the maturation theory, individuals developed only within the range of differences made possible by the genetic endowment of the "group"--natural, cultural, or both--to which they belonged. In this article the historicity and nonuniversality of Terman's work is discussed.     

Completed suicide in the gifted: a late comment on "suicide among gifted women".

A recent study by Tomlinson-Keasey, Warren, and Elliott (1986) found differences between completed suicides in Terman's sample of gifted children and comparison subjects. The present article suggests that the differences identified in Tomlinson-Keasey et al. may have been confounded by the fact that completed suicides are typically found to have higher levels of psychiatric disturbance than nonsuicides. Data are presented to illustrate that when the completed suicides in Terman's sample are matched for psychiatric disturbance with the comparison subjects, few differences are found.     

Vocational interests of intellectually gifted and highly achieving young adults

Background. Vocational interests play a central role in the vocational decision‐making process and are decisive for the later job satisfaction and vocational success. Based on Ackerman's (1996) notion of trait complexes, specific interest profiles of gifted high‐school graduates can be expected. Aims. Vocational interests of gifted and highly achieving adolescents were compared to those of their less intelligent/achieving peers according to Holland's (1997) RIASEC model. Further, the impact of intelligence and achievement on interests were analysed while statistically controlling for potentially influencing variables. Changes in interests over time were investigated. Sample . N= 4,694 German students (age: M= 19.5, SD= .80; 54.6% females) participated in the study (TOSCA; Köller, Watermann, Trautwein, & Lüdtke, 2004 ). Method. Interests were assessed in participants’ final year at school and again 2 years later (N= 2,318). Results . Gifted participants reported stronger investigative and realistic interests, but lower social interests than less intelligent participants. Highly achieving participants reported higher investigative and (in wave 2) higher artistic interests. Considerable gender differences were found: gifted girls had a flat interest profile, while gifted boys had pronounced realistic and investigative and low social interests. Multilevel multiple regression analyses predicting interests by intelligence and school achievement revealed stable interest profiles. Beyond a strong gender effect, intelligence and school achievement each contributed substantially to the prediction of vocational interests. Conclusions . At the time around graduation from high school, gifted young adults show stable interest profiles, which strongly differ between gender and intelligence groups. These differences are relevant for programmes for the gifted and for vocational counselling.     

Intelligence differences and conceptual judgement

Summary Studies of gifted children were recently reviewed by Vernon, Adamson, and Vernon (1977). These studies can be said to fall into three main categories, those concerned with the identification and education of such children, e.g., Ogilvie (1970), the psychometrically analysed structure of their abilities, e.g., Guilford (1967) and the factors contributing to success or creativity among those of high IQ, e.g., Terman (1930), Torrance (1969) and Wallach (1970). Few experimental studies have been attempted in this area despite the current interest in the relationship between intelligence and cognitive processes. The experiments reported here are intended to initiate an exploration of the effect of intelligence differences on the conceptual structure of different groups of children. The task selected as a basis for such an investigation was that developed by Collins and Quillian (1969), and taken further by Schaeffer and Wallace (1970). Pairs of words and pairs of pictures chosen from four hierarchically ordered categories were presented to children of average or of high intelligence for comparative classification. Subjects were asked to say whether or not the two items in a pair belonged to the same or different conceptual categories, and to press buttons accordingly. Despite a marked IQ difference, the two groups did not differ in the speed with which they judged picture pairs to be the same or different, but the gifted children were significantly faster in judgements based on presented word pairs. Supplementary studies attempted to determine the source of the interaction in terms of perceptual, motor response, or decision functions.     

Early Personality Traits as Predictors of Mortality Risk Following Conjugal Bereavement

ABSTRACT This study explored pre-bereavement personality traits and gender as predictors of post-widowhood mortality risk, using newly derived life span data for participants originally recruited for Lewis Terman's classic study of the gifted. Personality traits measured in 1940 were used to predict mortality risk from 1940 through 2004 for married participants who were either widowed between 1940 and 1986 or who remained married. Results indicated that widowhood predicted a decrease in mortality risk for these (intelligent) individuals (relative hazard [ rh ]=0.68, N =843, p <.001) and neuroticism significantly moderated this effect. Specifically, neuroticism in young adulthood was significantly associated with decreased mortality risk among men who were later widowed ( rh =0.50, N =66, p <.02) but not among women or consistently married men. Conclusions reveal the importance of personality–situation interactions and the adoption of a long-term perspective.     

