Profiles of Overexcitabilities for Korean High School Gifted Students According to Gender and Domain of Study

Abstract

Overexcitaility (OE) as a concept that is related to developmental potential, has been shown to differ by intelligence, gender, involvement in school programs and artistic interest in American populations of students. Overexitability, used to describe the five ways that people might experience developmental potential for emotional growth, are emotional, intellectual, imaginational, sensual, and psychomotor. Little is known about the profiles of groups of gifted learners outside of studies conducted in the United States. In order to better understand the emotional needs of Korean students, the purpose of this study was to determine the overexcitability profiles of students enrolled in four high schools, each with a different domain focus: math and sciences, visual and performing arts, and foreign languages. 341 subjects of this study completed the Overexcitability Questionnaire II. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine statistical differences. The results showed that Mean scores of psychomotor, sensual and imaginational are highest in the Art High School, intellectual is highest in the Science High School and emotional is highest in the Foreign Language High School. There were significant differences among the schools. Each major also showed significant difference. The results showed that mean score of psychomotor is highest in the Dance major, sensual, imaginational and emotional are highest in the Drama majore and intellectual is highest in the Science major. The results showed that the mean scores of psychomotor, imaginational and intellectual are higher in the male students than female students. On the other hand the mean scores of sensual and emotional are higher in the female students than in the male students.