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Disentangling the Complexity of Social Giftedness: Mind, Brain, Development, and Education

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Abstract

This chapter explores what characterizes and underpins social giftedness. Drawing on work on social intelligence conducted within Case’s neo-Piagetian perspective as the theoretical framework, current knowledge about giftedness in the social domain and relevant neuropsychological research are discussed. Neuropsychological research has identified links between distinctive activity in certain regions of the brain and intellectual giftedness that suggest neurocognitive underpinnings to advanced intellectual development and its attendant complexity of thought. Work on the nature of the “social brain” suggests similar neurocognitive underpinnings to advanced social intelligence. The pattern of advanced development is complex; the equally complex education that is required may lie in the provision of contexts that allow for optimal development of social intelligence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Marion Porath

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  1. Marion Porath
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Correspondence to Marion Porath .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ontario Inst. Studies in Education, Dept. Human Development &, University of Toronto, Bloor Street West 252, Toronto, M5S 1V6, Ontario, Canada

    Michel Ferrari

  2. Ontario Inst. Studies in Education, Dept. Human Development &, University of Toronto, Bloor Street West 252, Toronto, M5S 1V6, Ontario, Canada

    Ljiljana Vuletic

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Porath, M. (2010). Disentangling the Complexity of Social Giftedness: Mind, Brain, Development, and Education. In: Ferrari, M., Vuletic, L. (eds) The Developmental Relations among Mind, Brain and Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3666-7_10

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