Gifted students are frequently emotionally unstable. People who are gifted are usually in good mental health and tend to have fewer emotional problems than the norm. Scores above a certain level on IQ tests indicate giftedness. It is worth noting that strong task commitment may not become evident until the student is identified and working in an environment that is stimulating. Truly gifted people are those who do everything well.
Gifted people are clumsy, physically inept, and narrow in outlook.
Although gifted people manifest the physical and social strengths and weaknesses of any population, they tend to be very healthy as a group, morally responsible, and socially well developed. Several descriptions of giftedness have been advanced over the years, and while these do not necessarily mesh, they do offer a basis for practical application. Gifted and talented people are those possessing or capable of developing this composite set of traits and applying them to any potentially valuable area of human performance. A more recent point of view is Robert J. Sternberg's position that intellectual giftedness must be viewed in terms of the internal world of the individual, the external world of the individual, and the interface of these two worlds as it unfolds through experience. An individual's practical, functional intelligence, and hence, his or her degree of giftedness, involves the ability to select appropriate environments that are right for one's talents.