The Use of Psychodrama with Gifted Children

Abstract

Since gifted students are often role models and leaders in the school environment, the expansion of their role repertoire in such important areas as self-concept, empathic understanding, group interaction, goal setting, and leadership could serve to improve interactions in the larger school environment. Expansion of role repertoire can be accomplished through psychodramatic techniques; however, there is a paucity of research on the use of psychodramatic techniques with school children or the gifted population. Eighteen gifted fifth-grade students were given psychological pretests and were then equally divided into a control and an experimental group. The experimental group attended one-hour weekly psychodrama sessions for a 10-week period. All sessions were conducted by a psychologist who is also a trained psychodramatist. Posttests were then administered. Although using a two-factor, repeated measure ANOVA, no statistically significant differences were found in the pre- to posttest performance changes of the psychodrama and control groups. Several subtests of the California Test of Personality, however, showed trends indicative of positive psychodrama effects. Behavioral observations also indicated improvements related to the psychodramatic experience.