A person’s position in society, his social status, well-being, recognition of others largely depend on the qualities of the individual. And everyone who strives for success dreams of becoming, if not brilliant, then talented or at least gifted. In psychology, the concepts of “giftedness”, “talent”, “genius” are somehow connected with abilities. Sometimes they are even called the highest levels of development of abilities, but this is not entirely true.
Abilities and their types
Ability is a complex education, a combination of the most diverse qualities of a person, which enable him to achieve success in a certain activity. It is the opportunity, but whether this potential opportunity will become a reality, depends on the industriousness, perseverance and determination of the individual.
Abilities are formed and developed throughout life. There are cases when people achieved success in painting, literature, invention at a fairly mature, or even old age.
Abilities are based on natural inclinations, which are innate (but not necessarily hereditary), for example:
- ear for music;
- high sensitivity to color discrimination;
- large lung capacity;
- increased activity of the right or left hemisphere of the brain, etc.
It is difficult to achieve success without the presence of the inclinations, but the natural qualities of a person do not guarantee it. The inclinations can develop into ability only in the process of mastering the activity, systematic studies and hard work.
Along with special abilities associated with a specific activity and manifested in it, there are general abilities, primarily cognitive. You cannot do without them in any activity. A person with a low level of intelligence or poor memory will not succeed in becoming an outstanding composer even if he has a phenomenal ear for music. The level of general abilities determines the efficiency and speed of obtaining, storing and processing information and the effectiveness of human interaction with the environment, including with society.
Here is a set of inclinations that imply a high level of general ability, most often called giftedness.
Giftedness and its role in human life
In psychology, there is no consensus on what giftedness is, and most often this concept is used in pedagogy. There, giftedness is considered as a complex of personality traits, which contributes to the successful mastery of knowledge and the development of skills in educational activities.
In psychology, there are several points of view on the essence of this concept, but most often giftedness is associated with cognitive abilities: attention, memory, thinking, imagination and creativity. Thus, the concept of “giftedness” includes the following individual characteristics:
- observation and a high level of concentration of attention;
- the ability to quickly and often spontaneously memorize heterogeneous information;
- free access to information stored in memory and, as a result, associative thinking;
- flexible thinking, able to operate with concepts and categories from different fields of knowledge;
- high level of logical thinking;
- developed figurative thinking and imagination;
- the ability to think in an original way, creatively and find non-standard solutions to problems.
Thus, giftedness provides a person with the opportunity to master various types of activity, but this opportunity is potential, since special abilities are also required for success. Although, given that giftedness presupposes a penchant for creativity and significant general activity, a person with a high level of this characteristic will always find a sphere of self-realization and an area where he can achieve success. And a number of psychologists also single out special endowments associated with special abilities.
Talent as a natural gift and level of ability
You can often hear the expression: “He was given talent from God.” Evaluation of talent as a kind of gift is connected, of course, with the desire to somehow justify one’s own “mediocrity” – since it is not given, so it is not given. But there is a certain amount of truth in this statement.
Talent is a very high level of special abilities and it really is not given to everyone. Talent is based on inclinations – natural qualities, a person’s innate predisposition to certain activities. It manifests itself most often in anatomical, physiological or psychophysiological features:
- ear for music;
- the sensitivity of the visual analyzer;
- activity of the center of mathematical abilities in the cerebral cortex;
- the speed of mental reactions, etc.
All this creates the conditions for potential success in the activity. But this activity still needs to be mastered, and not at an average level, but at the level of skill – only then people will talk about your talent.
That is, talent, although it presupposes natural data, is primarily work, perseverance in mastering techniques, methods of activity, the process of developing and improving abilities. Even if a person was born with excellent inclinations, but does not show perseverance and hard work in the development of abilities, then he will not achieve success, at best he will become a strong middle peasant, an artisan, and not a master. They usually say about such people: “I buried my talent in the ground.”
But, one way or another, talent is a fairly common phenomenon, moreover, almost all children are born potentially talented. And it depends only on upbringing and personal perseverance whether a potential talent turns into a real one.
But genius is a phenomenon of a completely different order, although it is associated with the level of abilities. But we can say that genius goes beyond the upper limit of the mental norm, and therefore it is extremely rare.
Superpowers or Gift? Learn from the superhumans themselves about their ability.
