1 Being Gifted in the Culture of Childhood.- The Gifted Child as Social Outcast.- The Pervasive Benign Light of Intelligence.- Intelligence, Leadership, and Role Differentiation in Small Groups.- Intelligence, Social Competence, and the Prediction of Adult Mental Health.- Motivation and Creativity in Peer Relations Perspective.- Role of the Peer Group.- Age Differences in the Social Adjustment of the Gifted.- Organization of this Book.- 2 Peer Acceptance of Gifted Children: The Pedestal Revisited.- The Challenge of Studying Peer Relations.- The Challenge of Studying the Gifted.- A Review of the Empirical Literature.- What Differentiates Popular and Unpopular Gifted Children?.- Conclusion.- 3 Early Peer Relations of the Eminent: A Pilot Exploration.- Method.- Quantitative Analysis.- Conclusions.- 4 The Portrayal of Brightness in Children's Literature.- Development of Our Coding Manual.- Sampling Procedure.- Reliability of Ratings.- Quantitative Results: Portrayal of "Bright" Characters.- Qualitative Interpretation.- Conclusion.- 5 The Social Self-Concepts of Gifted Children: Delusions of Ungrandeur?.- One Self-Concept of Many?.- The Social Origin of Self-Concept.- Review of Self-Concept Studies.- Creativity and Self-Concept.- Conclusion.- 6 The Minority in Person: Gifted Children in Therapy.- David, Age 14.- Ellen, Age 15.- Jeffrey, Age 8.- Common Elements.- Counseling the Socially Maladjusted Gifted Child.- 7 School Life and the Social Development of the Gifted.- Evaluating the Impact of School Programming.- Research on the Impact of Schools.- Enhancing the Impact of Special Programs.- Author Index.

An Applied Psychologist's Initiation to the Study of Gifted Children My interest in the subject matter of this book, the peer relations of gifted children, intensified enormously as result of my' involvement with one gifted child during my days as a school psychologist. At that time, I served a number of schools in a prosperous suburb. I spent most of my time working with children with behavioral and learning disorders. I received very few requests to assist gifted youngsters and their teachers, perhaps because, at that point, I was not very sensitive to their needs. One autumn I was involved in something from which I derived a great deal of satisfaction-helping the teachers of a very advanced retarded boy with Down's syndrome maintain himself in a regular first-grade class. In retrospect, the achievements of this student, Jeff, would have justified my calling him exceptionally bright, given the limits of his endowment. I was interrupted from my observation of Jeff's success in class by a phone call from another school, one to which I had not previously been summoned. I was asked to discuss the case of an intellectually gifted child who was bored, moody, difficult, and disliked by those around him.