Adults with high abilities, what are they like?

Adults with high abilities or intellectual giftedness do not always know that they are so.. By spending their childhood in an atypical way, it is common for them to reach adulthood feeling excluded, disconnected from an unstimulating, rigid and monotonous reality. Not all of these people with brilliant minds manage to achieve professional success and even happiness.

Calvin Coolidge, who was the thirtieth president of the United States, said that Society’s biggest problem is not being given the opportunity to demonstrate its true potential.. Almost 100 years have passed since that phrase was uttered. However, this same problem continues to exist despite all the scientific, social and psychological advances.

Thus, figures such as Carol S. Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford, points out that Most of us still think that intelligent people are almost guaranteed success.. However, something that is frequently observed is that highly gifted adults as well as gifted children themselves live with the eternal feeling that “There is something that is not right about them.”

In their daily lives they only appreciate dissonances. Contradictions between what they feel and what others express. Distances between what they are looking for and what is offered to them. They in turn experience that the world is too rigid and structured and their minds are excessively curious, challenging and non-conformist.

All these internal realities define, on average, those adults with high capacities who still need proper guidanceof effective mechanisms to build a more satisfactory life.

Characteristics of adults with high abilities

There is one aspect that we must clarify first. There is no cause-effect reality that shows us aspects such as that all gifted children will be unhappy adults or successful adults who enjoy a high level of well-being.

As with any person, It all depends on the environment, on a more or less emotional upbringing, on whether they have received adequate curricular adaptations at school.if they have suffered bullying or they have had a childhood with a favorable social circle.

So, Adults with high abilities make their lives what they really can, based on their personal circumstances.. However, one thing we must keep in mind is that if we do not nurture these exceptional gifts early, they may not flourish to their full potential.

Not identifying the student with high competencies represents an obstacle for everyone to achieve fulfillment. professionally and personally. Even more, society itself also loses incredible potential. If we do not give them the means, if we do not facilitate their path by giving them adequate support, many will not have access to those scientific or artistic careers where they would surely facilitate multiple advances in our world.

Let’s see below what characteristics usually define adults with high abilities.

Dissatisfaction with not meeting your expectations

Adults with high abilities can occupy well-positioned jobs. They may have a job to earn a living. However, There is something wrong, something out of tune in that goalless, monotonous and gray everyday life.

Your mind is full of high goals. They are very demanding people who collide with that overly structured and unstimulating reality. This makes them They often end up having problems with their co-workers, their superiors. What they experienced often during their school years is repeated again. They are those people who ask challenging questions, those whom no one understands and who are labeled as hyperactive, strange, nonconformist…

High emotional sensitivity

High-ability adults have a long history of disappointments. They are profiles with high values, with a very strong sense of justice. These dimensions cause them to often feel frustrated by a reality that does not fit with their schemas.

It is common for them to try to hide their suffering.. That they long to keep it locked away, silenced layer after layer. However, sometimes, when disappointment and pain appear again, feelings emerge instantly. Whether they want it or not, they are highly sensitive profiles, which is why at the slightest moment they feel hurt, deceived, and that live in an emotional ferris wheel where they go from effusiveness to sadness in a very short timeThey are, furthermore, very empathetic people who easily perceive other people’s emotions and manage to put themselves in the other’s shoes.

Need to connect deeply with other people

Studies such as those published in the journal Behavioral Science, and carried out by Dr. Francis Heylighen, they give us an exhaustive summary of those daily problems that adults with high abilities encounter.

So, An idea that is often taken for granted – when it does not correspond to reality – is that this personality lacks social skills.. Let’s think that they have grown up in many cases surrounded by people who have little affinity. By profiles that did not share their interests, that did not see the world in the same way. This has made it difficult for them to socialize with the quality they needed.

As they reach adulthood, they continue to experience social voids. They crave that emotional and, above all, intellectual connection, where passions have the same objectives.. Where interests share the same spaces in which complicity occurs, the need to learn and challenge what is established, to contribute something more to the world…

Personality traits of adults with high abilities

In them we can find as many personality configurations as in the rest of the population. Well, there are shy people among them, but also extroverted, people with a need for achievement and also without it, or people open to aesthetics or not so much.

However, if we take the model of the most recognized personality traits (Goldberg’s Big Five), composed of the following traits: neuroticism, openness, extraversion, responsibility and agreeableness, We can find a certain tendency in people with intellectual giftedness.

That said, we find that high-ability adults:

They tend to score high levels of neuroticismthat is, a high emotionality.High openness to noveltymainly in ideas, but often also in fantasy, feelings and values.Low levels of gregariousnessa component of extraversion that indicates that they enjoy being alone and do not seek social stimuli too much.

Other common features

In addition to the above, it is common to find the following manifestations in adults with high abilities:

Mental hyperactivity. They are people whose minds are constantly busy and present what is known as arborescent thinking: From a single idea, multiple ramifications emerge to be addressed. If you do not learn to manage this capacity for analysis and association, this trait can be exhausting. They have a high concentration capacity in those topics that cause interest; On the contrary, a lack of motivation generates anger and irritability in them. They are creative and imaginative individualscapable of achieving innovative solutions if they are allowed to develop their talents.Perfectionism and self-criticism are also very present. Something that in certain circumstances can be a burden.They tend to reflect on existential and philosophical themes frequently, so they may be more prone to existential depression.They present sensory overexcitability. That is, they are hypersensitive to visual, auditory and kinesthetic stimuli. For example, they are very sensitive to noises, smells or labels on clothing.

However, it is important to emphasize that personality is nothing more than a trans-situational pattern of behavior, thought and emotion relatively stable over time that explains how we perceive reality, the judgments we make about it or the way we interact with the environment.

And since the source of thought, emotion, and behavior is the brain itself, it is not surprising that for gifted people, their high intelligence is actually a central axis around which their personality pivots. That is to say, perceive, think and feel differently than the normal population.

Underdiagnosis and adults with high abilities

A large percentage of children with high abilities are not detected nor supported during their growth. In fact, although it is estimated that 10% of students have this condition, only 0.33% of them were recognized as such in 2017.

This gives rise to a large number of highly gifted adults who are not aware that they are gifted. Therefore, if you have identified yourself in the previous points, do not hesitate to consult with a specialized professional to receive guidance.

To conclude, as we can see, this group of our society continues to need many answers, strategies and changes. Early detection in children, as well as psychological support in adults, can pave the way for them not only so that they can perform based on their personal expectations. The most important thing is that they achieve well-being, happiness.

You might be interested…