Erika Landau

Impact of an Enrichment Program on Intelligence, by Sex, Among Low SES Population in Israel

This study is based on data collected in an enrichment program for gifted students of lower socio-economic background (forty boys and forty girls from fourth through eighth grade). Its goals were to examine our work: whether there would be an increase in intelligence from the pre- to the post-test in all the participants; how girt-participants fared in comparison with boys and whether special attention to avoid sexism would bring girls who began with a lower intelligence to show the greatest improvement of all.

The self ‐ the global factor of emotional maturity

The road to emotional maturity involves the integration of various aspects of personality into the self. The intra‐ and interpersonal aspects are dealt with from different standpoints (Freud, James, Gardner and others), the emotional aspect being seen not as the opposite of the intellectual, but as complementary to it in the childs and adults personalities. The self contains everything that has passed through consciousness; it is the most important element of consciousness. Thanks to drives for knowing, for feeling, for creating, which are always active, we achieve a self which is more than the sum of its components and becomes a global factor in our personality. This global factor is the difference between the idiot savant and the creative, actualizing, gifted personality.

The Relationship between Emotional Maturity, Intelligence and Creativity in Gifted Children.

From experience of working with gifted children we could observe a gap between their intellectual and emotional functions. The purpose of this study was to explore the inter-relationships between emotional maturity and intelligence in gifted children. Emotional maturity is defined as the strength and courage to actualize individual abilities within the frame of social demands. Our hypothesis was that emotional maturity would have an affect on creativity, independent of intelligence. In the study, 221 children participated, between the ages of 9–13. All were measured for emotional maturity, intelligence and creativity. Results showed an effect of emotional maturity on creativity, as well as an effect of intelligence. Among the highly intelligent group, emotionally mature children were more creative. These results demonstrate that giftedness is conditioned not only by high intelligence but that emotional maturity has its share in it, and their interaction facilitates creative behavior — the actualization of the whole personality.

Tracing leadership in gifted children

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to determine whether characteristics of leadership identified among adults also exist among young gifted children. The study was conducted in Israel among 63 gifted children aged 10 to 14 who completed the Leadership Questionnaire, constructed especially for this study. The characteristics found to distinguish between high and low scorers on leadership were responsibility, desire to dominate, consistency, physical energy, achievement orientation, expressive and persuasive powers, cooperation, adaptability, daring, self-confidence, and emotional equilibrium. The results confirmed our hypothesis that the characteristics of leadership identified in adults do exist among gifted children.

Families of Gifted Children

Despite strong genetic influence on intellectual potential, evidence shows that children’s development is also largely effected by their family lifestyle, values, goals, and other environmental characteristics. We review current research findings on the role of the family in the development of gifted children, as well as gender differences, and long-term outcome in the gifted as they grow up. Finally we present outlines for future research regarding the family impact on gifted children.