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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA Si John's Road, Tyler’s Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR SHELDON, Paul M illard, n.d. THE DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF A GROUP OF CHILDREN WHO TEST AT OR ABOVE 170 IQ ON THE 1937 REVISION OF THE STANFORD- BINET SCALE New York University, Ph.D., 1951 Education, tests and measurements Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48io6 i ; v Sponsoring Committeet Professor Harvey W. Zorbaugh,, Professor Charles E‘, Skinner, and Associate ^ 2-0 Professor Rhea^K. Boardman ^ - v 'C the'DEVELOPMENT AMD, CHARACTERISTICS OF4 A GROJP, OF . > CHILDREN WHO TEST AT OR ABOVE 170 M ON THE -■ - « 1937 REVISION OF, THE 'STANFORD-BINET SCAIE ' < ' PAUL MILLAHD SHELDON ; r ri‘r ' ^ - ' Submitted ih partial-fulfillm ent" >of the Jv.y. ••V -.-v•:rrv.'-vv\ ■ • / , / v :;;V A ;;fh ttd sc p l$ ::'^ ^ v ^ ; - >V ^ a t v J . "■■'■:.• i. ,N e t t - Y o r k ‘' . A'.X:./. 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' -* r <■* v ' ' - ' ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This investigation was a logical outgrowth of years of work by experience of many people at the Counseling Center for Gifted Children of the New York University School of Education* Because the launching and proseoution of so ambitious a project would have been impossible without this earlier work and the cooperation of these and a number of other people, the investigator offers his thanks first to Harvey W* Zorbaugh, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Sooiology and Director of the Counseling Center for Gifted Children, and to former staff members who laid the groundwork on which the research program was based* Thanks are also due to the School of Education of New York University for the use of equipment and facilities* I am especially grateful to the11 subjeots of the investiga tion and to their parents for their splendid cooperation in permitting themselves to be used as participants in research and for spending many hours being interviewed, tested,;examined and otherwise subjected to most intimate scrutiny* Family friends and relatives who added data and opinions also gave valuable aid* The investigator is deeply indebted to all of these persons* Various members of the staff of Hunter College gave invalu able help from the opening meeting throughout the three year period of the investigation* Especially, I express gratitude to Florenoe Brumbaugh, Ph* D*, principal of Hunter College Elementary School, and to UioE Helen Travin, of her staff* for their complete cooperation. Dr* Brumbaugh attended the organisational meeting in 1947* gave the benefit of her years of training and experience in the handling of gifted ohildren by offering advice and suggestions about the setting up of the project, and furnished many names of prospective subjeots* Approximately half of the subjects selected were or had been students in her school* Aocess was granted to the school, students, and staff immediately upon request and often at some inconvenienoe* All records were made available* No praise would be too high for the oomplete oooperation given to the project by Dr. Brumbaugh* Frank T* Wilson* Ph. D.* Coordinator of Research for Hunter College Elementary School and Professor of Psyohology at Hunter College, also attended the opening meeting and subsequently administered examinations and permitted aooess to records of earlier examinations* Other psychologists who were equally helpful in the testing program were* Brian Tomlinson, Ph* D«, Professor, and Avrun Ben-Avi* Ph. D., Assistant Professor, of the Department of Psyohology, Sohool of Educa tion, Hew York University! and Harold Ahelson, Ph. D., Professor of Education, Chairman of the Department of Psychology and Director of the Psycho-Educational Clinio of the College of the City of New York, who searched his records, furnished lis ts and results of tests, and made physical and psychological studies o f the subjects who had passed through his olinic* Two other investigations were being oonduoted simultaneously with this one and inoluded some of the same subjects* Miss Leona Kerstetter was compiling data on the results of soeiometrio tests ad ministered to approximately 500 sohool ohildren in an effort to deter mine by this method the degree of aooeptanoe or rejection of highly i i i gifted ohildren by their fellow classmates* Mr. Kalman Selig was ad ministering Rorschach oards to and conduoting exploratory interviews with approximately 40 ohildren whose scores on the 1937 Revision of the Stanford-Binet Scale gave them IQ's of 160 or higher, including 26 of the 28 subjeots of this investigation* Although work had not been completed on these projects at the time of writing up the results of the present investigation, both Miss Kerstetter and Mr* Selig made available to the investigator the raw data which they had oompiled and gave fu ll oooperation in making it of maximum usefulness through giv ing their preliminary interpretations* This cooperation was extremely helpful and merits sincerest gratitude* For their work in an advisory capacity in developing the pediatrician'b report form as well as for the many hours spent in ex amining subjects, the investigator is indebted to Lawrenoe M* Shapiro, M*D*, Pediatric Consultant to HUnter College Elementary Sohool, and Harry E* Bakwin, M.D*, Professor of Pediatrics at the New York Univer sity Sohool of Medicine* Dr* Shapiro also volunteered to act as pedi atric oonsultant to the research project and rendered excellent service by devising and sending out cover and follow-up letters on the report forms and compiling height and weight comparisons with the norm, based on somatotype measurements* Dr* 8hapiro was assisted by Miss Elaine Shor, R*N*, a field work student at the New York University Sohool of Education, who arranged and oonduoted personal interviews with those family physicians and pediatricians who failed to return the report