Yetenek Hiyerar isi: üstün Yetenek Türlerinin Toplumsal De erleri üzerine Bir Ara t rma (Talent Hierarchy: A Research Study on the Social Value of Talent Types)

Purpose and significance: The purpose of this research study was to investigate social values of talent types that were identified based on the psychosocial classification of talents proposed by Tannenbaum (1983). According to this model talents can be classified based on their social values into scarcity talents that preserve and prolong life, surplus talents that elevate sensibilities and sensivities, quota talents that provide goods and services and anomalous talents that provide enjoyment. The societal value of a talent contributes to the degree to which parents in particular and governments and educational institutions in general make investment in the nurturance of this talent. Method: A likert-type questionnaire consisting of 60 different types of talents was developed based on the Tannenbaum Model. Talents were identified through reviewing inventions books, expert opinions and the Guinness Records. The questionnaire included 15 talent types for each class of the Tannenbaum Model. Each talent type was scored from 1 to 4 (1 = above-average; 2 = high; 3 = very high; 4= extraordinarily high) based on its value as perceived by the participants. The questionnaire was administered to 601 people (female = %36.4; male = 63.6) in a major city in the middle part of Turkey. Two criteria were used for participation in the study: Volunteer participation and being over 18-years old. Their age ranged from 18 to 72 with a mean of 27.14 and standard deviation of 10.83. Their educational status also ranged from elementary school and high school graduates (%38) to university students and university graduates (%62). The scale was given to all participants face to face, taking 15 minutes for each participant. Paired-samples t-test was used to compare mean scores of the talent categories and independent-samples t-test was used to test gender differences. Results: Results showed that scarcity talents were rated as the highest (M = 3.06; SD = .57) followed by surplus talents (M = 2.69; SD = .61), quota talents (M= 1.96; SD= .62), and anomalous talents (M= 1.90; SD= .59). The differences between the means were found to be significant (p< .00 for all). The highest rating was given to the item “the person who leads the independence war of a country” (M = 3.49; SD = .77); followed by “the person who discovers electricity” and “the person who finds the cure for cancer.” The lowest rating was given to the item the person who makes the best saddles” (M = 1.68; SD = .97). Furthermore, female participants scored the scarcity talents and the surplus talents higher than male partic