COGNITIVE-PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES OF GIFTED ADOLESCENTS FROM IRELAND AND THE US - CROSS-SOCIETAL COMPARISONS

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was administered to 1,247 gifte d adolescents from the United States and a comparable sample of 309 gi fted Irish adolescents, all of whom were attending summer programs for the academically talented. Strikingly similar patterns of cognitive a nd psychological styes were found for the gifted students in both Irel and and the U.S. These patterns are quite different than those found i n normative samples of U.S. students. The most consistent finding rr a s that the majority of gifted students score highly on N (Intuition), indicative of a preference for the abstract and theoretical. This is i n contrast to studies showing the majority of U.S. students from the g eneral population have a preference for the factual and pragmatic. Man y of the gifted students from both societies showed preferences for mo des of thinking and learning that may be at odds with typical instruct ional styles. Implications for educational practices and policy are su ggested. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.