The Gifted Group in Later Maturity [Genetic Studies of Genius
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THE GIFTED GROUP IN LATER MATURITY Carole K. Holahan and Robert R. Sears in association with Lee J. Cronbach oS Stanford University Press Stanford, California Stanford University Press, Stanford, California © 1995 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University Printed in the United States of America cip data appear at the end of the book Stanford University Press publications are distributed exclusively by Stanford University Press within the United States, Canada, and Mexico; they are distributed exclusively by Cambridge University Press throughoutthe rest of the world. This is the sixth volumeofa series on intellectual giftedness published by Stanford University Press. All but the second volume are based on the Terman Study ofthe Gifted. The other volumesin the series, formerly known as Genetic Studies ofGenius, are: 1. Mental and Physical Traits of a Thousand Gifted Children by Lewis M. Terman and others The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses by Catharine M. Cox The Promise of Youth: Follow-up Studies of a Thousand Gifted Children by Barbara S. Burks, Dortha W. Jensen, and Lewis M. Terman The Gifted Child Grows Up: Twenty-five Years’ Follow-up of a Superior Group by Lewis M. Terman and Melita H. Oden The Gifted Group at Mid-Life: Thirty-five Years’ Follow-up of the Superior Child by Lewis M. Terman and Melita H. Oden This bookis dedicated to the gifted men and women, whose generous sharing oftheir rich lives for over 70 years has made the Terman Study of the humanlife cycle possible. Foreword by Ernest R. Hilgard and Albert H. Hastorf During the last three decadesofhis life, prior to his death on May 22, 1989, Dr. Robert R. Sears had been deeply involved in the follow-up studies of the group of children of superior intelligence initially studied by Dr. Lewis M. Terman in 1921. Dr. Terman hada long history of interest in the characteristics of intel- lectually gifted individuals. In 1921 he organized a study of a groupofintellec- tually gifted youngsters, all of whom resided in California. His original interest focused on the psychological, behavioral, and physical characteristics of this group who were in the top | percent of measured intelligence. Dr. ‘Terman benefited from the capable colleagueship of Dr. Melita Oden, who wasassoci- ated with the study for over 30 years and with whom he authoredseveral of the earlier volumesin the series of works on the Terman subjects. Before his death in 1956, Dr. Terman designated those to be responsible for carrying on the work, including his son, Dr. Frederick E. Terman, Provost of Stanford University, and Dr. Quinn McNemar of the Department of Psychology, as custodians. Dr. Sears was to have the responsibility for planning and carrying out the continuing research operations. Faithful to the charge, Dr. Sears was responsible for five surveys of these cooperative subjects carried out between 1960 and 1986. Thelatter four of these surveys — carried out in 1972, 1976, 1982, and 1986 —are reported in this volume, the sixth in the series. The pre- vious volume,published in 1959, was based on data gathered while Dr. Terman wasstill alive, but was published after his death. The 1960 survey was reported in a monograph by Dr. Oden. In the course of these studies, Dr. Sears also had the advice and assistance of a number of professional psychologists at Stanford, including his wife, Dr. Pauline S. Sears, and Dr. Lee J. Cronbach of the School of Education, and 1X Foreword Dr. Albert H. Hastorf of the Department of Psychology. After 1972 the study’s focus wasaltered from the characteristics and achievementsof the gifted to how this group of individuals dealt with occupational retirement, the health issues of later maturity, and psychological adaptation to theselater years. Dr. Sears was particularly fortunate to have had the collaboration of Dr. a Carole K. Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin. For a numberof years she was visiting scholar at Stanford — at the Institute for the Study of Women and Gender during 1978-80, and regularly in the Psychology Departmentin later years. During this time, she worked with Dr. Sears in conducting the later surveys and published several papers based on the data. Dr. Sears invited her collaboration on this volume in 1987. The present volume wasjointly planned and muchofthe data analysis carried out before Dr. Sears’s death. He had written initial drafts of chapters on the study’s background,attrition, the men’s occupational history, marital patterns, and social networks. With one exception, Dr. Holahan wrote the other chapters and revised the entire manuscript. Dr. Cronbach analyzed and wrote mostofthe chapteron life satisfactions, and also updatedthe attrition analyses. The second authorof this foreword had been a colleague of Dr. Sears since 1961, and has now taken over responsibility for the Terman archive and the continuation of the study. Thefirst author of this foreword was never directly involved