Psychological Support Of Gifted Students’ Learning Activity

Health psychology

Health is currently defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (the WHO Constitution, 1995). Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 323-FZ gives a similar definition of health.

Social well-being manifests itself in a wide (sufficient for a given individual) dynamic system of social relations, with the presence of positive interpersonal relationships manifesting in the form of friendship and love. WHO paid serious attention to the “social support system against stress” (Reber, 2000). Social well-being is evaluated in foreign studies by the success of social and economic functioning of a person (Raphael et al., 1996 – cited by Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 1999).

The analysis of the content of “mental (psychic) well-being” concept can be carried out in the context of various psychological schools; depending on the operational definition of this concept, their representatives suggest appropriate psychodiagnostic procedures, methods to maintain it (Jahoda, 1958; Ryff, 1989 - cited by Shevelenkova, 1993).

Besides, considering the states of physical (studied mainly by physicians), mental and social well-being as indicators of individual health, the spiritual component of health is also considered according to the complex approach to a human. Spirituality is (from the perspective of materialism) the highest level of development and self-regulation of a personality; the main motivation-meaning regulators of life activity are the highest human values () and peak experiences characteristic of self-actualizing personality. Frankl (1990) considers spirituality as the highest meaning dimension of a person, which is a superstructure over the physical and mental (psychic) dimensions; above-individual desires are also called “the highest motives” or “metamotives”. Spiritual well-being involves meaningful life that is willingly oriented to the realization of the highest values.

The interrelation between different components of well-being (physical, psychological, social and spiritual) is studied by the scientific community. Along with objective indicators of the well-being states, its subjective assessments are also studied. According to the subjective standpoint, a person him/herself identifies his/her level of health in different periods, building “inner picture of health” and “inner picture of disease” as parts of the “image of the world” (Leontiev, 1977). The concept of “life satisfaction” is close to the concept of “subjective well-being”. The experience of the subjective well-being level is a constituent part of the life quality assessment by an individual (Dartau, Mizernitsky, Stefanjuk, 2009). WHO defines life quality as an individual’s perception of his/her position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which he/she lives and in relation to the individual’s goals, expectations, standards and concerns. Along with the subjective component of life quality, its objective component is also singled out (WHO, 1995). Life quality depends on the state of physical and mental health, communication ability, psychological and social status, freedom of activity, stress, leisure activities, education, access to social assistance, etc. (the “standard of living” concept reflects the availability of material goods for an individual).A positive definition of health directs practice to cultivating health, not just combating diseases. Health promotion is the most effective strategy for disease prevention (Eysenck, 1993; Eysenck, 2002). In recent decades, in medicine there is an understanding of the primary role of individual’s health-saving behaviour in prevention of noncommunicable diseases. In psychology, healthy lifestyle is regarded as a condition of life, person’s self-realization; psychologists are concerned both with behaviour supporting mental well-being of a person (it includes activities aimed at self-actualization and self-realization, the achievement of success in life, personality maturity, etc.) and behaviour supporting social well-being of the person. Mental and social well-being contribute to immunity increase against somatic diseases (see data on psychosomatics - Brautigam, Christian & Rad, 1999) and mental disorders.

Public health

By the WHO Constitution, the concept of individual health was supplemented by the concept of “public health” (“...the attainment of all citizens of the world...of a level of health that would permit them to lead socially and economically productive lives”). Public health care is a system of health protection oriented both to the health of the population and communities, and to individual health and the activities of a particular employee in the health care system. Moreover, public health care system implies necessary cooperation of medical institutions (health care, pharmaceutical ones), educational, research institutions, information services, administrative bodies (ministries, agencies, etc.), voluntary organizations (associations), health insurance companies, private medical and psychological practices, etc. (Kuleshova, 2016). The main purpose of public health care system is the management of public health, the change of behavioural stereotypes of the population in the direction of health promotion through education, counselling, advocacy, promotion of healthy lifestyle (Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 1999).

In our opinion, one of the tasks of public health is to identify and create conditions for self-realization of gifted people; the completion of this task will not only contribute to maintaining the individual health of a gifted person, the prevention of his/her mental disorders and somatic diseases, but will also contribute to public health, economic prosperity of the society, will increase its social capital.

The problem is, what health related risks (in the understanding of health by the World Health Organization) can interfere with the self-realization of a gifted student; and what can society (in particular, an educational institution) do to reduce these risks?

The first group of risks

1) In 2013, E. Fredrickson et al. (cited by Polikarpov & Polikarpova, 2015) published the results of their empirical research, which proves that: a) the brief experience of hedonic pleasure (as the result of short-term experience of positive emotions) entails a negative impact on the immune system, provokes inflammation and reduces antibody production (causing something similar to stress); b) the experience of eudaimonic pleasure (getting pleasure from meaningful activities aimed at serving the higher purposes) has a mild anti-inflammatory effect and stimulates antibody production, which extends human life.

