Positive Disintegration Research Articles

An Instrument for the Measure of Dabrowskian Overexcitabilities to Identify Gifted Elementary Students

The ElemenOE is a Likert-scaled observation checklist developed in this study to measure 5 personality characteristics in elementary school children, with predictive validity for identifying giftedness. The characteristics, named “overexcitabilities,” are described within the context of Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration. Five scholars of Dabrowski’s theory rated an initial 100 items for content validity. The 61 strongest items comprised the pilot instrument, which teachers used to describe 373 students. Exploratory factor analysis using varimax rotation found factors that related to the 5 OEs. Items with loadings of less than .5 were eliminated, thus creating the 30-item ElemenOE. Teachers used the ElemenOE to describe 171 gifted and nonidentified children. A discriminant analysis yielded one function that significantly discriminated between groups. The ElemenOE classified 76% of gifted students and 42% of nonidentified students as having similar OE profiles. These results indicate that, with revisions, the ElemenOE may be useful in identifying gifted students who are missed by traditional identification measures.

Self-Concept and Giftedness: A Multi-Theoretical Perspective

The purpose of this article is to discuss factors that affect the self-concept of gifted individuals. The Pyryt Mendaglio Self-Perception survey is introduced to describe three theoretical perspectives on self-concept: reflected appraisals, social comparison, and attribution. Each of these theories suggests positive and negative influences on gifted students’ self-concepts. Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration is introduced to provide a unique perspective on self-concept-namely that the expected positive or negative self-evaluation is contingent upon the individual’s level of development.

Denial of anger/denial of self: Dealing with the dilemmas

This evocative essay explores the relationship between denial of anger and denial of Self in light of two aspects of Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration: the Levels of Emotional Development and the Overexcitabilities. It suggests that issues for gifted children are exacerbated by their emotional intensity and discusses dilemmas confronted by gifted children who are faced with resolving disparities between their idealism and their experience of anger. The search for Self of a gifted individual grappling with issues of denial of anger is illustrated by a poem describing inner turmoil and efforts to achieve resolution. In addition, the article offers examples of strategies that might enable gifted children's expression of overexcitabilities to help them move toward fuller development of Self in relationship to dealing with anger. A number of questions pertinent to the topic are also raised.

Is There Moral Giftedness?

Are the higher levels of morality a gift given to some? The first part of this paper describes higher levels of morality by contrasting two approaches: Kohlberg's Cognitive Developmentalism and Dabrowski's Positive Disintegration. The roots of the more holistic theory, Positive Disintegration, are traced back to traditional appreciations of life-death cycles to develop the broad context of dynamic forces within human development and, more specifically, the value issues indigenous to speaking of “higher” and “lower” levels of moral development. Rather than a strictly cognitive activity for solving moral dilemmas, high level morality is seen as a function of the total person, especially factors that constitute developmental potential. Higher morality is then not totally a gift but something chosen, striven for, and indeed the result of some kind of disintegration.

Friendship and Play: An Evolutionary-Developmental View

Kazimier Dabrowski's evolutionary-developmental theory of positive disintegration is used as a pretext for discussing the relationship between play and friendship. Within the context of multilevelness of emotional and instinctive functions, it is proposed that the immutability of gamesmanship is transformed through the fidelity of friendship into play whose function is nothing less than to understand the totality of meaning.

Levels of Emotional Development with Experienced Levels of Emptiness and Existential Concern

Using a sample of 61 male students the relations between level of emotional development, according to Dabrowski and Piechowski's theory of positive disintegration, and experienced levels of emptiness, existential concern, and depression were examined to see if earlier findings are supported. A positive correlation was noted between level of emotional development and emptiness, confirming the earlier study. These findings support the idea that the emotional development involves the conscious experiencing of emptiness but they do not support similar notions with regard to existential concern and depression.

Kazimierz Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration and the American Humanistic Psychology

The author discusses the differences and similarities between Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration and the theories of the American Humanistic psychologists. All are personality growth theories; however, the philosophical assumptions underlying the theories differ. The Humanistic psychologists subscribe to eudaimonistic ethics of self-fulfillment and happiness, whereas Dabrowski follows the Existentialists and stresses the dignity of human beings. He stresses the suffering associated with the attainment of higher levels of spiritual development. Underlying these different views on the nature of human existence may be differing assumptions about the metaphysics of evil. Theologians have discussed the metaphysics of evil since the early days of the church as the problem of theodicy. This article suggests that the American Humanistic psychologists and Dabrowski implicitly followed different theodicies. This could account for the resistance to Dabrowksi's theory in North America.

Kazimierz Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration and the American Humanistic Psychology

The author discusses the differences and similarities between Dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration and the theories of the American Humanistic psychologists. All are personality growth theories; however, the philosophical assumptions underlying the theories differ. The Humanistic psychologists subscribe to eudaimonistic ethics of self‐fulfillment and happiness, whereas Dabrowski follows the Existentialists and stresses the dignity of human beings. He stresses the suffering associated with the attainment of higher levels of spiritual development. Underlying these different views on the nature of human existence may be differing assumptions about the metaphysics of evil. Theologians have discussed the metaphysics of evil since the early days of the church as the problem of theodicy. This article suggests that the American Humanistic psychologists and Dabrowski implicitly followed different theodicies. This could account for the resistance to Dabrowksi's theory in North America.

