Psychology, Psychologists, and Gifted Students

Psychologists show great curiosity about the world and human behavior. They are forever asking Why? Or What? Or How? about various aspects of human behavior. It is no surprise, therefore, that they respond enthusiastically to some of the questions surrounding the behavior of those labeled as gifted and talented in our society. As will be seen in this volume there are more psychologists intrigued by these questions than are actively working on them but that is due to the vagaries of funding, access, and other technical matters. Some of the key questions posed in this handbook are: (1) Who are the gifted?; (2) How do we identify gifted?; (3) What are the key characteristics of gifted students?; (4) Where does giftedness emerge from?; (5) Can we suppress giftedness?; (6) Can we enhance giftedness?; and (7) Can we design public policy to favor students? All of these issues will be discussed in greater length in the following chapters but we propose to provide an overview of what is necessary to answer these questions and provide some understanding of why we stand at this point in history.