Ser ou não ser, eis a questão: o processo de construção da identidade na pessoa com altas habilidades/superdotação adulta

• Ano de defesa: 2008
• Autor(a) principal: Pérez, Susana Graciela Pérez Barrera
• Orientador(a): Stobäus, Claus Dieter
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; Porto Alegre
• Palavras-chave em Português: EDUCAÇÃO ESPECIAL; SUPERDOTADOS; IDENTIDADE SOCIAL; IDENTIFICAÇÃO - BRASIL
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/10923/2662

High Abilities/Giftedness (HA/GT) scientific researches have been oriented to understand different aspects of identification of and servicing to children and adolescents. This Doctoral dissertation is a qualitative case study aiming at understanding how adult highly able/gifted persons (HA/GTP) build their identity as such, proposing educational strategies for a healthy construction of this identity and consequent development. Theoretical grounds are based on Gardner’s multiple intelligences (1993, 2000), and Renzulli’s giftedness concept (1975, 1986); Erikson (1987), Woodward (2002), and Silva (2000), Gross (1998), and Silverman (1995, 1998), for identity-related topics; as well as those authors discussing life-span human development, such as Papalia, Olds & Feldman (2006), Schaie & Willis (2000), and Mosquera (1987). Research individuals were 10 adults (5 formally identified and 5 showing clear HA/GT indicators but not formally identified before this work), currently living in 4 Brazilian states and 2 foreign countries, who had previously spent some time of their lives in Brazil. The participants have answered a questionnaire, a personal data sheet and a standardized instrument, which has been developed to assess HA/GT indicators in adults. Statements were submitted to Bardin’s content analysis technique (2004), resulting in 3 categories, 9 subcategories and 5 dimensions, which have analyzed adult HA/GTP’s self-concept, school education, and work. Findings have shown that healthy identity construction as a HA/GTP is directly linked not only to the representation their family, teachers and professors, and society had have on HA/GT and on the HA/GTP, but mainly to their own representation on HA/GT and HA/GTP.It was also clear that the greater the intersection among recognition, acceptance and appraisal of HA/GT and HA/GTP within personal, family, school and social contexts is, the healthier this construction will be, this building being affected by personality, kind of information/ formation on HA/GT and HA/GTP, as well as the myths and believes on HA/GT. The study has also indicated that HA/GTP’s own characteristics remain alive during adult life, showing three new (or renewed) ones: moral and ethics as conducting threads of HA/GTP’s thinking, feeling and doing; person-society asynchronism and interpersonal asynchronism. The research indicates HA/GT women build their identity differently than HA/GT men, and that differentiated ways of assessing creative production should be studied, considering possible HA/GT hiding, possible lower self-esteem and selfconfidence and the lack of HA/GT female models. A high number of close HA/GT relatives was also assessed, supporting those research findings attributing genetic origin to HA/GT, added to the environmental origin. Precocious reading skills were also referred by all the participants. The study has also proved the validity of the instrument developed to assess HA/GT indicators in adults. Recommendations propose HA/GT adult’s identification and servicing, suggesting strategies for high education and work environments.