Many scholars of gifted education have often argued and believed that gifted individuals are neurologically overexcitable while non-gifted persons are not (Chang & Kuo, 2013; Harrison & Haneghan, 2011; Piechowski, 1979, 2006; Silverman, 2000a; Siu, 2010; Tieso, 2007a). This means that gifted persons are more sensitive, intuitive, empathic, and physically and emotionally aware. Some scholars have suggested that this significant degree of overexcitability may even mean that gifted persons are morally superior to non-gifted persons (Silverman, 1994). Over the past thirty years, this relationship between overexcitability (OE) and giftedness has become increasingly popular, as many websites, textbooks, and researchers have asserted it as true. These resources have also advocated a particular treatment and understanding of gifted persons due to their overexcitable nature.
Recently, however, some scholars have questioned the validity of the giftedness-overexcitability relationship (Mendaglio, 2002; Pyrt, 2008; Tillier, 2009a). So, while the past thirty years have seen a rise in the perception that gifted persons are overexcitable (Silverman, 2008), these scholars have contended that there is actually little empirical data demonstrating this relationship (Mendaglio; Pyrt; Tillier).
Using a systematic review of studies that compared gifted and non-gifted samples OE scores, this dissertation attempted to provide some clarity to this burgeoning debate. This process involved a research synthesis that used a priori established criteria to identify, describe, and evaluate the findings and methodologies of a body of literatures most rigorously conducted studies (Petticrew, 2001). The evaluation phase of the systematic review included both qualitative and quantitative techniques. These findings revealed that it is unclear that gifted individuals are significantly more overexcitable than non-gifted individuals. Consequently, researchers, practitioners, and gifted persons themselves should reconsider the relationship between giftedness and overexcitability.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-03102014-110622 |
| Date | 10 April 2014 |
| Creators | Winkler, Daniel Lawrence |
| Contributors | Jolly, Jennifer, Culross, Rita, Shindo, Charles, Arbuthnot, Keena, Cheng, Christine |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-03102014-110622/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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