achology kal oe. 0 1,528 LITTLE GENIUSES — AND HOW THEY GREW ‘BY DANIEL GOLEMAN For six decades, the famous Terman study has followed the fortunes of a group of men and women with IQs above 135. In some ways, “Terman’s children,” particularly the women, seem to have been ahead of their tinie. Here’s a preview * of what the granddaddy of all life-span research tells us about how people of exceptional promise—as defined by IQ— _fare in their careers, marriages, and family lives. Then Lewis B. Terman launched wf his famous study of high-IQ children ip 1921, his aims were mod- test Tenkan, a Seanford University For six decades, teams of investigators have been tracing the pains and plea: sures of these gifted pecple, whose Qs are all above 135." The most recent psychologist who had developed the ~“study was done in 1977, more than Stanford-Binct intelligence test, want- ed to disprove the existing myth abour bright kis. In those days, gifted chil- dren were little understood, There wasa strongpopular biasagainstthem, as psychologist Pauline Scars cx- plains: “Folklore had it that ‘early ripe, early rot,’ that precocious chil- ren were pronc to insanity, physical: ly weak, one-sided in their abilities, and socially inferior.” Within a few years, Terman had pioved that such children were nei- ther physically nor socially inferior, and that, as they grew older, they nor only-did not go to seed but surpassed. their peers in accomplishment as well. From the start, Terman had also woridered: how would they fare in lat- er life, as adults? Would thetr genius ul*imately enable them to achieve 4a success than their contempo- rants, or was it destined to be thwart- ed? Even if their promise were ful- filled, moreover, would they be able to lead normal, happy lives? The Terman study became the pfanddaddy of all life-span research, shalf a century after the original group of 1,524 young people, axes 3 to 19, ‘was picked. On "hit vécasion, thre: out of four surviving members duti- fully filled out nd returned their questionnaires. While the data will not be ready for full analysis until 1982, Robert and Pauling: Scars, the Stanford psychologists fvho. are the current stewards of the project, of fered some of their impressions of it, along with reflections on the study as a whole, to Psychology Today. Some of the results might have sur. prised Terman. Most of the men and women in the study have passed re tiroment age, and it now seems clear that exceptional intelligence docs not preclude ordinary happiness or world ly success. But neither, apparently, does it guarantee extraordinary ac complishment. Although ynost of the or intelligence quotient, (64 dividing a peston's mental age—his o bet Score on the Stanford-Binet tose compared ‘vith that of others in various age groups by'his chronological ge. Sores that ac above 38 sepresene the top 1 percentof he opulstion-often considered gonivs 10. men and women in the study have done well in their careers, none ap- pears to have-achieved the summit of «true genius. None has so far been awarded a Nobel prize or similar hon- or. There are few millionaires among them, and hardly any distinguished uvative artists. (Sec box on page34.| If Terman’s people have not turned cout tw be that exceptional, however, their lives do offer some fresh perspec: tives om a few contemporary issues. As some stress researchers have been suggesting recently, it appears that, brilliant, hard-driving success-seekers do not inevitably succumb to carly heart attacks or to other stress-in- duced ailments; indced, the mortality rate of the least successful Terman subjects was twice that of the most successful. Nor is it necessarily «ruc, as people often assert, that middle- aged men are obsessed with their work, To most of the men in the study, Ingvas family that mattered most. Yet for the women, the absence of children made them more satisfied with their work—a particularly inter esting finding, sinte many women to- day are fecling the pressure to have both children and a career. Less unexpected was the finding that some Terman} subjects did markeedly'betcer in life than others. It taposatble to explain the dif- “pith certainty. However, the fed g-apevial deve vo succeed, 2 B echiere, thar had been with eg Hom granamar school onwatd: have ratings on such things ee xo cel, persistence, from when = thespboots were 10 yeats od, by both, * teachers and parents, and again at about age 18," Roberg Sears 5075 These were very high, compared «with othr children in their clas.” ‘A Classic Study: How It Was Done ‘Aloag, with theit review of the find ing, th Searses offered afew caveats ‘Definitve conclusions, they wamed, rust await saphisticeted enalysic of fhe mountains of dita that have been, fathered so far, a8 well as the thou Sands of sdditiona facts from studies of the Terman men and women ‘old ‘ext couple of decades. Another diff cally is that the subjects may not be typical of gifted men and women in, (other generations. The Terman Seats - “group lived through a very special pe- Todi istry; ier one way or another, the Great Depression and Werld War |)* Traut have masked them al. (See cenversation on pige 44), é Tpother ways, £00, the sample will slays representa special casein hu ‘man development. Thereis no way of Knowing the effec of having tear of se" _reneatcheft locking over the subjects" ‘t-7~houlderstocaness thle growth-and— Achievement, Tema be that subtle - «+ telheonslousnesspdded special pres- Sure te adjust and, excels There is tee «kindof reverse eqafirmation of ob- server influence: mhany of those who + wae suse repre ing sully Beeause they hadn't full - {psipotential. Hache not been ex, lied every few ya ofthe Iectual promise, they might aot have ome char guilt ‘an estimated 5 percent ofthe Califor. pia population was Jewish, the Ter- To find his exceptional subjects, .man sample was 105 percent jewish. sthaolchildzen to locate the thousand (or 50 with the highest IQs. Bocause he ‘aught at Stanford, he found it conve: lent ro limit the selection co Califor nia public schools. His esting staff ‘ound 1,470 children with 1Qs of 135 ‘orhighsr Mostof themn were in grades thece though eight, and their average ‘age was 1] when they were selected in 1922. Another 58 children, younger siblings of the ‘original group, were added in 1928, Allin all, there wore {857 boys and 671 girls “The sample was by no means repre: sentative, even of California, For one thing, there were no Chinese, though thestatehad high proportion ‘of thom. Letin American Italian, and Portuguese groups were also underrep- resented, and-there were only two black children, two Armenians, and fone American Indian child. Jewish ESitzesshul members ofthe group —Termar hod sifted through.250,000 “There was also. Clogs vo one out of thee cies wr tom pofsona ees, Tue peesenle made up ony 3 perce obthe general population Oily omar ae siren of Coil borer compared wih) pert inche gel pain ‘Mame of sama were repeat aly siveyed 10 nd gaan Toth the your ete eed sod Ineioved, f were many of thi purr andYerchert The up wa Ted hy quasi or ne Minin 19401950195 080,197 ht lr eee vend heey ae censinfie Yetune of Gani Sts of Gn {Sanlard Univciy Pr Suse fet eprts fare epee ot Sate sins then Tope thve Fore eldeptoaclaelpycilog- ‘Streak Te protean lage that are sure to pile up over the children yere overrepresented, While_/the so-called Grant study, a continu “Taps Terman in heThe mortality rate of the least successful ) Terman subjects was twice that of the most successful. Ing examination of the lives of 95 Har | vant gratdares thar hogan 1938 and —age for fobrseavasand incon followed! them. into thejr 50s, under, the supervision of psychiatrist George Vaillant, {See"The Climb co Maturity,” In the September 1977 issue of Psy chology Today.|-tt is far more. com prehensive than Daniel Levinsoa’s study at Yale of 40 men at midlife, whose biographivs were reeonstruicted through extensive interviews. + The “A's and “C"s: ~ * Job Success.Compared As achilts, che Terman subicets varied widely in achievement. To, fin out what made the difference, Terman ind his researcher, Melita Quen, com: pared! che most and the least success ful. The first comparison was made in 1940, followed by a, second in 1960. (Since so fow women in the sample ‘were employed full time, this phase of the Terman study was restricted to men.| What the data from this phasc- reveal isthat the most successful sub- jects were physically healthicr and better adjusted as well. Recognizing that no yardstick for achievement is universally accepted, the researchers chose work success as, the best available measure. The inves: tigators judged job success by asking whether a man “had made use of his, superior intelligence in his life work, both in his choice of vocation and in the attainment of a position of impor- tance and responsibility in an area calling fora high degrce of intellectual ability.” Two criteria for an “impor: tane’” job were the income derived from it and the status generally ac- corded it by society (as measured by = tendard scale}. Inthe 1960 comparison, the 100 most successful men were designated the A group, the 100 least successful, the C group. While the Cs were the “failures” of the Terman kids, the judgment is relative: most of therm equaled or excéeded the national aver the national medial carne ineoine was about $5,000; for the Croup, it was $7,178, For the As, though, medi- i income wwas.close 40 $24,000. ‘The A group included 24 university professors, UI lawyers, 8 research séi- entists, and 5 physicians. Thirty were business executive; one was a farmer who operated linge ranches. Only five men in“the C group were profession- als, and none was doing well. Onc, for example, who had done graduate work, in mathematies and was employed as i engineer, actually worked at the technician level, The majority worked as clerks, salesmen, or in small busi= {nesses ‘Over the years, the health records of the two groups were about the same, but by 1960, only 8 As had.died, com: pared with 16 Cs. (The difference in mortality rates raises,a question of whether lack of success may affect health.) Natural causes (heart disease and cancer) accounted for miost deaths in both groups. Although more As than Cs scrved in World War Il, only’ one A,and three Cs lost their lives in the war. One A committed suicide, compared with’ two Cs. And two Cs died in accidents, but no As did so. Slight differences between the sgrdups in childhood became bigger differences in adulthood. For instance, while both groups scored about the same on the intelligence tests in the origins! Terman study, the Asskipped more grades in grammar school, graduated earlicr from high school, and received more"graduate training The As were a much livelier group than the Cs. As youngsters, they had more collections of shells, rocks, stamps| and took part in more ext curricular activities. As adults, As were members of more professional societies and civic groups than Cs were. As were also more active phys- ically; at age 40, As favored sports fn which they participated, while Cspre- ‘rr 1959—ferred-to-wateh——____— ~The AS rented worcomMe from mare ——— advantaged families. A'parcnts—espe- ally the fathers—had had more edu cation on the average then had the fa- thers of Cs. The educational edgceven extended back to grandparents, the pa~ temal grandparents of As having com- pleted more years of college than those of Cs. Not surprisingly, then, - more fathers of As than of Cs were professionals. ~ The home library of an A subject was: more likely than that of a C to have 500 or more books. As came from mhore stable homes. The parents of twige as many Cs were divorced by 1922, a trend that had become more marked by 1928 and 1940. The desth rate among C parents was also higher, although the difference did not show up uneil 1940, Finally, more than twice as many As as C3 came from Jewish familics. Seventeen percent ofthe As but only percent of the Cs were Jewish. ‘AS children, As secmed botter, ad- juseed than Cs. When fated by teach ers and parents, As:were given a slightly beter evaluation for social adjustment, an advantage that be- came more pronounced in adulthood. As and Cs were about equally rebet- Jious in their youth, though. Nor was ‘thre any difference in either the de rec of affection from, or rejection by, their parents, : “The family backgrouind of the Asap- parently fostered ambition, When the Terman kids were rated by their teachers and parents in 1922, the ong dimension that distinguished 4s from Cs was “prudence