The Correlations among Emotional Development, Over-excitabilities and Personal Maladjustment

Abstract

This article presents a self-report inventory, the “Emotion Scale”, conducted on the basis of Dabrowski’s theory (1964) to understand the emotional development of the gifted. Two subscales, “Emotional Functions” and “Emotional Cognition” were included with 26 items. The coefficients of internal consistency (Cronbach α =.769), stability(.657~.769) and the expert validity(.714~1.000) were well reported. The formal study included 123 mathematically gifted students and 132 regular students from senior high schools in Northern Taiwan. The participants were administered with three instruments: “The Emotion Scale”, “The Me Scale” (OEs Scale), and “The Basic Personality Inventory”. The research findings indicated that the gifted students had better emotional adjustment than the regular students on three scales. There was positive correlation (t=.33, p<.01) between the score of emotion development and the intellectual OE but negative correlation (-.14, p<.05) between the score of emotion development and Emotional OE. The significant negative correlation (-.49, p<.01) between the score of emotion development and the score of Basic Personality Inventory was also found. Through the Stepwise Regression analysis, the researchers found the intensive emotional Over-excitability(EOE) significantly predicted personal maladjustment. Teachers and parents of the gifted are suggested using “The Emotion Scale” and “The Me Scale” to understand the emotional needs of their students/children and provide at-risk students/children with differential guidance and counseling.