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3.2.5 Too Many Possibilities: Multipotentiality as a Challenge for Career Decisions

The question if Multipotentiality is an existing phenomenon can be discussed on interrelated theoretical and practical levels. In a basic understanding, multipotentiality means the possibility of high development of competencies in several talent domains (Fredrickson, 1979, p. 268). In this case there is a close similarity to the concept of giftedness. My presentation will discuss the field of concepts of giftedness (one or multifactorial and systemic models) in differentiation to concepts of multipotentiality. Often giftedness or talent is only one part of the definition of multipotentiality. Most researchers also define multiple interests as a necessary component. As a result of the comparisons and known challenges (Rysiew, Shore & Leeb 1999) I will put a definition of giftedness up for discussion which focusses on the decision of a domain itself. A volitional factor which is, in my opinion, underestimated or not included in recent models of giftedness. From this point, I can introduce a new concept of multiple giftedness as an extension of the psychometric concept of multipotentiality. This theoretical basis is important for the following part of my presentation, which focusses on practical problems and empirical research about it. In the context of career choice (field of study, vocation) of gifted students, multipotentiality is a broadly discussed problem. In contrast to many reports and case studies of practitioners, the scientific debate came to an end, after Achter, Lubinski, Benbow and Persson (1996) declared: “Multipotentiality Among the Intellectually Gifted: ‘It Was Never There and Already It's Vanishing’”. Besides the specific and interesting insights of the monumental SMPY study on which this result is based, the definition of multipotentiality seems to be too narrow from my perspective. Furthermore, there is no specific research on career decision problems among the group. Following my wider concept of multiple giftedness, I have conducted several empirical studies to describe decision problems for gifted students in the career selection process. I will present data from different questionnaire-studies, which I have analyzed not only statistically but also with a qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2010) in case of open questions. I surveyed gifted pupils before and after career selection (n=86, n=135), gifted and non-gifted students (n=390), career counsellors (n=230) and counsellors for the gifted (n=64). Additionally, I can provide data from an online career choice test-tool (n= 2234), which will be used to estimate percentages of multipotentiality among the gifted in considerations of the different discussed concepts.

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