The Top 10 Signs of Giftedness in Adulthood

The vast majority of adults who were labeled ‘gifted’ in childhood are unaware that their advanced development would continue to have an impact throughout their lives. Contrary to popular belief, giftedness is not characterized by high intelligence alone. Rather, gifted individuals experience early and exceptional psychological, spiritual and intellectual development. As a result, gifted adults exhibit common personality traits and face similar challenges on the road to self-actualization. Gifted adults demonstrate:

1. Qualitative differences in information processing

Characterized by: unique perception and awareness; a sense of humor and creativity outside the norm; questioning, searching for truth, intuitiveness; insightfulness; comfort with both divergent thinking (breaking things into components) and synergistic thinking (putting things together to form something new and different); relentless curiosity and heightened creative drive; being more process-oriented than product-oriented; holding divergent values compared to mainstream culture.

2. High sensitivity

Characterized by: sensitivity to others often combined with a sense of personal alienation and loneliness; acute awareness of complexities and consequences; heightened responsivity to expectations of others.

3. Intensity

Characterized by: high excitability; high energy level; emotional reactivity; high arousal of central nervous system (Kazimierz Dabrowski Theory of Positive Disintegration).

4. Multipotentiality

Characterized by: having capabilities in many areas and domains of talent; can move fluidly from one pursuit or interest to the next; the ability to juggle many things at once.

5. Idealism

Characterized by: striving for moral integrity; interest in social reform and service; extraordinarily high standards; low tolerance for mediocrity and frustration.

6. Perfectionism

Characterized by: self-criticism; labeling oneself as “scattered”; having a lowered sense of entitlement to make mistakes; identifying easily with failure; thinking they are more likely to blame than others; difficulty taking credit for achievement and abilities (“impostor” phenomena).

7. Need for autonomy

Characterized by feelings of: being out of step and on a separate path; being “Other”; not fitting in; striving for inner authenticity; may experience deep conflicts between needs for self-actualization and maintaining traditional relationships.

8. Strong entelechy (from Greek for ‘having a goal’)

Characterized by: the need for self-determination; for self-actualization; leadership qualities; achievement-orientation; interest in nontraditional careers and professions.

9. Intense moral commitment

Characterized by: seeing injustice and doing something about it; willingness to stand up for one’s beliefs; outrage at moral breaches that the rest of the world seems to take for granted.

10. Global view

Characterized by respect for all human beings; a greater capacity for empathy; concern for others—especially children; sensitivity and warmth.

About the Submitter:

Submitted by Elyse Killoran, Personal Coach and Life Strategist who specializes in work with Gifted Women, who can be reached at Elyse@WomensU.com, or visited on the web at http://www.coachcentral.com/elysekilloran. The original source is: The work of Douglas Eby, Mary Rocamora, Kathleen Noble and studies conducted by Linda Kreger Silverman of the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development.

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