title: The concept of 'giftedness': a pentagonal implicit theory.
abstract: This paper presents a pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness and a set of data testing the theory. The exposition is divided into five parts. First, I discuss what an implicit theory is and why such theories are important. Second, I describe the pentagonal theory, specifying five conditions claimed to be individually necessary and jointly sufficient for a person to be labelled as gifted. These conditions not only help us understand why some people are labelled as 'gifted', but also why some others are not. Third, I consider the relation of the pentagonal theory to explicit theories of giftedness. Fourth, I present data supporting the theory. Finally, I discuss some implications of the pentagonal theory for gifted education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-7447.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Sternberg
mesh_terms: D001076:Aptitude; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002672:Child, Gifted / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group