Cognitive Ability, Personality, and Privilege: A Trait-Complex Approach to Talent Development

Trait complexes of cognitive ability, personality, and privilege can be used to conceptualize potential future roles of gifted adolescent students. The Counseling Laboratory for the Exploration of Optimal States (CLEOS) uses ACT scores; Big Five personality factors; and intersectional measures of gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status used to assess distance from privilege. Combinations of these characteristics can be organized into a “Beehive,” in which professional workers (Worker Bees), nurturing and healing professions (Honeybees), business and political leaders (Strivers), scholars (Foragers), innovators (Drones), and visionaries (Queens) are represented. Combinations of ability and personality suggest the domain of work that may be appropriate and the training needed, while the addition of intersectional privilege suggests the social, cultural, and financial capital that are necessary for the attainment of the highest status within each domain.