Relationships among traditional and modern constructs used in identifying giftedness

This paper presented a significant problem in the field of research on the gifted and talented. Traditional methods for the identification of gifted individuals, including intelligence and achievement measures do not always correctly identify every gifted individual. Identification could be made more accurate with the addition of other identification areas. One often overlooked area for identification is personality measures. Literature of the field was reviewed to clarify the identification problem. The two research questions examined were: (1) Are there relationships between scores on the Sensory Profile and traditional measures of giftedness? (2) Are there relationships between scores on the OEQII and the Sensory Profile? Four hypotheses were proposed: Hypothesis 1: Scores on the Sensory Profile will correlate with intelligence scores and achievement. Hypothesis 2: Scores on the Sensory Profile will correlate with scores on the Overexcitability Questionnaire II. Hypothesis 3: A model consisting of four latent variables (Overexcitability Questionnaire II, Sensory Profile, intelligence test scores, achievement scores) defined by the scores on their related tests will demonstrate good fit with empirically collected data. Hypothesis 4: There will be strong metric invariance between the gifted and nongifted groups on the proposed model.; Methods for exploring the hypotheses were discussed. Confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group analyses were performed. Discussion of the hypotheses, the limitations of the study, and of future directions for research was conducted.; All four hypotheses were supported, although some hypotheses were supported more strongly than others. Scores on the Sensory Profile were weakly correlated with intelligence and achievement scores. Scores on the Sensory Profile were moderately correlated with scores on the Overexcitability Questionnaire II. A model consisting of four latent variables (Overexcitability Questionnaire II, Sensory Profile, intelligence test scores, achievement scores) defined by the scores on their related tests demonstrated adequate fit with empirically collected data. There was strict metric invariance between the gifted and non-gifted groups on the proposed model.; Evidence supporting both convergent and divergent validity between the four latent factors was found as a result of the analyses. Further research should be done to examine the validity of the Sensory Profile for use in identifying gifted individuals.