Developing Talent Across the Life Span. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Spring, 2001

VAN LIESHOUT, Cornelis F. M., & HEYMANS, Peter G. (Eds.). Developing Talent Across the Life Span. Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 2000. 333pp. $69.95 (h).

This volume presents new theoretical perspectives and empirical findings on the life-span development of talent. It shows how talents are the result of the acquisition of a sequence of skills and how the acquisition of these skills is facilitated by changes in the individual's environment. It explores to what degree the development of high intelligence or achievement is similar to development in specific domains such as personality, morality, painting, musical performance, or professional skills. It questions whether the development of talent observed for specific groups is similar to individual cases and how the different numbers of exceptionally talented women and men in several domains are to be explained. Important shifts are made away from traditional perspectives on the development of talent. Talents are no longer viewed as just a matter of stable individual differences in potential or performance, and considerable efforts have been made to overcome the classical nature-nurture dichotomy. Instead, devel opment of talents is examined in close relation to changing support, changing constraints, and changing tasks. Giftedness is no longer defined as advanced maturity. Instead, talented developmental pathways are seen as the achievement of goal oriented individuals interacting with changing environmental opportunities. The study of talent is no longer restricted to childhood and adolescence. In challenging--sometimes paradoxical--or controversial contributions, the study of talent and giftedness is extended across the entire life course. Cultural differences and differences among minority groups in the development of giftedness are also examined in this volume.