What is genius
When we say that genius goes beyond the norm, we do not mean a pathology, not a disease, but the fact that the abilities of a genius significantly exceed some standard socially accepted norm. This allows geniuses not only to achieve success often in several types of activity, but also to influence the very course of development of human civilization.
A talented person differs from a simply capable person quantitatively – the level of development of abilities, but a brilliant person differs qualitatively.
The highest level of human ability
A genius is characterized by:
- unusual perception of the environment;
- thinking outside the box;
- the highest level of creativity.
Moreover, creativity is spontaneous, when new, original ideas are born, as it were, by themselves, and intuitive thinking is ahead of rational thinking.
No less important is such a quality of genius as interest, enthusiasm, often turning into obsession. Brilliant people are often fond of different areas, types of activity, and everywhere they are able to achieve success not only due to their giftedness, talent, but also colossal diligence, perseverance, dedication. For the sake of new knowledge or mastering a new activity, a genius can sacrifice a lot, including his own health and the well-being of loved ones.
Geniuses have the ability of scientific foresight not only because of their analytical abilities, but also because they themselves were in many ways ahead of their time, and their discoveries and creations, it would seem, were taken from the future.
The basis of genius is a very high level of giftedness and talent, which manifests itself in different types of activities. It would seem that a genius is capable of achieving success in everything. For instance:
- Leonardo da Vinci was not only an artist, but also an architect and an outstanding inventor, whose ideas were hundreds of years ahead of his time.
- Giordano Bruno is known not only as a brilliant astronomer who expressed ideas incomparable with the level of development of science at that time, but as a poet and philosopher.
- Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of motion of the planets of the solar system, became famous as a well-known mathematician, mechanic and optician.
- The outstanding philosopher Rene Descartes was also the creator of analytical geometry, a physicist and even a physiologist. By the way, the Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlov considered him to be his predecessor.
- One of the brightest Russian geniuses, Mikhailo Lomonosov, showed talent in very different areas: poetry and mechanics, chemistry and history, painting and metallurgy, geography and astronomy.
Reading about geniuses, you understand that these are people who are clearly outside the norm. But how crazy are they?
Maybe all the same pathology?
A number of researchers who studied the phenomenon of “genius” at the beginning of the 20th century came to this very idea – the activities of these genius people and their behavior were too different from ordinary ones.
One of the most famous proponents of the idea of the connection between genius and mental pathology was the Italian psychiatrist Charles Lombroso. He wrote the book “Genius and Madness”, in which he collected and analyzed a large statistical material of various deviations of talented people. Lombroso concluded, though rather cautious, that genius is often associated with the manifestation of a disease, and not only a mental one. Is he right?
Partly yes, right. But not in the fact that there is an obvious connection between genius and madness, but in the fact that people of genius are often predisposed to diseases, including mental ones. There are several reasons for this:
- Geniuses are characterized by a high degree of sensitivity; they absorb all information, including emotional, like a sponge. Therefore, people of genius are often distinguished by exaltation, incontinence and vulnerability.
- With high efficiency and often obsession with their activities, geniuses spend much more physical and mental energy than ordinary people. Therefore, they often suffer from a “rollback” – a sharp decline in activity, when the emotional upsurge is replaced by a sharp decline, and often depression.
- Due to mobility, instability of the nervous system and increased emotionality, geniuses are harder than ordinary people to endure life’s troubles, they often have social problems, they get along worse with other people. Therefore, they often suffer from loneliness.
- The achievements of people of genius are ahead of their time, so they often do not receive the recognition of their contemporaries, and it happens that they are persecuted. And as a result of rejection by society, they may develop neuroses and depression. Even Leonardo da Vinci, seemingly one of the most prosperous geniuses, was recognized by his contemporaries (and not only by his contemporaries) as a great artist, and not at all as a genius inventor. But he himself considered painting an insignificant hobby and attached greater importance to inventions, which, alas, in the 15th-16th centuries were never implemented.
There is one more reason not directly related to genius. Geniuses are visible in the crowd, they are too extraordinary, non-standard to be considered normal. They seem strange, and rumors sometimes greatly exaggerate these oddities.
But geniuses can be called the real engines of civilization. And the oddities? Everyone has them. Modern psychologists generally argue that normal people do not exist, the norm is an abstraction. Genius, at least, is forgivable for strangeness.
Schools for Gifted Children: Good or Bad?
