A Comparative Study of Achieving and Underachieving High School Boys of High Intellectual Ability

Abstract

THIS STUDY WAS concerned with scholastic un derachievement among intellectually superior high school students. The ever-broadening spectrum of our scientific and technological progress, from the harnessing of atomic energy to the conquest of out er space, has placed a special premium on talent and brainpower in all areas of human thought and endeavor. The young people whose scholastic per formance lags far behind their intellectual ability represent a serious loss to society in terms of their potential contributions. In addition, failure to achieve at the level of their ability often leads to a depreciation of self-worth accompanied by unhappi ness and frustration. Design of the Experiment The purpose of this study was to find some an swers to the general question, Why do students of seemingly similar high intellectual ability perform so differently academically ? ' ' This investig a t i o n proposed to study achieving and underachieving boys of the same high intellectual ability to determine possible causes for the differences in their academ ic performance. The areas explored for pos s i b 1 e significant differences between the two groups were: