This monograph presents abstracts of 32 papers on the development of general versus specific abilities and their relationship to diversity in gifted and talented students. Sample topics include: creative development at the college level; cultural and linguistic differences in gifted children; Project High Hopes, a program for gifted students with special needs in upper elementary grades; a model for analyzing underachievement in terms of the peer society; preservice teachers' perceptions of the label "gifted-talented-creative"; long-term effects of educational enrichment during infancy; gifted students in restructured middle schools; cultural differences and young gifted children; misbeliefs about intelligence among psychologists, teachers, school administrators, and parents; narrative language differences between gifted/learning disabled (LD) and nonLD/gifted adolescents; active learning and young gifted children; lifespan achievement of gifted women of color; enhancing gendered interpersonal abilities through drama and theater; problem solving in multiple intelligences with Native American and Hispanic children; advanced development in the social domain among gifted girls; an analysis of the early years of the Brontes at Haworth; creativity and race; differences between gifted teachers', regular classroom teachers', and undergraduate education majors' expressed value of empowered behavior for gifted children and children in general; backroom decision making in gifted education; career development of talented teenage musicians; artistic talent and creativity; the relationship of societal competence to parental expectation and individual potential; comparison of inductive and deductive methods of teaching writing in an inner-city school; gifted education in South Africa; and psychosocial diversity. (DB)