and forethought, will power, perseverance, and desire toexcel.” As reported i “strong liking for school.”” When, 30 years later, the ‘Terman sample looked back at their childhood, the As recalled more fret quently that their parents had encour- aged initiative and independonce. Aped i High achievers had felt greater parental pressure to excel: to forge ahead in school, go to college. also felt more parental pressure toex- cel: to got better grades, forge led in school, go to college The As were interested in every: thing hr t946arsabgrocprnf the Fer —a—a-recerves-a-erger aim ber-of the 150 followups, As-and-Ce- aver man sample touk the Strong Vora tivnal Interest Test. This Reoup.i,, cluded BO men who 20 years lacer, in 1960, were to be rated A and 77 who Were to be rated C. The most notable uifference between the groups was ratings showing them interested in a wider range of oequpations patigin Sears interpreted as revealing "drive" or a high “level of aspiration.” The As seemed to get smarter as they got alder. In both the 1940 and given the Concept Mastery Test [CMT], an intelligence test for adults. he great majérity of men and women in the Terman study have done well in their carce which és not surppising for a group ‘who as childeen where ratcd among thesuperincelligent. “But there's no body in the group who's a real pe- nius—no Einsteins,” reports psy chologist Robert Sears. | By and large the Terman subjects were fast risers. At midlife, many were national figures within their own’ professions, widely known among bankers and scientists, for ‘ample. But their careers followed. single pattern. Their occupations ranged from postman tg brigadier general, from sandwich-shop opcre- tor to nuclear-laboratory director. ‘The group includes numerous sci- fentists. There are a great many law- yers and some corporation heads, Since all members of the study were Californians, some ended up in the | movie industry —— ‘The life stories of a few Terman Kids have been told in print, wi identifying detailsgexpunged. In some of the cases, the subjects’ iden- tities could probably be guessed with alitde sleuthing. In 1959, when Ter- man sketched the unfolding careers ‘his group at the 45-year mark, one ss described as “one of the coun: try’s leading science-fiction and fan- eyes ii 60 short stories and noveletces, as well a5 15 volumes of fiction and ES a AT WHERE ARE THE EINSTEINS AND PICASSOS? néafiction:” Another was listed as ‘a’ motion-picture director who has ‘macle some of the most outstanding picturdé af the last 10 years”, several of his pictures had won Oscars As.of 1955, the average income tor the group was $33,000, compared with 2 national average of $8,000. The hijthest income lor the yroup -was, $400,000, there were no mil- lionaires at the time it isa safe cor jecture that there are sume now} ‘Although only one of the top six ceamers in 1955 had graduated froma college, two-thirds of the whole sample wore college graduates. A to- tal of 97 had doctorates, 92 had law dogrees, 57 medical degrees, and 177 master’s degrees. As a whole, the group was above the national aver. age in both occupational status and ‘education, (Current information on income, education, and occupation: al status is unavailable, but the dif ~ferences between the Terman group — and the gencral population are pre sumed to have held over the years.] By midlife, 77 members of the co- hort lincluding 7 women} werelisted in American Men of Science, 33 in Who's Who. Together, members of the Terman group had—midway in their careers—produced nearly 2,200 scientific articles, 92-books and ‘monographs, 235 patents, 38 novels, and 415 miscellancous articles, ex- cluding the output of those em- ployed as journalists and editors. One oddity: the group, Sears notes, “is low on artistic ctcation.” |, Te has produced nd gvfaé musician: | and no exceptional pair, although ir did thelude several musicians and artists who headed university de- partments, as wellas soine modestly successful weckend painters. 1 may be that creiive genius is tuo rai to have becuase of the Ter- man sample. But pthaps itis unfair tu expect that among this particular poo! of intelligent there would hap: pen to bea Beethoven or bn Einstein ‘Although the Terman gioup scored in the top percent in incelligencein che ebuntry, so did twa or three mil- lion other Americans. THe apparent paucity of artistic genius in the sam- ple may mean that che tests them- selves were biased toward more pro- saic kinds of competence than cre- ative flair, While intelligence and creativity overlap, they are not the same, and they require-different-|—— measures. The gifted test-taker may do well in school and work, but the creative genius may need something more than high 1Q—something not ordinarily revealed in an 1Q test. But the final verdict is not in. “There may well be some Terman ge- nus whose contribution has not yet been fully understood or appreciat- ed. "How do we know?" observes Pauline Sears. “They're Hot dead yet. Te can take years to recognize an Einstein.” 72s. 34 pene.0ar Dee ee HEeerste earn ANN FUENTES 1 The least successful men were the least «| ) 4m 1922, theaverage 1Q for As was 157, for Gs, 150. [This difference, however, ike for the disere the groups. Small di at the extreme upper end of the 1Q -curve stand for litle actual difference in ability.