Abstract:
Dabrowski's (1967) psychic overexcitabilities have attracted much attention among researchers interested in the personal development of gifted children. This study, using a group of academically talented secondary school students, examined whether scores on psychic overexcitabilities were independent of verbal fluency scores. Multiple regressionanalysis found that scores from the Overexcitabilities Questionnaire (OEQ), developed by Lysy and Piechowski (1983) when regressed on verbal fluency scores, resulted in a multiple R=.63, r square=.40 for the total sample(n=80). Similar analysis for a subsample of OEQs rated by an expert (M. Piechowski) resulted in a multiple R=.84, r square=.71 for a subsample (n=18). Results raised serious questions about the validity of the OEQ and the overexcitability construct.