Hollingworth's Studies of Highly Gifted Students

Leta Stetter Hollingworth was a key figure in the establishment of gifted education as a field and a science. She was one of the first psychologists to study the unique strengths and needs of gifted children, and she was a strong advocate of developing specialized curriculum to meet their needs. She also challenged many of the scientific assumptions regarding the inferiority of women, and broke many societal boundaries constraining women at the beginning of the 20th century. She is remembered for her impressive contributions to a variety of fields, including gifted education, adolescent psychology, educational psychology, clinical psychology, and the psychology of women. This entry describes her life and career.

Leta Stetter was born May 25, 1886, near Chadron, Nebraska. Her mother died in childbirth when Leta was only 3-years-old, and she and her sisters were raised by her maternal grandparents until Leta was age 13. Her father remarried and reclaimed custody of the children, though there was much strife between Leta and her stepmother. Leta was a precocious child, having had a poem published in a local paper at the age of 14 and having entered college at the University of Nebraska at the age of 15. She established herself as an exemplary student, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1906. During this time, she also became engaged to her future husband, Harry Hollingworth. After graduation, Leta worked as an assistant school principal and teacher in Nebraska while Harry moved to New York to begin his graduate education at Columbia University. After 2 years, Harry secured a position at Barnard College that provided enough financial security for her to join him in New York, and they were married on New Year's Eve in 1908. Leta Hollingworth was unable to work in New York, as, by law, married women were not allowed to be teachers. She unsuccessfully pursued writing, and after 3 years, she and Harry were able to save enough money for her to enroll in the educational psychology program at Columbia's Teachers College.

Throughout her graduate studies, Hollingworth expanded her role as an advocate of the women's suffrage movement by challenging the prevailing [Page 431]assumptions, such as the inherent inferiority of women, that were common around the turn of the century and thus used to justify their exclusion from many roles within society. One such assumption was the variability hypothesis, originally articulated by Havelock Ellis. According to the variability hypothesis, men were thought to inherently exhibit a wider range of physical and mental abilities than were women. In the prevailing climate of Social Darwinism, this was interpreted as a sign of inferiority: Men, who were thought to be capable of both genius and stupidity, were targeted for education and opportunity, whereas women, who were seen as merely average, were thought to be better served by preparing them for their future roles as wives and mothers. Though the variability hypothesis was widely accepted, little empirical research had been conducted to support it: Much of its popularity came from its ability to support the cultural trends of its day.

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