| in adulthood, the spread grew, As scoring even better than Cs con the followup tests. The increased advantage’of As may reflect in part their more advanced! educatioa. Even so, Cs were still a generally superior group. While the As’ average CMT score was 147, and the Cs! was 130, the score for # group of Ph.D. candi dates ata top university was only 119 Precursors of Success. My did Cs fail, compared with Ast Ik scems to have been a matter of at- tleude and adjustment, The greater ambition of the As a8 children proved constant theme later in life, In 1940 and 1950, As were rated by parents, wives, and themselves as different from Ce on only three traits, all of ‘which were related co ambition. As were more goal-oriented and had, greater perseverance and more sell- confidence. When Terman staff mem bers visited them in 1950, the As seemed miore “alert and attentive.” « Cs attributed their lesser achio ment to theif own “lack of persis: tciice,” while As often named “persis tence in working toward a goal" as the important factor in, their success. Tn 1960, at an average age of 50, the greater ambition of the As—which emerged in many different ways over the years—was clear. When asked to rate themselves, the As proved to have sgxeater ambition to be recognized for accomplishment and to-have more drive for vocational advancement. ‘They also sought greater work excel- Tence-for its own safe, not jist a8 ¢ pathway to success ‘The greater drive of As showed up —teader am in their social lives. Jn young adult hood, As more often than Cs ex- pressed-a-steonginterest-in-“being-a roving fred." This terest may have been compensatory; ‘As more often recalled that as chil dren they:had “felt different from oth- ers” and.had trouble making friends and entering into social activities (There issno-evidence for this from their childhood ratings, however.) Overall; adulé Cs admitted: much | discontent with their lot. For them, “making thore money” was far more: important than for As—but, of course, the Cs made less. Cs wished! they had received more schooling. As were far more likely to have ended up in a vo . cation they preferred, while Gs more often came to their occupations as a result ofthance or need. Truc to their goal-directed nature, As chose their carcers far earlier than did Cs, many As had accurately predicted "what they would be when they grew up” by the time they reached I6, tis not very surprising. then, that many more AS than Cs were satisfied with their ca- seers, and that Cs were much more Likely to feel their work gave them no satisfactory outlet for their mental ca- pabilities. In fact, knowing they were part of the Terman study was at times a drawback for the Cs: they more of- ten felt guilty fornot living up to their potential, ‘The greater happiness of As over Cs extended to family life and personal adjustment. Fifteen nercent of Cs re- ported having a problem with alcohol, while only 3 percent of As reported such a problem, An indicator that good marriage fosters achievement lies in the fact that while all the As have martiéd, one in five of the Cs have not. The riatriages of Cs were much more likely tofsil; 16 percentof As were divorced by 1960, among Cs, the proportion was close to half. ‘As tended to marry betier-educated women. They also had smarter kids, likely to marry, and those who did were more likely to divorce. ( \ and more of them: an avetage of 25, compare with 1.6 for Cs! While the ifepring-of both. groups Were sifted,~ thevaverage-IQ'of childred) of As was 140, for those of Cs, 132-Labout pro- portional to the original dference in 1Q between, the two groups, “The Terman study of who succeeds among the gifted sheds light on there- cent report.on determinants of suc cess done by Christopher Jtncks and a group of researchers at Harvard (see “Who Gets Ahead,” Psychology To- day, [aly 1979). Analyzing. the-find- ings of soveral national surveys, the Jencks group identified as key factors family backgtound {including father's occupation and income, and parents’ education), test scores in school, years of schooling completed, ahd teenage personality characteristics like studi ‘ousness, The As in the Teyman sam- ple-like some of the Cscertzinly had a yinning combination of many or all of these factors. Yet-the most successful among the gifted had somo- thing that the Jencks study did not have data to detect: a special drive to succeed that made, difference Life Satisfaction Men After more than half a century of tests, questionnaires, and interviews, the former Terman kids were asked in 1972 to reflecg on the things that mat- tered most to them, their sources of satisfaction in life, Their everege age at the time was 62, although some ‘were as young as 52, others as old as 72, Results for men and women were reported separately, the men by Rob- ere Sears, the women by Pauline Sears. “With a long life of accomplishment behind them,” wrote Sears in his re- port on the men, “they. would be in a ‘position to evaluste its joys and sor- its successes and failures, its it-have-been as well as its was.” “The men were asked to evaluate sixcea a Se RENE EASES A feeling of choosing one’s career, ot not drifting into it, was an important part of job satisfaction. areas of their lives: occupation, family life, friendship, richness of culeutal life, service to society, and their over all joy in living, They were asked how important vach area had seémed to them in carly. adulthood, os they wore planning thei? lives; that is, whit keinds of satisfaction they had hoped for from life. Then, they were asked Siow satisfied chey had beer! in reality with cach during the course of their Tives. To judge otal satisfaction, the actual degree of sstisfactionsfor cach ‘was multiplied by the importance che porson assigned to it. This meant that in mossuring actual satisfaction, 2 particular pleasurchad more weight f it had been sought-after all along ‘What the men had! most wanted in their younger days wasn happy family life, and they were lucky gnough to agevi,in maturity, their greatest hap: piness came from ‘their forilies. In youth, work satisfaction was ranked second. in importance, but in reality the men ranked it their third ireaceat rource of actual pleasure ‘What came in second. wes something ‘hyve mn ade sodght as @ oa: simple joy in living. At age 6 they felt they had gotten a fair share of pure pleasure our of life, However, joy moved down co thied place inthe final tally and work moved! up to second) because work was more highly valued originally. (See chart below.) ‘Some men, of course, reprced more overall life satisfaction than ores ‘To see what factors in che past might have predicted savisfaction, Sears searched through the records back to 1922... Three sorts of data seemed promising: motivation, favorable life ‘conditions, and expressed feelings. LIFE SATISFACTIONS OF THE GIFTED [Chart shows the reitive importance ol six sources of satisfaction, as reported by the nigh {Ginen and womenin the Terman-Seats etidy in 1872, By that me, mast cf the subjects lwete neat ratrement age, "Joy" means overal pleasure in fing. ‘The motivation that fncerested Sears was the cod for achievement al: ready discussed, The objective gondi- tons