ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the women in Terman's gifted group and their subjective perceptions in 1977 of what events or choices have been important in their lives and how these things have come to be influential. At the time of the 1972 questionnaire, the majority of the Terman group were anticipating retirement and they were in a position to review their lives' work. The Terman study staff believes the 1977 questionnaires were received by about 650 women and of these, 374 returned their questionnaires as of October 19, 1978. The marital status of the Terman women was a predictor of their internal vs. external control status. Married and widowed women are relatively more "external" in their discriptions of their lives while divorced and single women are relatively more "internal." The working Terman woman has come to experience her life as a creation of her own and, if married, she sees this creation as having improved the marriage.
