Openness to Experience, a Personality Trait of Gifted Adolescents and One of the Key Factors of High Developmental Potential

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to enhance our understanding of what motivates gifted individuals. The focus was on how the personality traits of highly gifted and gifted adolescents differ from those of adolescents with above-average intelligence. In a longitudinal self-report study, the following traits were considered: Openness to Experience (Imagination), Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness (Benevolence), and Neuroticism. In addition, Strengths and Difficulties were assessed as an indicator of mental health. Participants were 561 highly gifted, gifted, and adolescents with above-average intelligence. Data was collected in grades 8 and 10. (R)MANOVAs were conducted with the Wilks' Lambda statistic to investigate the difference between the three cognitive capacity groups in personality traits and Strengths and Difficulties. The findings showed highly gifted and gifted adolescents to differ significantly from cognitively above-average adolescents on two personality traits, namely: Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness. Openness to Experience increased significantly more from grade 8 to grade 10 for the both the highly gifted adolescents and gifted adolescents compared to the adolescents with above-average intelligence, moreover. These findings in addition to the findings that the lower-order facets of the personality trait Openness to Experience, namely Intellect and Curiosity, characterize the highly gifted and gifted adolescents more than adolescents with above-average intelligence are in keeping with the findings of other countries. Finally, the highly gifted females and gifted adolescents in grade 10 in our study scored higher (i.e., above average) on the lower-order Concentration facet of the personality trait Conscientiousness than the highly gifted males and adolescents with above-average intelligence. In line with our expectations, the adolescents in this study all reported comparable levels of emotional stability, agreeableness, difficulties, and positive or pro-social behavior on average. The present findings suggest that Curiosity should be recognized and stimulated in gifted young people as one of the key aspects of high developmental potential.