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PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A GIFTED PERSON
N. А. Khupavtseva
Theoretical, methodological and axiological problems of lifelong education naturally cover many aspects, such as development of a personality, the subject of the educational process, and developing new values of education for the benefit of the sustainable development of the society. One of the fundamental problems, surely, is the problem of education and training of a gifted person, and developing his/her creative potential, because such a presentation of the problem is considered to be the necessary precondition for innovative development of the country and the society. The works of D.B. Bogoyavlenskaya in this area of psychology give a basis for understanding the fact that the phenomenon of “creative activity” is mediated by different determinants: a person’s preschool childhood, conditions of his/her education and training, his/her individual characteristics. In view of the above reasons, in their turn, these determinants are the basis for creation of the integral system of development of a creative person, and the education of a gifted person.
That is why it is necessary to develop the curriculums, in particular, and the system of education for gifted and talented children as the future elite talent of the society, first of all, when people understand such a need, and the necessity and supreme priority of this work. For example, based on the results of his own experimental research, A.M. Matyushkin makes the conclusion that the most general characteristics which also can be considered a structural component of a child’s creative potential include cognitive needs, which, in their turn, represent the psychological foundation of the dominant idea of cognitive motivation, as compared with other types of the latter [2, p. 42-44]. The component of cognitive motivation is considered by scientists to be one of the forms of genesis of a creative person starting from the first stage, i.e. the research activity determined by high selectiveness of a child in relation to new things, up to its transformation into higher forms, such as, for example, hypothetical character, and focus on problems, which is one of the main components of giftedness and a person’s creative development.
In order to solve the problem studied in this report, it is interesting to consider the model of the structure of intellectual giftedness and the mechanisms of its manifestation offered by M.A. Kholodnaya [3]. First of all, it is interesting to consider the main aspects of this model: firstly, the aspect when the intellectual gift is considered as a mental phenomenon, and creativity (together with other forms of the intellectual productiveness, individualized means of perception of reality) is a necessary component of the intellectual gift of a person; and secondly, the practical component of this model, which is used for development of the comprehensive programs for training of gifted children. In order to characterize the psychological mechanisms of the intellectual talent and forms of its manifestation, and in particular, creativity, M. Kholodnaya introduced the notion of the “subjective mental environment of reflection as a form of organization of individual mental experience of a person”. This notion consists of the following elements: (а)
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cognitive structures, which are the results of integration of all previous stages of development of a person; (b) actual base of knowledge of a person (as a form of organization of individual cognitive experience). Talented persons, of course, are characterized by quite high intellectual productivity. M.A. Kholodnaya differentiates the latter with the help of three basic characteristics of intellect [3, p. 169-172].
In the course of study of problems of giftedness of a person, V.A. Molyako emphasizes several basic factors of creativity that characterize such a subject, i.e.:
(a) originality (the ability to produce situations, unexpected answers, solutions, non-standard affirmations and actions); (b) semantic flexibility (ability of selection of functions of an object and suggestion of different means of use of the latter); (c) imaginative adaptive flexibility as an ability to change the form of the object in order to see the new opportunities in it; (d) semantic spontaneous flexibility as an ability to find different ideas in a relatively constrained situation [1, p. 45]. A gifted person is characterized by integrity, analytical gift, independency in perception and understanding, a high level of motivation in deciding a problem and a task, high sensitivity to subconscious irritants, etc. Also a gifted person has a considerable amount of erudition. Such an individual is characterized by a bright imagination, vivid and unusual intelligence, a high level of whimsicality and creative thinking (when such a person gets older, the nature of his/her creativity changes towards the field of abstract, scientific thinking). A gifted person also has a very well developed intuition. A gifted person also has a high level of emotional excitement, without which it isn’t possible to undertake creative actions, etc.
Thus, giftedness, as a stable quality of a person, has an integrated, complex character. It is characterized by the process and the result of development by the person of his/her individuality in creative activity. The results of creative activity may include situations, models of behavior, emotions or feelings of a person. The uniqueness of the inward and outward world of a person is a determinant of his/her capabilities to be a creative personality.
References
1. Кульчицкая Е. И. Сирень одарённости в саду творчества: моногр. / Е.И. Кульчицкая, В. А. Моляко. - Житомир: Вид-во ЖДУ iM. 1.Франка, 2008. - 316 с.
2. Матюшкин А. М. Загадки одарённости. - М.: Школа-Пресс, 1993. - С. 42-44.
3. Холодная М. А. Психология интеллекта: Парадоксы исследования. - 2-е изд., доп. и перераб. - СПб. и др.: Питер, 2002. - 264 с.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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