Evidence against the myth of adjustment problems of people with high intellectual abilities

Personal and social adjustment of high-ability children and adolescents is a very important issue in the specialized literature. The differences found between data for and against appropriate adjustment in gifted children and adolescents could be explained by conceptual or methodological biases. In this work, the relation between adjustment and high abilities are contrasted in a sample of teenagers from the Canary Islands, using a screening procedure based on their scores in intelligence tests. Results show that, although gifted adolescents differ significantly from their peers in the control group in socio-economic variables and academic performance, there are no differences in personal, social and educational adjustment. We conclude that adjustment problems and high ability are independent variables, and there is no evidence to support that gifted individuals have adjustment problems.     

Creative Out-of-School Activities in Intellectually Gifted Adolescents as Predictors of Their Life Accomplishment in Young Adults: A Longitudinal Study

Career interests and abilities were examined in 130 young adults who, as adolescents, had received exceptionally high scores (top 5% of the entire country) on the test of general intelligence developed by the Israel Defense Force and used each year for selection and placement of recruits. The interests and abilities of the majority of the intellectually gifted research participants were found to be focused and not the opposite, as has been widely assumed among educators of the gifted. In 45% of the research participants, we found a strong relation between the focus of adolescents' out-of-school activities and the field of their adult vocation. Moreover, participants whose adolescent out-of-school activities matched their adult occupation had a higher level of work accomplishment than participants for whom such a match was absent. Our findings indicate that measures of out-of-school activities may provide an appropriate tool for counselors to use in career counseling with adolescents. Finally, young adults who were recognized as intellectually gifted in their adolescence perceived their family climate very positively. They described their families us highly cohesive and said that family members helped and supported one another.     

Guiding the Talent and Career Development of the Gifted Individual

The authors highlight challenges that gifted individuals may encounter in their career development and propose a theory‐informed career counseling framework to help guide them through the process. Special consideration is given to issues that may be salient for gifted individuals in career counseling sessions. Uncontrollable factors that might influence their career decision making, including socioeconomic status, race, gender, and sexual orientation, are also addressed.     

Mental tests and fossils

This article investigates the origins of the intelligence test item known as the Ball and Field in Lewis M. Terman's Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale. The question was initially raised by the resemblance of paleontological ocean bed floor tracings left by ancient creatures to the responses produced by children given the Ball and Field Test. A version of the Ball and Field Test was invented by Clifton F. Hodge, one of Terman's graduate school instructors who devised it as a result of his observations about how birds and other animals navigated and found their way. He then tested how humans and children located hidden objects and found that, in many ways, animals and humans used similar strategies for getting home or finding objects.     

The impact of gender schematic processing on the Self Directed Search responses of gifted and talented female adolescents

According to gender schema theory (S. L. Bem, Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 1981, 88, 354–364), gender schematic processing not only restricts assimilation of information into the self-concept to that which is congruent with the gender schema but also restricts the individual's response patterns in that responses are based on gender schema congruence or incongruence rather than upon a complete memory search. As a result of such gender schematic processing, the response patterns of gifted and talented female adolescents on Holland's (1977) Self Directed Search (SDS) should vary as a function of their gender schema. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance were conducted on the SDS responses of 284 gifted and talented female adolescents to test whether sex-typed female adolescents would score significantly higher on the gender congruent Social, Artistic, and Conventional dimensions while scoring significantly lower on the gender incongruent Investigative, Enterprising, and Realistic dimensions than did their cross sex-typed counterparts. The results indicated that while SDS total scores did vary significantly as a function of gender group, the direction of noted group differences failed to provide consistent support for predictions derived from gender schema theory. An alternative interpretation based on a generalization of Gottfredson's theory is discussed.     