with the study but was closely associated with Dr. Terman as a member of the Psychology Department from 1933 until the time of Dr. Terman’s death. He can attest to Dr. Terman’s deep interest in the participants in this study as individuals — thoughtof as “his children.” The present volumeis important not only becauseit reports a longitudinal study — we have in essencescientific biog- raphies ofthis large sample — but because throughit we learn a great deal about the life satisfactions, goals, and disappointments of gifted individuals in the later years of life. With the presentinterest in the status of women, much of the evidence bears on the ways in which the opportunities of gifted women were constrained in their generation. Were he alive today, Dr. Terman would be pleased with this volume that has so well carried out his plan for a lifetime study — and he would hope for more to come. Preface This volumetraces the progress of the men and womenin the Terman Study of the Gifted through the yearsof later maturity, when on average they werein their 60’s and early 70’s. The study was begun in 1921 by Dr. Lewis M. Terman, when the subjects averaged eleven years of age. It has continued for over 70 years and has becomethe longestlife-cycle study in the history of the social sciences. This is the sixth in a series of books and monographsthat documentthe lives of these gifted individuals at various points in the life cycle. The last comprehensive summary presented the results of the 1960 survey (Oden, 1968), when the sub- jects were well into mid-life, and averaged 50 yearsof age. Begunat a time whenlittle was known aboutthe associated characteristics and long-term outcomesofintellectual giftedness, the Terman Study amassed a vast store of data on these individuals. Seeing the intellectual gifts of these subjects as a precious resource for our society, Dr. Terman wasinterested in knowing whethertheir intellectual superiority would be matched by superiorities in other domains or whether, as was commonlybelieved, they would be lacking in other positive characteristics, such as physical and mental health, social ad- justment, and breadth ofinterests. He also wanted to knowifthe intellectual gifts the subjects demonstratedin childhood would be maintainedinto their adulthood years, or would be hopelessly lost, as was widely assumed. The earlier work by Dr. Terman andhis colleagues, tracing these lives from childhood to mid-life, has laid to rest these negative stereotypes aboutthe lives of gifted individuals in childhood and adulthood. Now the Terman subjects have reached the years oflater maturity, years that carry special challenges — physi- cally, psychologically, and socially — after the highly productive years of mid- life. Thus it is appropriate now to see if the pattern of positive findings Dr. Xi X11 Preface Terman reported for these individuals in earlier years persisted into their later years. The Terman subjects cameto later maturity at a fortunate timefor the fields of life-span developmentand gerontology. In recentyears,life-span developmental researchers have looked beyond childhood and adolescence,to study the entire life cycle. At the sametime, earlier assumptions of broad declinein the process of agingare being replacedin the gerontologicalfield by a more optimistic vision that searches for the determinants of successful aging. The study of the Terman subjects — a groupthat is advantaged in many respects — can provide invaluable insights into the prospects for successful aging, suggesting a benchmark against whichto judge the process of aging more generally. We have approachedthe book with several objectives. First, we have pursued one of the goals of Dr. Terman andhis colleagues — that of providing rich and complete descriptive data onthe subjects’ lives — by extendingthe description of their lives into the years of later maturity. In so doing, we have maintained thematic continuity with earlier reports by including topics such as educational and career history, avocational pursuits, and physical and mental health. At the same time, however, we have supplemented theseearlier themes with topics that are unique to later maturity, such as retirement and retrospectivelife satisfac- tions. Moreover, with the vast store of data in the Terman archives, we can begin to answer questions concerning the precursors of successful aging. We therefore also include analyses of antecedentsof later-life outcomes in our presentation. We comparethese subjects with the general population, and the subjects of other available life-cycle studies, wheneverpossible. Thebookis intended for scholars and professionals in diverse disciplines who are interested in intellectual giftedness, the study ofthe life cycle, and geron- tological studies. However, we have also endeavored to present the study’s findings in a form thatis accessible to the general reader. For example, to capture the uniqueness andrich variety in these subjects’ life patterns, we have included a numberofcase studies along the way. When Lewis Termanbeganthis study in 1921, he was in his mid-40’s.