A short summary of the case study results
Kazimierz Dąbrowski was a Polish psychologist, psychiatrist and physician. He is known for his theory of “positive disintegration” as a mechanism in personality development. I first learned about it in the early 1990s and included an examination of it in my doctoral dissertation, Environmental, familial, and personal factors that affect the self-actualization of highly gifted adults: Case studies.
Two considerations stand out as important when one evaluates emotional self-actualization. First, people who have reached levels of self-actualization feel good about themselves, their lives, and the world around them. They are generally hopeful and have positive attitudes toward others. They are not generally depressed and they have a natural drive to contribute through their efforts.
As the analysis of the “case study” material progressed, it became evident that there is reason to consider advanced emotional and moral reasoning levels not necessarily better or desirable for everyone. Stage theory suggests that higher is better, but judging from the kinds of lives the different subjects are leading, and the happiness and contentment often reported by subjects at lower levels, it is important to keep an open mind about what advanced level emotional growth is and is not. [“Case studies” are narratives about the lives of the study subjects; mere quotes with no context aren’t especially helpful, in my opinion.]
Only through future research can it be determined what personal, perhaps inherent, factors may contribute to eventual self-actualization in individual people. It is clear that there are identifiable characteristics present in people at different levels of development. How early they reach a level, and whether or not they continue to progress to the highest stages, cannot be concluded from this study.
Only one subject showed attitudes and behavior that differed significantly from his DIT results, subject #36M. He took a 2-year break before finishing the study and reported that he underwent significant internal changes. The questionnaire dealing with his childhood was completed at the same time as his first DIT, on which he received a 48.3. His clear change from probable Nonsearcher to Searcher by the time he completed the adult level inventory indicated that there are self-actualizers who did not begin life as natural Searchers. If they did not begin life, or even their adulthoods, as Searchers, that means something can happen to turn a person into a Searcher and increase the likelihood of self-actualization. What that something is did not become clear in this study.
Author Note
There are 3 subjects who reached Dabrowski’s Level IV/V. Keep in mind that the people in the study were between the ages of 40 and 60. Two of the 3 who appeared to be a Level IV/V were
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42 at the time, and the other was 45. You can read all about it in the free PDF listed in the end of each blog post.
In conclusion, the very nature of self-actualized growth and advanced moral reasoning may preclude either concept being understood well enough for teaching to children, young parents, or even teachers. Perhaps what parents, teachers, and children need to know is that there is the possibility of an emotional journey and it involves feelings of instability and struggle along the way. They can be taught what the typical milestones are, what their life goals may be, and the reasons for establishing those goals.
Some Limitations of this study
A number of issues limit the general usefulness of the current study. Included among them are the imprecision of the case study analysis approach, the lack of agreement in the wider community regarding what constitutes giftedness, the snapshot approach to the subjects’ assessments, the self-selection inherent in research with volunteer subjects, and lack of more than one rater for a number of highly subjective evaluations.
Author Note
When I first dove into the topic of high intelligence, and how it is effectively measured, I quickly realized I had to look at as much primary research as I could. My style of sharing information is case studies and other mostly qualitative interpretations and observations. I needed the more quantitative studies to show me what could be true and what could be interpreted incorrectly. For example, a fair number of the quantitative studies depended on college students who volunteered or paid a small stipend for their time. Many of those studies also depended on an assumption that a good measure of giftedness could be found in looking at the highest level of education for the fathers of the subjects. That is, they equated academic performance in the male parents of their subjects and had it be “those are the gifted ones.” “A proxy for intelligence” was a common phrase in and before the 1990s when I was in my doctoral program. This didn’t bother me at first because I was one of those people who didn’t even know about what privilege is when it comes to education and access to opportunities. I write this author note now, in 2025, to show you that we can change over our lifetimes as we see and understand and learn. This is part of why so few people, even highly intelligent ones, can reach the higher levels of moral reasoning and inner growth development. Interesting, eh?
And because I used references to learn more from every article and study I read in those early 1990s early years, I suspect some of you will want to see these references, as well. Enjoy!
References
Brennan, T. P., & Piechowski, M. M. (1991). A development framework for self-actualization: Evidence from case studies. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 31, 43–64.
Dabrowski, K. (1967). Personality-shaping through positive disintegration. Boston: Little, Brown.
Dabrowski, K. (with Kawczak, A., & Piechowski, M. M.) (1970). Mental growth through positive disintegration. London: Gryf.
Dabrowski, K., & Piechowski, M. M. (1977). Theory of levels of emotional development, (Vol. 1). Oceanside, NY: Dabor Science.
Erikson, E. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York: Norton.
Feldman, D. H. (1986). Nature’s gambit: child prodigies and the development of human potential. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
Josselson, R. (1991). Finding herself: Pathways to identity development in women. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development (Vol. 2) San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.
Marcia, J. (1980). Ego identity development. In J. Adelson (Ed.), The handbook of adolescent psychology. New York: Wiley.
Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personality (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
Peck, R. F., & Havighurst, R. J. (1960). The psychology of character development. New York: Wiley.
Piechowski, M. M. (1975). A theoretical and empirical approach to the study of development. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 92, 231–297.
Piechowski, M. M. (2010). Rethinking Dabrowski’s theory. Citation information missing.
Random House Dictionary (1987). Definition #14.
Rest, J. R. (1979). Development in judging moral issues. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Ruf, D. L. (1998). Environmental, familial, and personal factors that affect the self-actualization of highly gifted adults: Case studies. Unpublished dissertation: University of Minnesota.
Ruf, D. L. (2009). Self-actualization and morality of the gifted: environmental, familial, and personal factors. In D. Ambrose & T. Cross (Eds.), Morality, ethics, and gifted minds (pp. 265–283). New York: Springer.
A free link to my entire dissertation: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.positivedisintegration.com%2Fruf1998.pdf%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0hyDDm_-IaYxIbJDHfYKz389TLmHx_cm0D4-JQSHkGbKDGJU0Uom3hkJs&h=AT2NhDiK7gli5COD6ckJiyQoPzdQmmF3pVAjFOlglPp5rvkcXYWCNWofxg7Q90SOON5m1ytqr4hmmxoIjYqyK-S71wqWjMKC2nQqpiDwOpCZFWyvK7Px3ZW75sFz6bUeplcampR7xXjTZZouUq0
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