that might have fostered sati- faction, Sears though were: | saith lucatian, income, and occupational igs all of which might prodactg008 ° Relings about one’s lifetime efforts. ‘sit worked ox, cary felings about once proved to be vely important. Both an tary liking forone's wotkand aiséling at age300f choosing gne's ca reer rather than érifsingyinto corre Tnted with al occopatioal shee tion, as did reting-oneself as healthy fram 30 onward, High-level taining status, and income had deglisib im: portance for final carcersatistation. Rather” concluded Seors, tit looks asf there were some continuiat afec- tive quality—-an optimism ao. ifs, an enjoyraent of occupational. com: bat, and a feeling ofselfoworth—that characterized the more satisfied of _/ these men at age 30 and persisted through the next three depades of their lives.” ; Pleasure in family ifs had ifferont roots, One early predibtor: was the men's scores at abous.age 30 on a Marital Apritude Test and a:Marital Happiness Test devised by Terman. Other important factors ijequded good mental health in 1940 Aghsa good social adjustment in grammar School, and sociability in high school, Having a favorable aticude toward fa here also predteted wsatisf yng amy —— life, Having ¢ wife who wr rked, though, correlated with 2 Tess stisfy ing family life. ‘Alttle more than 70 percent of the sen had unbroken marriages by 1972 {approximately the national average for this age group). Sears comparcé these men with the 21 perdenk who had divorced to see which early tests € predicted marital stability a, well as {good mental health in general.. Men in ‘unbroken marriages also atl iter at- titades toward their parents, expecial-_soercemerrmatemmancannetr pane cua ONO Unlike so many members of their’sex, © Terman women often enjoyed both singleness and childlessness. ly toward their mothers. This fact led ‘Sears to-sp ch with unbroken-marriages,-thess-ba been final resclution of wharevercon: flicts may have existed in childhood, while for the divorced men, t Hlicts were still rememberes Life Satisfactior ‘Women ‘The life pattems of the Ternian wom- en followed different paths from those of the men, s0 Pauline Sears and her colleague Ann Barbee did a seperate analysis of the findings on women. However, the women were rated on their satisfaction in the same areas of life as were the men, and a search for oO predictors was made. Feminists will be disappointed, but +” Searsand Barbee found their male and female subjects very different. Work sample) derived just,as much actual sutisfactionas rrdid- For vom ~en-asformen;moriey didnorbuy hap— piness. ‘When the women with the highest incomes were compared with those with the lowest, there was no difference in happiness. . ‘Not surprisingly, heppy children of- ten grew up to be happy adults, and satisfied female adults maturéd into satisfied older women. General satis faction in 1972 was related to having positive felationg with parents as far Dackas 1928. These women in midlife continued to look favorably on their own parents and had special adiira tion for their mothers. They also had: favorable sell-concepts from theearly years on, rating themselves high in confidence and lowin inferiority. "Wa woman feels self-confident early in life," conjecture Sears and Barbee, vvshe is more likely to order her life in % was generally more important tomen “a way that promotes later satisic- than it wa happiness in a great diversity of ways; they sought more satisfaction than djd meo from friends, culture, service ro others, and joy in living. Whileboth sexes saw family life as the most im- portant area for achieving satisfac- tion, women Valued it more highly. When each source of satisfaction ‘was weighted according to the impor- tance placed on it, there were only three areas in. which the sexes dif fered. (See chart, page 40) Menifound their work farmore satisfying tan did ‘women, while women found fax more satisfaction than men did fromi both friends and cultural activities. There 1 was no difference between meh and ‘worhen on the pleasures found ip fem- ily, service to others, or joy in living. ‘The sexes were more alike when men were compared with working Jwomen, not with all women. The oné ‘sex difference then was that meri gave ‘more importance to work as a spurce of satisfaction, The working women (ewer then half of the women in the X o women, Women sought - tion.” ‘There were other antecedents of happiness in midlife. Good health and working in a profession were positive predictors, as were the education and ‘occupetion of awoman’s husband. Be- ing satisfied with her macriage, ch dren, social contacts, and communi- ty service as far back 25 1950 also pre- dicted a woman's general satisfaction in 1972, Income was unimportant Career-oriented women had had ‘more ambition for excellence in work during early and late adulthood—an attribute they shared with the most successful Terman men. Oddly, an early predictor for this group of wor en was having special math ability as children, in 1922. In 1972, the women were asked to consider ther lives as falling into one of four pattems: primarily that of a homemaker, pursuing @ career, split- ting her life berween career and a fam ily, of working part-time only. Then, they were asked whether that pattem fit the plans they had made in early ‘adulthood and whether they wished they had-chosen-another pattern- ‘Those-who-said-thetr-plan-had-been- fallilled and that they wotild not have chosen a different one were fated as highly satisfied in their lives. To the dogrée they Wished it otherwise, satis faction was rated lower. By these ct teria, two thirds of the women were highly satisfied. The greatest satistsc- tion was ‘reported by heads of households, whether or not they were single, divorced, orwidowed. Compared with a representative na- tional sample of women who were part of a survey on the quality of American life by Angus Campbell, a survey researcher at the University of Michigan, che Terman women were better educated and hed ‘higher in- comes and better jobs. On a measure of general happiness, the groups were comparable: married wornen, with or without children, were generally most happy, followed by the widowed, the single and, least happy of all, the di- vorced. When the psychologists looked at Terman women’s satis faction with their work patterns, how- ever, they discovered a striking rever- sal in this order. Single women scored highest, then childless married wom= en, divorced women, married wom- en with children, and widows. ‘Groping for an explanation for the reversal, Sears and Barbee came up with a provocative idea, “For high4Q ‘women,’” they suggested, “indepen dence from an unhappy marriage, the challenge of making one’s own lifes 1 widow or single person, activates, over time, feelings of competence rather than depression.” Indeed, perhaps the most important single conclusion to be drawn from the data on the Texmnan women isthat a sense of being competent was te- ‘mendously iinportant to them—rak- ing this retirement-age group seem surprisingly similar to women bom & generation or two later. * % 4 :earningfrom ni : * : . 