From Underachievement to Suicide: How Students Cope with Being Gifted

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From Underachievement to Suicide How Students
Cope with Being Gifted

• Tracy L. Cross, Ph.D.
• Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, Research,
  Assessment
• George Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of
  Psychology Gifted Studies

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The Modern Family
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Myths of Being Gifted

• The Gifted . . .
• are more prone to emotional disturbances
• have everything going their way
• can succeed without help
• should be valued mostly for their brain power
• are more stable and mature
• should assume responsibility for others
• enjoy being examples to other children
• have abilities that are always valued by their
  families
• excel or exceed the norms in all areas of
  development
• need to be disciplined more than others
• will always reveal their giftedness
• are high achievers with high motivation to excel
  in school

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Gifted Student Disclaimer

• Gifted students are the most heterogeneous group
  to study because they can vary the most on the
  most variables

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Gifted Characteristics

• Intellectual
• Capacity for reflection
• Passion for Learning
• Early Moral Concern
• Complex Thought Processes
• Exceptional Reasoning Ability
• Divergent Thinking/Creativity
• Analytical Thinking
• Facility with Abstraction
• Intellectual Curiosity
• Rapid Learning Rate
• Vivid Imagination

• Personality
• Insightfulness
• Intensity
• Sensitivity/Empathy
• Need to Understand
• Non Conformity
• Perfectionism
• Acute Self-Awareness
• Need for Mental Stimulation
• Excellent Sense of Humor
• Need for Precision/Logic
• Questioning Rules/Authority
• Perseverance

B. Clark
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Endogenous Characteristics

• Originate from characteristics of the individual
• Examples in Gifted Students
• Overexcitabilities
• Asynchronous Development
• Perfectionism
• Excessive Self-Criticism
• Multipotentiality

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Exogenous Characteristics

• Emerge as byproducts of the interaction of
  characteristics of the child with the environment
• Example in Gifted Students
• Desire for academic engagement within a school
  environment not accepting of students who are
  very serious about learning

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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

• Extraverts (E) ?? Introverts (I)
• Sensing (S) ?? Intuitive (N)
• Thinking (T) ?? Feeling (F)
• Judging (J) ?? Perceiving (P)

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Gifted v. Nongifted MBTI

• Gifted adolescents have higher tendency to be
• N and NP
• About 50/50 E and I
• INFP, INTP, ENFP, and ENTP
• Nongifted adolescents have higher tendency to be
• ESFP, ENFP, ESTJ, and ESFJ

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Issues in Development

• Gifted students are children first
• Many psychological and social needs are the same
  for gifted and nongifted students
• Developmental Examples
• Making Friends
• Dating

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Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

• Transcendence
• Self-Actualization
• Esthetic
• Cognitive
• Esteem
• Attachment
• Safety
• Biological

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Eriksons Psychosocial Stages

• Stage Approximate Age
• Trust v. Mistrust 0 - 1 ½
• Autonomy v. Self-doubt 1 ½ - 3
• Initiative v. Guilt 3 - 6
• Competence v. Inferiority 6 - Puberty
• Identity v. Role Confusion Adolescent
• Intimacy v. Isolation Early Adult
• Generativity v. Stagnation Middle Adult
• Ego-integrity v. Despair Late Adult

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Gifted Students in Schools
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Traits Meet Social Expectations and are
Interpreted as Possible Problems
Positive Traits Social Expectations
Interpretations
Sensitive Sees relationships Independent Logical A
nalytical Creative thinker Persistent Has
special interests Broad information base Strives
for mastery
Possible attendant problems
Mixed messages School structures Gifted role Sex
role
MEETS
from Schooling the Gifted (p. 161), by L.J.
Coleman 1985, Menlo Park, CA Addison-Wesley
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The Stigma of Giftedness

• There is evidence to show that the gifted are
  influenced by their peers, parents and
  teachers feelings about their abilities. If they
  are seen as mental freaks, unhealthy
  personalities, or eccentric simply because they
  are brainy or creative, many of them will avoid
  the stigma through conformity. Some would rather
  underachieve and be popular than achieve honor
  status and receive ostracism.
• Tannenbaum

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Is Being Gifted a Social Handicap?

• Schools are largely social enterprises
• Stigma of Giftedness Paradigm
• Gifted students want to have normal social
  interactions
• They learn when others discover their giftedness,
  they will be treated differently
• They learn they can manage information about
  themselves that will enable them to maintain a
  greater amount of social latitude

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Coping Methods

• Underachieving
• Identify with Non-intellectual Group
• Downplay Abilities
• Deny Giftedness
• Intellectualize Reactions to Perceived Social
  Difficulty
• Manage Information
• Sit Quietly
• Suicidal Behavior

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What is Suicidal Behavior?