The Application of Dabrowski's Concept of Multilevelness to Allport's Concept of Unity

Counseling and ValuesVolume 27, Issue 4 p. 213-228 The Application of Dabrowski's Concept of Multilevelness to Allport's Concept of Unity CAROLINE S. MARSH, CAROLINE S. MARSH Counselor Caroline S. Marsh is a counselor in private practice, Iowa City, Iowa, andSearch for more papers by this authorNICHOLAS COLANGELO, NICHOLAS COLANGELO Associate Professor Nicholas Colangelo is an associate professor, Division of Counselor Education, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Portions of this article were presented at the Third International Conference on the Theory of Positive Disintegration, Miami, November 1980Search for more papers by this author CAROLINE S. MARSH, CAROLINE S. MARSH Counselor Caroline S. Marsh is a counselor in private practice, Iowa City, Iowa, andSearch for more papers by this authorNICHOLAS COLANGELO, NICHOLAS COLANGELO Associate Professor Nicholas Colangelo is an associate professor, Division of Counselor Education, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Portions of this article were presented at the Third International Conference on the Theory of Positive Disintegration, Miami, November 1980Search for more papers by this author First published: July 1983 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-007X.1983.tb01137.xCitations: 1 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume27, Issue4July 1983Pages 213-228 RelatedInformation

Compatibility of self-actualization and anxiety.

Dabrowski's (1972) theory of positive disintegration argues that anxiety appears to be the dynamic of self-actualization. A study to assess this hypothesis (Wilkins, Hjelle, & Thompson, 1977) reported that self-actualization was incompatible with chronic, debilitating or neurotic anxiety. The current study further examined the empirical and conceptual relation between anxiety and self-actualization. A measure of self-actualization (the POI) and two measures of anxiety were taken from Ss (N = 126). Thirty-three items from the POI were found to be measures of anxiety and were scored negatively for self-actualization. Removal of anxiety items and rescoring of the POI yielded self-actualization measures that were related positively to anxiety test scores. The results indicate that the POI theoretically is biased against anxiety, the conclusion of Wilkins et al. is not necessary, and Dabrowski's theory remains viable.

Anxiety and actualization: a reconceptualization.

In line with Dabrowki's theory of Positive Disintegration, deGrace recently reported no significant difference in terms of anxiety level between groups of actualized and nonactualized Ss. Several methodological and theoretical flaws noted in the deGrace study led the present authors to hypothesize that actualized Ss would score significantly lower than nonactualized Ss on separate but conceptually related measures of manifest or neurotic anxiety. Ss (83 females and 42 males) were administered the Personal Orientation Inventory, the IPAT Anxiety Scale, and the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale. The results, which substantiate the hypothesis that levels of actualization and anxiety are correlated negatively, are discussed in relation to the conceptual distinction between debilitating and facilitating anxiety and their respective effects on psychological growth.

Positive Disintegration and Moral Education

Abstract: This article sketches out the implications for moral development theory, axiology and moral education of Dabrowski's theory of Positive Disintegration. Dabrowski's idea of the necessity of lower level disintegration before integration can take place on higher levels is explored, as is his central and unique contribution of the concept of multilevelness of behavioural organization and functions, particularly the importance given to emotional development as the source of objective valuing. A basic assumption is that there is an emprically observable development of the capacity to make value judgements and the ability to establish one's own hierarchy of values independent from cultural conditioning. Dabrowski's insights rescue moral theory from much of its confusion and root it in the vital, existential, whole person.

On the Philosophy of Development through Positive Disintegration and Secondary Integration

On the Philosophy of Development through Positive Disintegration and Secondary Integration

Positive disintegration and constructive change in schizophrenia.

Positive disintegration and constructive change in schizophrenia.

Review of Personality-Shaping Through Positive Disintegration.

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1968, Vol 13(8), 410. Reviews the book, Personality-Shaping Through Positive Disintegration by Kazimierz Dabrowski and O. Hobart Mowrer (1967). This book discusses the personality disintegration of Michelangelo, St. Augustine, J. W. Dawid (Polish psychologist), Clifford Beers, and Jack Ferguson (civic leader and physician). Their personality development is seen as resulting from disintegration and higher integration. The application of methods of disintegration to children and adults is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

Review

Friedrich Seifert and Rotraut Seifert‐Helwig: Bilder und Urbilder, Erscheinungsformen des ArchetypusM. Esther Harding: The ‘I’ and the ‘Not‐I’: a study in the development of consciousnessWarner Muensterberger and Sidney Axelrad (editors): The psychoanalytic study of society, IIIStanley A. Leavy (translation and introduction): The Freud journal of Lou Andreas SalomeRobert Waelder: Psychoanalytic avenues to art Tripurā‐Rahasya (JÑĀNAKHANDA) Erwin R. Goodenough: The psychology of religious experiencesMircea Eliade (translated by J. M. Cohen): The two and the oneGershom G. Scholem (translated by Ralph Manheim): On the Kabbalah and its symbolismK. Bannister and L. Pincus: Shared phantasy in marital problems: therapy in a four‐person relationshipI. Boszormenyi‐Nagy and James L. Framo (eds.): Intensive family therapyK. Dabrowski: Positive disintegration, edited by J. Aronson

Lindemann's crisis theory and Dabrowski's positive disintegration theory. A comparative analysis.

Perspectives in Psychiatric CareVolume 3, Issue 7 p. 8-13 Lindemann's Crisis Theory and Dabrowski's Positive Disintegration Theory-A Comparative Analysis Mary K. Harrison R.N., M.S., Search for more papers by this author Mary K. Harrison R.N., M.S., Search for more papers by this author First published: December 1965 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6163.1965.tb01446.xCitations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume3, Issue7December 1965Pages 8-13 RelatedInformation

Positive Disintegration.

Positive Disintegration.

Positive Disintegration.

Positive Disintegration.