Understanding success and psychological well-being of gifted kids and adolescents: Focusing on strengths of the heart

Abstract

This article describes the work that the author has been focusing on over the last 15 years: understanding the social and emotional world of the gifted child and adolescent. The article describes the history behind how the author came to develop his thinking on the now popular concept, “strengths of the heart”. Strengths of the heart include a triad of psychological concepts: social skills, emotional intelligence, and character strengths and virtues. Together, this triad of psychological concepts, strengths of the heart, predict to important life outcomes, including success, psychological health, happiness, and subjective well-being.