8 yan'sChildren ss; f ecurrent directors of the Terman study find further ci ‘to the relationship between childhood experience and adult f arenes i el / bos | “Toh? AT ena eno aga | line Sears Yes, a lens. arnang th low gociah change over successive a ‘ronyen, They were way abead of sv trations} Robett and Pauline Sears Speculaifd pa thie when L visited eral tends that have oly ltcly be them aorloog goin their hom, jst 2 conie tue for the mation a3 a whole fivereunuve drive from the Terman They were quickes ta join the work study beadquarters at Stand force. They took Honger to marry 4nd evn the ouisct; the nenitice ol ~have thildten, and more were chi the children Terman selected have been confident saccesndts bout keeping the fad Terman andhis ‘Been meticulous promise of con ‘dendalcy noc ease, though, Robert Sears hat brokes! recy, During out Sually mentioned the tradition of © Interview, Searses that he himsell is yeanber of the Tetman sample. ‘iy virtue of tbat fact and others, Sears seems to have been destined to direet the Term man war 2 clow study. Lewis Ter ‘riend of the Sears amily aod 4 fellow fac member 1 with Sears’s far at Stanford. When! the younger Seas came i Hare to teach at Seaalord jn 1953, he be ‘amg head of she psychology depart shot post that Terman bd Bed Sever yons Boone Whe Termes fied Sears Sexiest ftecteutor Seeraeabeeeme desl Stenord Uuiversi. His wife wat on the Tcl ofthe Seer! School Edveton, Both sve mow ties and verve the Terman suady witout Sin: i he flowing excep from ove conven inte ree proves ye gpmments by the of pyc is dah inpiations of te Te ‘Blais eonsand the fe Formate, coral the foe of ‘Sarsige, te fay and buman el onsen ene The expo “ince the Sense explanation of Bow rat ay be ose by fae" ‘Be. | stat particulary. wantto, 3 less A/high proportion were in man: genial pusitionsg | suspect that be Cause chey were Bight, they gotahead faster. Thels brishness made snother ineriguing dilfefence: the divorged women among them were happier than mon alee on our meno of Saislaction eth their work patetn Minoatal hd dvarced women ‘worked fll tyme, and their work was Sauislying to them, The same was ttue of the women ho remained single. ‘AV! of shem warked, and they were much happier wish their work than rw Wong lense Ta fretion wisn’c from income, either, but from the work isl ' ‘Goleman: Didithe women who were oyRR ER ARREST ao ‘J had missed something by being at home,” I think the homemakers felt they * Pauline Sears said. homemakers all their having had a.carcer! Pauline Seas: Yes, they did. Almost without exception’ the homemakers at de 62 said they would like to have worked-except: when raising their children. 1 think they felt they had assed something by being at home. This attitude is widespread these days, but hese women came to it ear lier-even though the sterdotype they grew up with was probably that every ‘woman should want a good marriage foremost. Goleman: Are there any early factors that set the divoreed women apart? Pauline Sets: Many more of the di rorced women had mothers who £7 Yorked. They may have had the mod Sod of a working woman, and they tight have been more open to thiok: ing that they could make it on their ‘wn, Timagine many women don’t di- vorce becsuse.they fear going it alone. Goleman: But if your mother could do it, so can you. Paullne Seas: Exactly. + Goleman: That seems to suggest that lover the generations, as more and more women work and divorce, the pattern might become sell-perpetuat- ing : Robert Sears: Another sign is that the highest work-patter satisfaction of any group of women was among those whe worked and had no children, no husband, Pauline Sear: But amiong women liv- ing with their hushands, the rate of satisfaction was still about 80 percent, not exactly unhappy. They may have hhad more potential sources of dissatis- faction, remember. The lowest satis- faction, 25 percent, was among home- makers who had never had children. “The biggest difference seemed to be detween women who worked and those who did not, regardless of chil- dren or marrage. * Goleman: These are alarming statis ies for the future of the family. fauline Seara: The current trend.na- drea—and having thetn later. ‘Robert Sears: This mcans thet more women will be able to work. Fewer will suffer the regret reported by the Terman women who never worked Pauline Seas: Even so, many of the Stanford women I sve say they aren't ‘going eo have any children. The way young people are.calking now, there will be more problems for the family as family life becomes less imporant and careers for women become in creasingly common. Goleman: Will chese effects snow: ball? Is the family an endangered spe cies? Rober Seas: Yes and no. fe isn’t that people eare loss about relationships. Choosing work over family isn't turn ing way from people. We talk about having a carcer as thotigh it were 9 solitary pursuit when, in fac, itis not. ‘We found that when wornen turned ro work for satisfaction, they named friendly relations at. work #8 prime sources of pleasure. Women counted {friendship much higher than did men as a source of satisfaction from work. Pauline Sears: This wes particularly rae of single women. In lieu ofa hus band, perhaps, thoy made Iriends ‘Goleman: Who became a substitute family! Pauline Seaes: Yes, 10 a degree. Robert Sear: {don't think we have ro assurne that the importance of réla- ricnships is diminished just