Persistence of Choice as a Reflection of Social Giftedness

The article raises the issue of social giftedness and outlines the necessity of the fundamental study of this phenomenon. The author suggests that social giftedness is reflected in the stability of socially oriented behavior and in more complex and diverse interest in one's own personality: in appreciation of one’s own uniqueness and in participation in a wide range of small and large social groups, where one expresses one’s involvement through personal concern for the groups. The object of the study is to identify the relationship between the stability of one’s choice for the benefit of the group and social giftedness. The proposed hypothesis states that socially gifted schoolchildren tend to make persistent socially oriented choices (with collectivistic cognitive orientation). The hypothesis was tested on a sample of third-graders by means of M. Kuhn and T. McPartland’s test "Who am I" and an experiment of collectivistic/individualistic choices relating to the presence of an authoritative figure. The study confirms that persistence of collectivistic choices is characteristic of socially gifted students.