Examining the “F” in Gifted: Academically Gifted Adolescents' Physiological and Affective Responses to Scholastic Failure

The present investigation examined whether academically gifted children, relative to their nongifted peers (a) were subject to greater self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism, (b) endorsed higher levels of Ellis' (1962) irrational beliefs, and (c) were prone to more negative reactions to an experimentally induced failure. Relative to their nongifted and academically achieving peers, the academically gifted students demonstrated more negative affective and physiological stress reactions to the experimentally induced failure, as well as higher levels of self-oriented perfectionism and irrational beliefs. The present findings highlight the need for research within the relatively new and unexplored field of gifted students' reactions to scholastic failure.