What is giftedness?

Scott Barry Kaufman — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:49:03 -0700

Johnny, a 9-year-old elementary school student, has an IQ of 140, which would qualify him as "gifted" by virtually any IQ-based definition of giftedness anyone might use. Johnny has few friends, in large part because he has very poor social skills. Johnny has no hobbies to speak of, and is unengaged in significant extracurricular activities outside of school. And despite his IQ, Johnny is a good, but not great, student.

Davy is also 9 and is in the same school as Johnny. He has an IQ of 120, which would quality him as "gifted" by some, but not other IQ-based definitions of giftedness. Davy is very active in sports and is the best soccer player of any age in his school. He also is a highly talented trombonist, and is first trombone in the elementary-school orchestra. His teacher believes he has the potential for a career in musical performance, should he wish to follow that path. Davy is very popular and is one of the top three academic performers in his class.

Who is gifted? Johnny? Davy? Both?

This is a question Robert J. Sternberg and I posed to giftedness researchers in a recent handbook on giftedness [1]. Now I pose the same question to you. What do you think?

There is no obvious answer. As we point out in our book chapter, the term "giftedness" is only a label. As a scientist, I am interested in discovering some underlying truth about the world. It is important that I remain as objective as possible. When trying to answer questions such as "what is giftedness?", or "what criteria should we use to identify gifted individuals?", I have to shift my goals a bit. There are disagreements, even among researchers (let alone from one person to another, culture to another, and generation to another) as to the criteria that should be set to identify students with extraordinary potential.

Therefore, while I can remain as objective as possible in weighing the evidence regarding the underlying cognitive mechanisms behind performance on an IQ test (post coming later...), the heritability of intelligence within a particular population (also coming later...), or the environmental factors that affect IQ performance within a particular population (you guessed it!- coming later...), I cannot remain as objective when trying to answer the question "what is giftedness?".

This I can do. In my next series of posts, I will trace the history of giftedness research, look at various conceptualizations of giftedness, and discuss different proposed criteria for identifying and nurturing gifted students. I will present varying perspectives. And I'll leave it up to you to decide what it means to be gifted.

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1. Kaufman, S.B., & Sternberg, R.J. (2008). Conceptions of giftedness. In S. Pfeiffer (Ed.), Handbook of giftedness in children: Psycho-educational theory, research, and best practices. Springer.

Introducing Beautiful Minds

Scott Barry Kaufman — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:25:00 -0700

When I was a kid, I was very good at frustrating my school psychologists. When I was 10, my parents wanted me to try out private school since I didn't seem to be receiving much enjoyment from the public school I was attending. They consulted a school psychologist to determine the best placement. I remember the day quite vividly, the day when I took an IQ test.

I remember thinking (as well as expressing quite repeatedly to the frustration of my poor, patient, elderly, school psychologist) such questions as, "Why do I have to pick one of the answers provided?", "But I can justify why more than one answer is correct!", and "Would you mind if I modified this question a bit? This wording sucks." I still have the report the psychologist wrote up that day. Suffice it to say, my IQ score that day wasn't spectacular. In fact, my parents tell me that when the psychologist met with them after I underwent his battery of tests, he didn't know what to do with me. On the one hand, I was one of the most creative test takers he's ever seen. Unfortunately, he told my parents, that didn't earn me many points on the test. All ended well though. I went to a private school for students with "learning difficulties" for one year, and ended up having one of the most enjoyable years of my life with people I found quite interesting, unique, and creative.

So why do I tell such a personal story to introduce my new blog? These early experiences I had in school fueled in me a curiosity about what the heck intelligence is all about. Then I discovered science-a way to actually answer these questions, and get closer and closer to the truth. Through this blog, I want to share findings about the nature of human intelligence and creativity, and how these abilities and ways of thinking impact on our daily lives, education, and society at large. My research has led me to surprising findings. For instance, as much as I wanted to find that IQ doesn't matter, I haven't found much support for that idea. More on that later...

For now, I just want to say that my search for the truth wherever it leads me has in fact led me to a new conceptualization of human cognition far different than when I first entered graduate school, yet ultimately more satisfying and supported by facts. I am eager to share all of this with readers of this blog and receive feedback in return.

I was always the kid on the playground who befriended at least one person from every clique. With the punk rockers, I'd throw on my jean jacket and complain about the oppression of society. With the nerds, I'd whip out my calculator at lunchtime and share new calculator games (Tetris was the bomb, wasn't it!?) with my fellow owners of the awesome TI-92. With the jocks, I'd seriously bruise myself playing basketball but always wore long jogging pants so the bruises wouldn't show. Now, as a graduate student in cognitive psychology, I like hanging out with people from as many perspectives as I can to more completely understand the nature of human intelligence and creativity. Therefore, in my posts I hope to mix multiple perspectives, such as philosophy, cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and social psychology to get closer to the answers to such questions as, "What's the link between intelligence and creativity?", "What level of IQ do you need to be a genius?", "What is giftedness?", "How many minds do we have in one body?", "What is the implication of the fact that we might have multiple minds for understanding intelligence and creativity?", "what is the role of intelligence and creativity in human mate selection?", "Can beautiful minds be just as sexy as beautiful bodies?", etc. etc.

Lots of questions. That's OK, because there is lots of fascinating research out there. I am excited and optimistic that we are on the verge of more fully understanding the nature of human intelligence and creativity, but only if we listen to multiple perspectives and keep an open mind.

I would like this blog to be as interactive as possible. Please post comments. Even personal ones. Or if you are shy and don't wish to post your ideas to the world, email me at beautifulminds@scottbarrykaufman.com. Of course, I don't have all the answers. I will share as much as I know at the moment about the nature and nurture of human intelligence and creativity. And hopefully, through this journey, we will all learn more about these fascinating topics.

Let's start with the basics though. In my next post, I will describe the elusive, enigmatic, yet ever present g factor.

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As an aside, if you too would like to create your own placement on the IQ spectrum, check out the very creative website GlassGiant.com where you can make your own pictures!

Psychology Today Blogs - Beautiful Minds

What is giftedness?

Introducing Beautiful Minds