The concept of 'giftedness': a pentagonal implicit theory.

This paper presents a pentagonal implicit theory of giftedness and a set of data testing the theory. The exposition is divided into five parts. First, I discuss what an implicit theory is and why such theories are important. Second, I describe the pentagonal theory, specifying five conditions claimed to be individually necessary and jointly sufficient for a person to be labelled as gifted. These conditions not only help us understand why some people are labelled as 'gifted', but also why some others are not. Third, I consider the relation of the pentagonal theory to explicit theories of giftedness. Fourth, I present data supporting the theory. Finally, I discuss some implications of the pentagonal theory for gifted education.