The Iowa Child Welfare Research Station and the 1940 debate on intelligence: Carrying on the legacy of a concerned mother

During the late 1930s and early 1940s the nature-nurture issue regarding intelligence generated considerable controversy. The focus of attention for this debate was the Thirty-Ninth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, published in 1940. The Iowa Child Welfare Research Station played a prominent role in this debate. The Iowa researchers, led by George D. Stoddard and Beth L. Wellman, advocated an environmentalist position which challenged the more established hereditarian position held by Lewis M. Terman and his research associates. The Iowa position was closely related to the institutional context of the Child Welfare Research Station.     

Influence of the sex and gender in the sexual behavior of adolescents

The aim of this study is to evaluate the relation between gender and sex with the sexual behavior of adolescents. The sample comprised 815 teenagers (M=15.65, Sd.=1.42). The assessment instruments were the BEM Sex Role Inventory, the Sexual Opinion Survey, the Questionnaire of Risk Perception of Bayés and a questionnaire designed for the study. The results revealed that the majority of adolescents do not match the traditional gender stereotypes, defining themselves as adrogynes (34.4%). The teenagers who are defined as adrogynes or masculine carry out more sexual behaviors, and who display more erotophilia. The need to include the variable "gender" as a category of analysis in research on sexual behavior is indicated.     

Ambivalent Sexism and the Sexual Double Standard

The sexual double standard is the notion that women are evaluated negatively and men positively for engaging in similar sexual behaviors. Because traditional, gender-based stereotypes are reflected in the attitudes that people hold towards men and women, it is likely that sexism plays a part in the manifestation of the double standard. The goal of the present study is to investigate the relationship between sexism (prejudice against individuals based on their gender) and the sexual double standard. There are two types of sexism: hostile (negative prejudice) and benevolent (positive prejudice). We hypothesized that participants displaying high levels of either type of sexism would be most likely to exhibit the sexual double standard. A US-sample of 232 undergraduates from a Southwestern university completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI) and the Ambivalence Towards Men Inventory (AMI) and then evaluated a hypothetical target individual who reported having zero, one or 12 sexual partners. Results show that participants’ sexist attitudes towards men and women were related to their exhibition of the sexual double standard. Specifically, men and women’s hostile attitudes towards targets of their own gender were related to negative evaluations of highly sexually active targets of the same gender, while men and women’s benevolent attitudes towards the opposite gender were related to positive evaluation of highly sexually active targets of the opposite gender. Implications of the present results and directions for future research are discussed.     

General intelligence,temperament, and the Matching Familiar Figures Test

To investigate the relationship between general intelligence g and temperament, highly intelligent 10-year-old children (N = 151) were compared with classmates of the same gender and socio-economic status but of average intelligence (N = 134). The two ability groups were administered the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT) during home visits. The parents and teachers rated the temperament of the children. The results showed a consistent pattern: highly intelligent children are more task-oriented, e.g. less distractible and more controlled than their average counterparts. In the MFFT, gifted children not only gave a higher percentage of correct answers, but also showed longer (!) reaction times.     

A key role for experimental task performance: effects of math talent, gender and performance on the neural correlates of mental rotation

The neurophysiological mechanisms underlying superior cognitive performance are a research area of high interest. The majority of studies on the brain-performance relationship assessed the effects of capability-related group factors (e.g. talent, gender) on task-related brain activations while only few studies examined the effect of the inherent experimental task performance factor. In this functional MRI study, we combined both approaches and simultaneously assessed the effects of three relatively independent factors on the neurofunctional correlates of mental rotation in same-aged adolescents: math talent (gifted/controls: 17/17), gender (male/female: 16/18) and experimental task performance (median split on accuracy; high/low: 17/17). Better experimental task performance of mathematically gifted vs. control subjects and male vs. female subjects validated the selected paradigm. Activation of the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) was identified as a common effect of mathematical giftedness, gender and experimental task performance. However, multiple linear regression analyses (stepwise) indicated experimental task performance as the only predictor of parietal activations. In conclusion, increased activation of the IPL represents a positive neural correlate of mental rotation performance, irrespective of but consistent with the obtained neurocognitive and behavioral effects of math talent and gender. As experimental performance may strongly affect task-related activations this factor needs to be considered in capability-related group comparison studies on the brain-performance relationship.     