However, a gifted person experiencing eudaimonic pleasure may literally become addicted to the endorphins that the brain produces as the result of his/her complete commitment to his/her favourite activity; becoming a workaholic, he/she demonstrates a kind of obsession. If it is impossible to do the favourite activity, realize the giftedness, there is a risk that a gifted person may undergo depression similar to drug withdrawal (Rothkopf D., cited by Polikarpov, Polikarpova, 2015, p.179).

2) Singularity theory proposed by mathematicians studies the model of the world based on a delicate interplay between discrete and continuous objects, is a generalization of the research of functions at maximum and minimum; Ch.Zeeman proposed to call the set of this theory and its applications catastrophe theory (sudden and abrupt changes in the response of a system to a smooth change in external conditions are called catastrophes). Ch.Zeeman gave an example of application of the theory to the research of a creative person (Arnold, 1990). A creative person (e.g. a scientist) is characterized by the author using the parameters: “technique”, “enthusiasm”, “results”. It was studied how the scientist’s results change depending on his/her enthusiasm and mastering the technique. It was found that: a) if enthusiasm is low, results grow monotonously and rather slowly depending on mastering the technique; b) if enthusiasm is high enough, qualitatively new phenomena occur - results can change with jumps depending on mastering the technique; the area of results, which the scientist in this case gets in, is designated as “genius”; c) the growth of enthusiasm, when not reinforced by a corresponding grow in technique, leads to a catastrophic decrease in results in this case, the scientist falls in an area designated in the study as “maniac”; e) jumps are possible from the “genius” state to the “maniac” state and vice versa. Catastrophe theory attempts to find a general rule that determines whether there will be a jump from one equilibrium state to another, and how to identify “turning points” of the system states.

Thus, the inner obstacles to the self-realization of an intellectually gifted person, achievement of high results are related to the level of his/her commitment to the chosen activity and the level of efficiency, leading to mastering the corresponding activity, the technique of performing this activity that will affect not only social well-being but also mental well-being of a gifted person (these named indicators of the state of his/her health).

3) The aspiration of a person to be guided in his/her life by a kind of ideal, abstracting from little nothings of life and finding creatively new resources to progress towards a desired future gives hardiness to the person (Leontiev, 2011). Spiritual well-being of a person, his/her creativity (non-obsession with stereotypes) affect the level of mental well-being. Spiritual ill-being of a person endangers not only mental well-being, but also indirectly his/her social and physical well-being.

The second group of risks

4) Obstacles to the self-realization of a gifted person are possible due to the decrease of his/her attention to his/her body. The behaviour of any person implies taking care of his/her physical and mental health, responsibility for it, as for the main resource of his/her life on Earth. The level of self-realization insufficient for a gifted person can reduce the value of physical health for him/her (“Why live, if you still can not be realized?”) The measure of the person’s involvement in health-saving behaviour depends on the state of mental well-being/ill-being experienced by the person (Tvorogova, 2004; Tvorogova, 2017a); in turn, health-saving behaviour can enhance not only physical, but also mental well-being of the person, contribute to his/her self-realization.

5) Giftedness not always ensures social well-being to its bearer. Usually, a gifted person standing out among others can cause discontent, envy, and other negative emotions in people around. Every person has the potential to manage intraindividual components of his/her communication (his/her communication motivation, goals, social perception features, communication techniques, his/her reaction to feedback in communication, etc.) (Tvorogova, 2002).A person can translate his/her highest aspirations into the products of not only the spiritual and the material, but also the social world through daily communication with the help of his/her physical and mental resources; communication can be measured out by the person, it can imply the choice of partners for communication, the choice of the length and depth of contact with them, implies the possibility of unilateral withdrawal from the communication destroying his/her personality, damaging the health, the self-realization, etc. (Tvorogova, 2017b).

6) A gifted person who stands out from those around him/her may experience a subjective state of mental ill-being. Having fear of being evaluated by others, he/she often suffers from a kind of an “inferiority complex” due to his/her dissimilarity to other people.

As the result of our research, we revealed the dependence of the intensity of person’s loneliness feelings on the ratio between his/her need to communicate, desired, expected and real position in the system of interpersonal relations, as well as on the activation of the intrapsychic defence mechanisms, causing a reduction of the corresponding positive or negative experiences (Tvorogova, 2002).

7) Inharmonious development as a risk of giftedness. An active position of a gifted person, finding a sphere where he/she could express his/her giftedness is more favourable for his/her health than a passive position. Maintaining the orientation towards positive goals (and not e.g. only failure avoidance); the cultivation of sanogenic (healthful) thinking (Orlov, 1998); focusing on the highest spiritual values that should become a regulator for a gifted person in setting everyday goals for his/her activity in various spheres of life, in developing programs and selecting means for their realization, in assessing self-efficacy; social activity, the ability to work together with others; personal growth; the cultivation of a healthy lifestyle, etc. – they all determine the directions of development (spiritual, social, mental, physical), implying the harmony of development of a gifted person as a whole (Tvorogova, 2017a). Indicators of physical and mental health, as well as functioning efficiency act as objective regulators of this development; a subjective state of well-being, life satisfaction (a feeling of inner freedom, integrity, joy, etc.), ascribing high quality to one’s life can be considered as a subjective regulator.