• Ideators think about killing themselves
• Gesturors make suicidal gestures but not
  serious efforts to end their lives
• Attemptors make attempts but fail to end their
  lives
• Completors complete suicide

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Suicide of Gifted Students

• Limited research due to
• Non-disaggregating of the current national data
  on suicide rates according to giftedness or
  non-giftedness
• Varying definitions of gifted and talented used
  across the U.S. make it difficult to identify
  suicide completors as gifted
• Issues of confidentiality limit access to data
• Conducting psychological autopsies of suicide
  victims is expensive in time and money
• Secondary schools are not as actively engaged in
  identifying gifted students
• Terminal nature of suicide requires information
  to be garnered after the event

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Conclusions about Suicide among Adolescents

• Adolescents are committing suicide
• Gifted adolescents are committing suicide
• The rate of suicide has increased over the past
  five decades for the general population of
  adolescents within the context of an overall
  increase across age groups
• Given the limited data, it is not certain whether
  the incidence of suicide or suicide ideation
  among gifted adolescents is different from the
  general population of adolescent

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Suicide Risk and Protective Factors
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Social Coping Questionnaire

• Identifies factors used as coping methods by
  gifted students
• Denying Giftedness
• Social Interaction
• Humor
• Conformity
• Peer Acceptance

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Information Management Model(IMM)
C
Yes
Manages information about self
Different Environments
B
Yes
Feels different
CHILD
A
No
No Strategies
Social Expectations
No
FROM Is Being Gifted a Social Handicap?, by
L.J. Coleman and T. Cross, 1998, Journal for the
Education of the Gifted, 11, p.44
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Coping Strategies

• Continuum of Visibility

HIGH VISIBILITY
DISIDENTIFYING
INVISIBILITY
FROM Is Being Gifted a Social Handicap?, by
L.J. Coleman and T. Cross, 1998, Journal for the
Education of the Gifted, 11, p.44
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Invisibility Strategies

• Dont carry a calculator
• Miss a few answers on a test
• Wear contact lenses
• Dont volunteer answers
• Dont admit a test was easy
• When asked about accomplishments, be noncommittal
• Avoid asking questions about moral or ethical
  concerns
• Go out on a date with a dumb kid
• Dont tell your age if you were accelerated

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Disidentifiers

• Be seen with people who are not gifted
• Ask silly or crazy questions
• Tell jokes
• Go out for extracurricular activities for which
  you have little talent
• Be very pleasant
• Claim a test was difficult
• Feign interest in small talk
• Make fun of other gifted kids

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Coping Strategies
Continuum of Verbal Responses to Threatening
Scenarios
Truth Placate
Cop-out Cover-up Lie
FROM The Social Cognition of Gifted Adolescents
in Schools Managing the Stigma of Giftedness,
by T. Cross, L Coleman, and M. Terhaar-Yonkers,
1991, Journal for the Education of the Gifted,
15, p.52
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Biology Exam

• Setting In the cafeteria line, several people
  from your class are discussing the biology exam.
• Tracy Man! Wasnt that test impossible? I must
  have spent 10 minutes trying to label that crazy
  diagram of the muscular system.
• Chris I blew the whole thing, even though I
  studied really hard.
• Marti I probably failed it too.
• Marti says to Jon, I bet you breezed through it
  and didnt even open the book to study.
  Actually, Jon spent several hours studying and
  thought it wasnt a difficult test. If you were
  Jon, what would you be most inclined to say?

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Biology Exam Responses

• A Tests can be hard sometimes. (cover-up)
• B Yeah, that exam was a pain. (lie)
• C I probably studied as hard as you did, but
  the test wasnt too hard.(placate)
• D I thought it was kind of easy. (truth)
• E How long did you study? (cop-out)

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Substitute Teacher

• Setting In the hallway between classes
• Pat Wasnt that substitute teacher for Ms. Cross
  awful? I couldnt figure out what she was trying
  to say about the Western Expansion. She really
  lost me.
• Fran How about what Pete pulled on her,
  pretending he was sick and ready to throw up on
  her desk!
• Jo She even believed it. I wish I had thought of
  that one! I would rather have spent the period
  in the clinic instead of sitting in that class.
• Everyone but Billy nodded their heads in
  agreement. Fran looked at Billy and asked,
  Didnt you think that was hysterical? Billy
  felt the substitute had started an interesting
  topic, but Pete had made it impossible for her to
  teach. Billy thought Pete had been unnecessarily
  rude. If you were Billy, which would you be MOST
  inclined to say?

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Substitute Teacher Responses

• A Pete can be funny sometimes. (cover-up)
• B I thought the class got out of control Pete
  went too far. (truth)
• C Some of it was funny, but Pete shouldnt have
  gone that far. (placate)
• D Pete was funny the substitute was asking for
  it. (lie)
• E I wonder when Ms. Cross is coming back.
  (cop-out)

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Recommendations

• Treat gifted children as children first
• Establish communication among parents, teachers,
  and counselors
• Teach gifted children social skills, ways to
  manage stress, and to enjoy nonacademic
  activities
• Try to understand the social milieu of school

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Recommendations

• Learn about individual childs personality,
  social goals, and needs
• Find counseling for gifted students and their
  families
• Create opportunities for gifted children to
  interact
• Model adaptive behaviors