Gifted and overexcitable: positive disintegration, artistic self-perception and their impact on adolescent creative writing

Although creativity has become a source of great interest in both the public sphere and in educational research, identification of gifted students continues to focus more on cognitive ability than on artistic creativity. As a result, the unique needs of artistically gifted students are often neglected in school contexts. Further, discussions around the emotional needs and psychological well-being of gifted students present difficulties when comparing studies of gifted children which use disparate means of identification or incompatible definitions of creativity or giftedness. Dabrowski’s Five Overexcitabilities (OEs) offer a possible means of understanding the psychological traits of creative students as well as the emotional impact of their creativity upon their learning experience. In linking the OEs to creative production, Dabrowski (1964) suggests that creativity is the result of the inner workings of emotional and psychological upheaval in highly capable individuals. Using a mixed-methods, explanatory design, this study seeks to clarify the links between the OEs and artistic creativity, using students’ self-perception in a variety of artistic domains and their creative production in writing. The study focuses on creative writing because it is largely neglected in the literature on adolescent artistic giftedness. Findings of the study indicate a strong relationship between both artistic and intellectual traits in students displaying ability in creative writing, and finds support for the association between the OEs and artistic giftedness, particularly Intellectual OE. Recommendations are made regarding future study to examine more closely the links between artistic giftedness and the overexcitabilities, especially as they impact upon young creative writers.