ABSTRACT
The qualitative research process is explained that underpins the book Extreme Intelligence. A research design was employed of semi-structured interviews and textual analysis, using Kathy Charmaz’s methodology of Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) combined innovatively with Wendy Hollway’s Psychosocial epistemology. CGT aims to construct original theory that is fully grounded in research data and which contributes a way of representing or explicating something puzzling or underexplored. Here the social difficulties of very high-IQ/gifted adults were investigated. The textual analysis covered literature and research on intelligence, giftedness, genius, and expertise, and one-to-one interviews were held with a multinational sample of 20 very high-IQ adults, the majority of whom were members of British Mensa. The CGT procedures are summarised of data collection, data analysis, memo writing, theoretical sampling, and constructing original theory. Each research stage is clearly documented. Charts show the focused codes and theoretical categories that were distilled from the research data, out of which the three distinctive theoretical products of the project were created. A memo writing sample is provided. Mention is included of in vivo codes or categories, research ethics, quality control, limitations of the project, and the potential for wider applications of its theoretical products in research on other minority groups.
