Existing theories and frameworks generally have regarded creativity as inhering in a person, a task, a situation, or a combination of 2 of these 3 elements. After reviewing these approaches, and frameworks that are based on the interaction of more than 2 components, we propose a Person × Task × Situation synergistic paradigm, according to which…

Two implicit metaphors can be seen as having dominated the study of the gifted--the savings bank and the investment bank. In the savings-bank metaphor, people have differential levels of IQ or general intelligence, which is viewed as determining whether they are gifted. Their cognitive ability is their metaphorical "money in the bank."…

This article introduces the construct of personal talent curation. "Personal talent curation" is one's assessment of one's talents--of one's strengths and weaknesses--but also the building of an adaptive match in life between those talents and both one's career pursuits and one's personal lifestyle. Sometimes, this match means pursuing a…

Giftedness is usually conceived of in trait-like terms. But it often is expressed in the world in state-like terms--in response to challenging but often unpredictable situations where it is unclear who will rise to the challenges or even how we could know in advance who would be able to address the challenges at hand. Whereas traits tend to be…

Courage may be the most important gift of all. It is not something we are born with. It is not something that, for the most part, we learn in school. Rather, it is a choice that anyone can make--if they are willing to pay the price. This article discusses the gift of courage. It discusses what courage is, why it is important, and why it crucially…

Myside bias, a form of confirmation bias, is a major impediment to scientific thinking. It results in scientists, potential scientists, and consumers of science drawing conclusions that do not follow from data but rather that follow from prior scientific, ideological beliefs. Gifted people are at least as susceptible to these biases as are other…

This article reviews the implications of many of the major schools in the history of psychology for understanding giftedness and its inner workings: operationist, psychometric, psychoanalytic, associationist, behaviorist, Gestalt, cognitive, humanistic/positive psychology, functionalist/pragmatic/constructivist, cultural, and biological. Each…

Creativity tests, at best, measure only a small sliver of the whole of creative giftedness. These tests assess aspects of creative intelligence. But creativity is at least as much a conscious decision and even an attitude toward life as it is a traditionally defined ability. This article discusses how well-intentioned gifted educators may be…

What are the ingredients of successful educational leadership? One possible answer is the WICS model. According to this paradigm, to be a highly effective leader, an individual must possess three key attributes: Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity--working in harmony or Synthesized. (Sternberg 2003; Sternberg and Vroom 2002). The skills…

This article presents replies to published comments on the authors' original article (R. L. Sternberg, E. L. Grigorenko, and K. K. Kidd. G. Carey cited in his response to their article a study by Tang et al. (2005) showing that "of 3,636 subjects of varying race/ethnicity, only 5 (0.14%) showed genetic cluster membership different from their…

A pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness and five criteria for designating a person as gifted are considered. Research with 24 college students and 39 parents of gifted children assessed whether this theory captures people's intuitions about giftedness and whether they use these criteria to evaluate others. Implications for educational practice…

The conceptions of intelligence of Taiwanese Chinese were investigated in two studies involving 68 and 434 participants (college students and community adults). Five factors emerged in the second study for ratings of frequency of characteristics of intelligence identified in the first study, and four factors emerged from ratings of importance of…

This article describes the theory of successful intelligence and how it can be applied to gifted education. It discusses the inadequacy of notions of IQ or general ability for fully characterizing intellectual giftedness and presents evidence in favor of the statistical validity and usefulness of the successful intelligence theory. (Contains…

This article presents an analysis of patterns of giftedness based on the triarchic theory of intelligence. The analysis distinguishes among seven different patterns of giftedness and includes: the Analyzer, the Creator, the Practitioner, the Analytical Creator, the Analytical Practitioners, the Creative Practitioner, and the Consummate Balancer.…

Creatively gifted individuals propose ideas that initially seem odd, but they "invest" in these ideas, bring them to fruition, and convince other people of their worth. Creatively gifted individuals display a combination of six resources that function interactively: intelligence, knowledge, styles of thinking, personality, motivation, and…