Psychological Concepts for Gifted Preadolescents: Pilot Study
Pressey ( 1 ) suggested that "precocity in psychology .rhoz~ld be especially feasible" with gifted preadolescents. Providing an organized background in psychology should enable them to "make distinctive contributions to knowledge of that [adolescent] period." Providing gifted preadolescents with experiences which increase their understanding of behavior patterns and adjustment mechanisms is the purpose of this study. Fifteen high-achieving sixth grade preadolescents (Stanford-Binet IQ, 132 to 158) were included. The group met 3 hr. daily for 5 wk. during the summer of 1962. Characters and situations from lirerarure were used as the basis for identifying psychological concepts for which the children used idiomatic expressions, i.e., "scared," "he picks on me," and "being a bully." The introduction of psychological terminology enabled them to re-examine and categorize the expressions which they had formerly employed. This then led to involvement in activities designed to conceprualize specific psychological terms in a scientific as well as social context, i.e., learning experiments in animal laboratory, review of contemporary research on suggestibility, and reports on the implication of adults' responses to a standardized social greeting. Having examined characters and situations in literature, learned psychological terminology to describe behavior, and become involved in research accivities, Ss were then evaluated in terms of their ability to identify behavior mechanisms, verbalize these mechanisms, using psychological terms, and engage in role-playing situations demonstrating their insight into the operation in a social situation of chese mechanisms. The final study will include formal criterion measures such as: written analyses of behavior compared with control group, objective college level general psychology tests, objective measures of adjustment and anecdotal follow-up records. The results of the pilot study suggest mental giftedness does extend to precocity in understanding of psychology. This precocity can be further developed by providing psychological terminology and accivities at a level earlier than has been done previously. Ss' ability to grasp these concepts and relace them to their own interpersonal problems at [he preadolescent level should allow researchers to gain valuable information about the adolescent period from young people who have previously had psychological training.