forms* Vf* H* Sheldon, M*D*, Ph*D*, Director, C* W* Dupertuis, Ph*D*, and Miss Barbara Hirsoh, of the Constitution Laboratory of the Columbia University Medioal Sohool, gave their time and sk ill and iv the facilities of their laboratory for taking photographs, making physical measurements, compiling age-height-weight figures, and soma- totyping the subjeots* It is hoped that some benefit w ill accrue to the laboratory and its staff from this splendid and helpful piece of work* Exploratory psychiatric interviews were conducted with the subjects and with their parents, when the latter wished, by Lauretta Bender, 11. D., Director, Children’s Division, New York University** Bellevue Medical Center Psychiatric Clinic, and Ralph Rabinovitch,M*D* , then of the same staff but presently Director of the Children’s Divi sion, Neuro-Psychiatric Department, University Hospital, University of Michigan* In addition to their having conducted these interviews, I am indebted to Dr* Bender and Dr* Rabinovitch for their reviews of case history material, analyses, and for the hours of consultation whioh were most valuable in furthering an understanding of each of the sub jects interviewed* Mrs. Christine Robb Thompson, MSS, gave the benefit of her training and experience in psychiatric social work by reviewing, sum marising, end evaluating the case histories of subjects not seen by the psychiatrists and in the preparation of social histories* Since Mrs* Robb was an expert in this field her work was invaluable in the sum marizing of the individual cases as well as in making over-all summar ies, conclusions, hypotheses, and recommendations for future research* The principals, headmasters, and teachers in schools attended by the subjects were extremely oooperative and gave all possible help toward the successful compilation of data on these subjeots* I am es pecially grateful for their cooperation in arranging for and permitting the administration of Haggerty-01 son-Wickman Behavior Rating Soales, v for excusing subjects for tests and examinations during school hours when necessary, and for making records available to interviewers and field workers* Approximately twenty students at the New York University School of Education, including graduates taking courses in field work and seniors in the pre-professional social work curriculum, rendered many hours of excellent service in summarizing records, doing various clerioal jobs, chaperoning and guiding subjeots and their parents, arranging for tests and interviews, administering and scoring Califor nia Personality and Stanford Achievement Tests, arranging for teaohers to fill out Haggerty-01 son-Wickman Behavior Rating Scales, and doing many other b its of hand and foot work neoessary to the smooth func tioning of so extensive a program* Outstanding assistance was given by the following: Viotor Balaban, Joseph Botka, Maurice Downey, Mary h Gambon (Mrs* Edward Bernasco), Ann Jaffe, Sarah (Mrs* John) Bussell, Dorothy She&han, and Naomi Smith* In addition to doing all of the things indicated above, these students also helped in the taking and recording of family and developmental histories* I am especially grateful to Miss Michellina Magenza, Secre tary of the Counseling Center for Gifted Children of New York Univer sity, and Miss Elizabeth Rogers for doing the bulk of the voluminous stenographic urork, as well as for many other jobs which facilitated the progress of the research and the subsequent reoording of data. Finally, to Professors Harvey W, Zorbaugh, Chairman, Rhea E* v/ Boardman, Ph*D*, Brian Tomlinson, Ph*D*, and Charles W* Skinner, Ph*D*, of the Sohool of Education, New York University, the members of my committee, I express my most profound thanks for their advice, criti cism, and inspiration. Additional thanks are due to Dr* Boardman as Director of the Pre-Professional Social Tlfork Curriculum, for making available and supervising her students and giving the benefit of her training and experience in that oapacity. It is the hope of the investigator that the results of this investigation w ill be of sufficient significance to justify the expenditure of sk ills, time, effort, and inspiration of these many highly trained, busy people. I am deeply grateful to all of them. Paul 11. Sheldon Occidental College Los Angeles 41, California February 1, 1951 vii C O N T E N T S PART X 1 - 8 0 Chapter 1. The Problem.............................................................. 1 - 7 2. History of Research on Gifted Children •••• 8 - 2 9 3. Summary of Previous Research on Children with IQ 170 and Above....................... 30-1*8 1*. Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............................. 1*9-80 PART II RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION 81 - 89$ $• The Case of Gregory ................ 82 - 122 6. The Case of lis a ................ 123 - 1$$ 7. The Case of P hyllis................................................1$6 - 189 8. The Case of Cora •.............................................. 190 - 21$ 9. The Case of Edith •.............. 216 - 238 10. The Case of Gerald ................................ 239 - 270 11. The Case of Harold ...................................... 271 - 301* 12. The Case of Lois .................................30$ - 332 13. The Case of Mary......................................................333 - 3$9 11*. The Case of E llen.................. 36O - 389 1$. The Case of Peter................................................. 390 - 1*26 16. The Case of Robert 1*27 - 1*$6 17. The Case of Richard...............................................1*$7 - 1*93 18. The Case of George.................................................1*91* - $23 19. The Case of Vichy............................................... 521* - $1*1* 20. The Case of Kenneth $1*5 - $80 21. The Case of Dorothy ...........................................581 - 619 22. The Case of Blanche •••••...............» 620 - 6$2 23. The Case of Peggy................................................. 6$3 - 677 21*. The Case of Ruth 678 - 707