'experience' are more negative. They suggest that this discrepancy between research and experience is probably due to errors in research design. They raise number of interesting issues related to sampling procedures in some research studies and state that: In the selection of the gifted group, the question must be asked whether referral of students by parents or teachers for gifted programmes may be influenced by the students' social adjustment. Would a child who is not well adjusted and not well adapted to the school setting, who is not achieving, not popular with teachers, be in the gifted programme? (McCallister, Nash & Meckstroth, 1996,p.274) The point they are trying to make is that the probability of finding gifted children who are not socially competent in some of these samples is reduced. It could be argued that many samples might be biased and this may influence the perceptions of educators and parents in believing gifted children are better adjusted. 2.Gifted Children are More at Risk for Adjustment Problems The second view is that gifted children are 'more' at risk for adjustment problems than their non-gifted peers; that giftedness increases a child's vulnerability to adjustment difficulties. Supporters of this view believe that gifted children are more sensitive to interpersonal conflicts and experience greater degrees of alienation and stress than do their peers, as a result of their cognitive capacities (Neihart, 1999). A significant number of researchers support this view, including Hollingworth (1942), Janos and Robinson (1985), Grossberg and Cornell (1988), Roedell (1986), Silverman