because there is less desire for families. think there will bea concomitant rise in the degree to which the same needs are fulfilled through friendships at work. Goleman: So work will become even more important. ‘Robert Sears: And more dangerous to interdere with, Goleman: For example, large corpo: rations chat :ransfer people around the country? Robert Seacs: That's right. This is @ hypithesis that if were a corporation ‘exceiitive, I would take very sertously ~Galenian’ If the farily structure is becoming less important, is the same ‘eue of marrige? Robert Sears: In spite of everything ‘we've said about the reduced satisfac tion from marriage and the increased importance of work, I can’t help 1: turning to the fact that the highest source of satisfaction for most people jn the study was still martiage and family rather than work, for men 3 well as for women. - Goleman: A mate really matters Robert Sears: Yes. If thiere’sbecn a re duction in the Importance of mar- riage, there's room for reduction, without destroying matringe #8 ¢ prime source ofsatislaction. It may be that a little loss dependence on one’s spouse may be 2 helpful thing. Ie might make for healthier marriages. Goleman: To what extent are we all/ prisoners of the past? How much do, theevents of childhood matter laterin life? Robert Sears: Somé, but not all that much. There is clear continuity in a number of attributes, such as healthi- ‘ness or achievement, over SO years But the highest predictive value ofany variable is for variables measured no more than 10 years i Avati- able’s direct prediqeive value i ishes with time, While there is little that is directly. significant over a fpll half-century, it ‘must be rememberdd thatearly events have an indirect predictive value. ‘Thus, there is a mild correlation be- tween good social adjustment in ‘grammar school ‘and satisfaction with one’s family life a half-century later. The child is only & more obvious fa ther to the young men than to the. siddle-aged or older onc. Pauline Seats:In looking for early pre- ictors-of life satisfaction’ among the ‘Terman women, we found that mar ried women with children were more“Yt matured me,” one Terman subject said of World War II, “1 understood life better,” said “Tkely tobe happy if theizown parents ‘bmnariage wan a good one, and if the women hod had a warm, alfcetionate Uhiskindol backaround didn’ gustan happiness of the gited wearman’s fe course Jed her tw be single or na idles mariage. For single women, ily backovund simply dd dict heppineas. The hilesty baught happuess tame worman wth tne kind a! Ine experience dil not necewarily bring ato another wth Ahifrent backgyousnl Goleman: Were there any stan ot what early Backynuuny Ted te divorce Palin Sears: Well, a least i fete spect, the women whose ma#riage fwete intact save their owen parcats ite #8 much happier than did who were divurue or wh re snaine single Rubee Sere: For men, at Teast thete seemed to be a constellation dating, clear back 1922 thar frre good nvarige and sausfaction with tamaly Sie ogamzed around see abulity responsiveness eo and umterest 1 Oth good ratings of social sdiustinent byparensand teachers, aor ot ext cumicular activities ip high sehvol anealfege, and masculinsey at age 12 3 measured by games chey played ‘Gleman: Docs that mean that i ~prefemed chess to baschall you'd be more ikely to divorce? Which games ‘wer not dlasidied 3s masculine? ater Sere Welln nor sure about hess that may be a 44 Goleman: What wouldp't be? Fs naberSers: Hopscotch, Or reading. + Atage 40, the-men tehorted good re «the fiber They fecalled warm, a Sesion undertanding from her, Tite piebeure'to stay around the hog, Atleast in reuospect, the 40> _yeurold perceived his mother as hiv- ing endouraged independeice * ealemiay Were there similar find ings foreodben? \ | Peuliet’ Sears: Divurced women tele more distant from theur fathers. & deep feeling of understanding with sat least in ettospect——as good fort was positively related to an intact marriage. Feelings of rebellion snword the mother or father were associated with divateg. Having parents who ce- sisted.a daughter's independence was also associated wath divurec. Goleman: In what areas of life dul this group's untellgence help most? ‘And where dad se not dhaster that much? Robert Sean: Repurts ut Ife satiate tion amang the men a¢ axe 62 showed that their special mental abshty pre dicted satisfaction with work much Detter than it did happuness on their home hie Golprnan: Any aca why" Rober Sears: My best hypothesis os tha these gifted men had talents that » high degree of auton: In their family edepensenc ior sotisfaction on other iamily members, ‘Fhey were as vulnerable to the charac teristics of eheir wives and children as jother men are ‘Let me remind you, too, that their families were more importane sourees cof satistaction to chem than thett €3- vers were. Even the most ited man {Rot more from his relationships than from his solatary activitis. Goleman: Compared with the genet: al population, was the Terman group “ating ganke—more-flexibie-an-adapting te life changes, stress, or crises! Paolive Seary: Well, | thinic you may seeatin the women teho went to work. . Naiong wath their parents, especially at ape 50 after sarsing children and then liked their jobs very much. Also 1m the women who were more satis fied alter divorce—unlike divorced vedmen in general, who, according to ‘Angus Campbells survey on the qual- ity of life, are not satisticd. Rober Sears: One way t0 look at itis in terms of critical ruming points. When we asked thelmer, ave 62% list five such majo ert, most of them listed World War, They saw ig * é for theiedevétopmer ‘Most were about 30 st the outbreak sf she war. Lookinglbark a the army, they wsed phrases hke, "lr made me prow up” te macuyed me,” tLundee ood ny of them be cum officers very dhekly. This rapid sxlvanvement was offer a traums—be ing in change se ghickly. Yer they row to fit the dems Goleman: A long btigling contro vetsy lay raged vee whether person, hy 1s 4 et of teats or stejacional. One sthool holds that persogalty is best desersbe in teri of long lasting traite--dependency,iduaseutinity, and the like=that eharacterize @ person ‘vera etme, Osetia hat por semality ean be ugderstoodlonly in terms ofa person's