Rorschach Studies Reveal Possible Misinterpretations of Personality Traits of the Gifted

Abstract

have reported investigation of the personality of gifted children and have generally concluded in positive characteristics reflective of superior development, Ketcham (1957) sees that these same positive characteristics may be misinterpreted and the child viewed in a less than favorable manner: Several important personal characteristics of gifted children are liable to confuse and mislead their parents and teachers. The gifted child's curiosity, persistence, purposefulness and sensitivity frequently irritate adults and take on the appearance of disobedience, inattention, and instability. Parents, teachers and others, on occasion, underestimate the true ability of the gifted child. They accuse him of being too active or interested in the &dquo;wrong&dquo; things.The purpose here is to determine, from a developmental sense, the personality growth of young gifted children and the interactions which may lead to a misinterpretation of the discovered characteristics. METHOD By individual evaluation before the entrance to kindergarten, all the intellectually gifted children of a school district's kindergarten students (a total class of 740 children) were located. The 20 gifted children (as well as a control group of 20 non-gifted children) located obtained a Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) full scale IQ of 125 to 144 with a mean FS IQ of 131 (for the control students, a WPPSI FS IQ range of 97 to 119, mean of 109). , . The Rorschach Technique was utilized, both during this pre-school testing period and at the end of the kindergarten year.

Emotional Adjustment of Gifted Children

“…The impressions of teachers and clinicians have been contradicted by reports of the performance of gifted children on standardized tests of personality. These reports were consistant with the early reports of Terman and his colleagues (Terman, 1954;Terman & Oden, 1947, 1951 in documenting personality functioning that was similar to (Bartell & Reynolds, 1986;Freeman, 1985;Hass, 1963;Janos & Robinson, 1985;Karnes & Wherry, 1983;Kennedy, 1962;McClain & Andrews, 1972), or more developmentally mature than (Gair, 1944;Gallagher & Crowder, 1957;Hogan, 1980;Jacobs, 1971;Janos & Robinson, 1985;Killon, 1983;Mensch, 1950;Oden, 1968;Reynolds & Bradley, 1983;Rosenblatt, Rosenblatt, & Krenk, 1980) that of peers of comparable age and average ability.…”

Dimensions of Anxiety Among High IQ Children

“…In a study using Rorschach responses of groups of high IQ children, Gair (1944) found gifted children to be better adjusted emotionally and to possess more mature personality features when compared to children of average intellectual ability. Later studies using Rorschach responses report similar findings (Gallagher & Crowder, 1957;Jacobs, 1971). The longitudinal research of Terman and his colleagues (Oden, 1968;Terman & Oden, 1951;Terman, 1954), in studying the characteristics of high IQ children, also found greater emotional stability of the gifted group when compared to a random sample of the population.…”

How Misleading the Fifty Years? a Reply To Jacobs

“…This is known as statistical regression, and it accounts for Jacobs' findings more parsimoniously than do his conclusions. This phenomenon is discussed at length by Goodenough and Maurer (1940), Thorndike (1942), and Campbell and Stanley (1963) (Jacobs, 1971 ) is not contraindicated by the considerations which invalidate Jacobs' 1970 study.…”