Evaluation of a nonintellectual assessment procedure for the early screening of exceptionality

Using a battery of nonintellectual measures with demonstrated validity for the screening of learning disabled and emotionally handicapped pupils, this study evaluated the feasibility of screening for potential educable mentally retarded (EMR) and gifted candidates. The criterion measure used to establish evidence of potential EMR and gifted eligibility was an individually-administered intelligence test. Teacher nominations of pupils they would refer for learning disabled (LD), EMR and gifted evaluation were obtained prior to administration of the screening instruments in a subsample of the participating districts in order to compare IQ criterion groups and screening results with teacher referrals. Results showed that the group of pupils screened by the nonintellectual measures contained 91% of those in the low IQ group (potential EMR) and 86% of those in the high IQ group (potential gifted). By contrast, teacher referrals failed to screen any of those deemed potentially eligible based on IQ criterion scores. The evidence suggests that reliance on conventional methods of teacher referral is inadequate for screening of EMR and gifted pupils, but that screening with the nonintellectual measures demonstrates a promise worthy of wider consideration.     

A note on general intelligence and the MA deviation concept

Restraints are imposed on the fullest emergence of g when subjects of equal chronological age are drawn from a restricted range of intelligence, or when groups representing different levels of IQ are factor-analyzed separately. Realistically, persons representing the extremes of intelligence cannot be included in the same study unless they are approximately equated on mental age (MA), in which case the relative performances of the extreme groups can provide useful information about the nature of intelligence. Comparisons of less extreme groups (e.g., average vs intellectually retarded or gifted) are also informative, particularly when attention is given to the types of tasks on which the retarded show the largest MA lag and the gifted show the largest MA acceleration.     

超常儿童心理与教育研究15年

中国超常儿童心理与教育的研究１５年来收获如下：在理论方面：１．超常与常态儿童在不同的认知方面差异的显著性,认知构成的模式特点、及发展趋势均有不同。２．超常儿童的个性倾向和特征具有明显特点,但发展不平衡,表现为３种类型;个性特征与学习成绩相关密切。３．超常儿童的成长过程可概括为４种类型。４．超常儿童心理成分不限于高智力、创造力,还包括良好发展的个性倾向和特征。在应用方面：研究结果在鉴别和教育超常儿童等方面进行了应用和检验。     

Contextualizing Gender and Acculturative Influences on Sexual Initiation of Asian Indian Emerging Adults

Although Asian Indians represent one the fastest growing demographics in the United States, no studies exist on the sexual behavior of Asian Indian youth or its association with acculturation. Previous research has demonstrated a link between earlier sexual initiation and subsequent sexual risk and the role of acculturation and sexual initiation in other Asian groups. The present exploratory study examined gender and acculturation with regard to sexual initiation in Asian Indians (n = 37). Results reveal no significant gender differences in sexual initiation and total acculturation scores. Gender differences did emerge for the association among sexual behaviors and the influence of specific areas of acculturation on sexual initiation. Findings suggest that gender and acculturation may be important variables in understanding sexual behavior but that current acculturation measures may be insufficient to adequately assess acculturation levels of Asian Indian youth. Future research should focus on Asian Indians as an understudied minority group.     

What the Study of Eminence Can Teach Us

This article presents a revised theory of what eminence is, its relation to productivity, its measurement, and the markers for it. The historical, systematic, and informational bases of families are used for this revised theory, with the Bronte; family being used for illustration. One important conclusion is that persons who are truly eminent (i.e., who create original and significant work), and persons who are simply high achievers, tend to come from different families entirely. Another important conclusion, which exemplifies the revised theory, is that gifted children may not change their families. In earlier work, gifted children had been described as organizers within families, but they may primarily organize families in terms of what the family wants and has already been doing. It may thus be best to describe families as ongoing systems. There is much that goes on within a family that is not going to be changed for gifted children that includes a richness of talent.