behavior fn a par- ticular context—that yo are Une pr som atthe olfce, angtheft hme, and still others in your rls as} parent, spouse, and child, Cag the {Terman data resolve this dispute! ober Sean: Some peryonality char acteristics are quite stable over long periods of time, and some are fot. The {sue must be considered both with re- spect to the kind of behavior exam- ined and to the age'at whic tis ob- served. The attention-sscking of three-year-olds may vary drealy buta person's feelings about himse|forher- Self from ages 30, to, Qimay not. To that extent, then-the construct-of — traits is reasonable, ie rebuttal is tha the sls the staleftion ro ‘viding consistency, thesfevidentlythe self is quite slable—Wh@ is what the trae theorist argues ani ‘Golemancls the coneapt of Bie stages helpful in undersandldf the Terman dati © tio Robert Scars: can'tsap for Bue yet (ve juse reviewed Dao‘Levinson's book, "The Seasons 's Life,” snd Fin impressed R he says s \ tepee SSO CET TAD Y “We have data on the children’s grandparents, so we. can ask questions spanning five generations!” queness.ubs loesn’t call it that, His data, though, are nonquantitative. We'll he able to tise more objective data and compare hunilted’s of peuple as they pass through these staxes. Whether we'll find reflections of Levinson's stages, 1 can’t say yet. [e to? Can they be used to compate o1 eriration with another? How far can ‘you generalize tu people of other time Perivdls from what you flad among. this group? Did the course uf their lives depend -an the paiticular vollee- tive history of their keneration? Pauline Sears: ['s imporeant et member thae, on the average, these subjects were born in 1910, Boule: tess, younger xroups would. respond differently on many counts. Th data show us, though, hoyg bright nev ple of that xeneration viewed! their lives. But the satisfactions they achieved may well differ from satis: factions of later generations. Goleman: Most people in the ssmple Were of college age during the Depres sion. How did that affect their lives? Pauline Sears: For most of the wom en, it meant they didn’t gee the educa tion they might have received. A vypi cal report was: “My parents could send only one child to callege—my brother.” 7 Robert Sears: The cecupational de- scriptions during the Depression ‘years are fantastic—things like mak- ing 35 cents a day as a window clean ex. There would be a long series of pct ty jobs like this, dozens of parttime jobs. They Were just keeding body and soul together, living hand-to-mouth during and after college. Goleman: If the Terman group can‘t be comparcd fairly with other genera: tions because of their special experi ences, and they can’t be compared with the general population because we theory, altbaugh-he_- use to researchers? of-sampling-bias-ho 1. Pauline Sears: The data are lease asi~ ful for comparisons heewoen the gifted and the general population, They are ‘mare useful for looking i dif among subgrixips within the sample, the most and least success, for ex: ample, oF the’ divorced nd che still rmartied. The std of such graup cif ferences alloivs us to examine the se- diunce uf eauses in 2 person's devel- ‘opment over a period of more than 30 years Once the date are all scored ina computer, this sort of analysis he- riwcen groups over the fife eyele ean sheil light on many areas, from per y to evommsie stats to health. You see, few of de thousads of vari ales measured in the gifted group show the degge of homngencity chat the original 1Q score did. “The search for antecederits and consequences of life history should he quite fruit Goleman: How wil] researchers go about that search! Robert Sears: They'll have to test hy- pothescs. You just can’t xo om a fish ing expedition with this massive amount of information, You have to take a certain outcome and then léok for antecedents or look for what were the later consequences of earlier expe: rience. Questions fike, "What are the cffocts of a child's age when the par- cents dic!” Goleman: But isn’t there alrcady re: search that answers such questivn: Robert Sears: There has been a multi tude of studies that look acthereffect ‘of external events, such as parental loss, on children. But they've looked only at shorrtcrm consequences. With data like ours that go over the life span, you ean track the effects af such an event throughout 2 person's “life. In fact, because we have dats on many of the children's grandparents, you can ask questions that span five generations! \ \ lemon: You're still scoring thi dataend pattiogiton computes tapes. — ‘The sheer volume of data must be » ‘cnormous: How much is there! Robert Seats: I's a horrible thing to coneentplate. There"have beer mine follow-ups, four of which included field studies —dircer interviews with the people and sometimes with the spouses as well. Back in 1922 and agein in 1928, there were interviews ‘with purents and the teacher, as well as wieh the child. You ean imagine * whar the files are like: There were 1,528 cases to start with, We are still in couch with more than 900. More chan 300 are dead, so ‘wre have 75 tu 8 percent of the living still being followed, The total number bo varinbles we will eventually code for wich person will be tn borhvod of 4,000. Let’s 5 4,000-cades for each, and about 1,000 ‘cases, That's 4 million picees of infor mation! Goleman: How long will the project continue! Robert Seas: Into the foresceabe fu cc. We hope to keep going on until very end. On actuarial grounds, there's considerable likelihood that the last of Terman's gifted children will not have yielded his lest report to the files before the year 2010, Pouline Sears: And, of course, on the same grounds, e's most likely chat the last one’ wil be her report, not his! ‘Daniel Golomanis a senior editor of Paychat ‘ogy Today and has @ Ph. in psychology tren Haver Fer luther information, react Terman Lewaiof Gree Sul Sous. une 9 Sioers icriy Pac 1085 Saree oe saictese50) ‘Ose sala “thurs Pro. F ea a> (Gutta et emen Gieg Gran Gone Pracoopay owopaoms Tiss 333 ‘aes Feber Savees clue Saatucan showman Bia ton Arecan yeep SEIN, Be Sire Pena waar Owe “Cane seat {Gacion anor fomrs Gite wan" m Pe ee tne Ine Cronbe:ry Yost Pespace Sus aed at se 978 $1756 ape 33s Ropentsavalable SeeCiassiles Advair sess ie