Some functions of mental measurement in the young superior adult

A review of case material collected on several hundreds of superior students interviewed by the psychiatric division of a university student health department includes the following interlocking distinctive features: (1) Marginal cases with Alpha scores of 130-140, inarticulateness, home difficulties, and illness give a small enough margin of safety for successful work. (2) Many secondary school honor graduates suffer from intellectual overprotection when exposed to the environment of a metropolitan university. (3) Other students reflect a paternal projection of adult patterns of success. (4) The relatively specific vocational recommendations usually made are to be distrusted. (5) The psychometric pattern of the verbalist-introvert combines high performance in multiple-choice verbal functions with low and variable manipulative functions The writer attempts a clarification of the consultant relationship in psychological work.