Creativity (59 page)

Science students see only the drudgery of the discipline.
Whereas students talented in music and the arts report a much more positive quality of experience than average when engaged in music and art, students talented in math and science report a much lower than normal quality of experience when they are doing math and science. In other words, they are less happy, less motivated, and have a less positive self-esteem when working on their talent than when doing other things (Csikszentmihalyi and Schiefele 1992; Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde, and Whalen 1993). The reason for this
is partly that art and music are more immediately enjoyable than math and science; but in large part it is due to our attitudes toward “hard” academic subjects, and the way we teach them.

C
HAPTER
14

Obstacles are internal.
Many of these internal obstacles are the result of the fact that our nervous system cannot handle more than a limited amount of information in consciousness at the same time, and so we cannot attend to more than a few things at a time (see Csik
szentmihalyi 1978, 1990; Hasher and Zacks 1979; Kahneman 1973; Simon 1969; Treisman and Gelade 1980).

Try to be surprised.
As we know, creative individuals tend to face experience with openness, bordering on what Goethe called “naïveté.” This suggestion is similar to the one Don Juan gave to his apprentices, a practice he called “stopping the world” (Castaneda 1971). It consists in registering sensory stimuli without labeling them according to culturally defined conventions; for instance, looking at a tree without thinking of it as a “tree,” or letting any previous knowledge about trees enter into consciousness. It turns out that this exercise is extremely difficult, if not impossible to
carry out (compare Peirce’s concept of
perception
). The suggestion to be surprised by what one encounters during the day is a less radical version of “stopping the world.”

Try to surprise at least one person.
Of course, I am not advocating that one should become obnoxious or pushy. Some individuals need so much attention to confirm their importance—or even existence—that they will do anything to get it: talking loudly, acting flamboyantly, defying conventions, getting involved in risky behavior. The difference between such behavior and what I am suggesting is that the latter is a tool for learning about oneself and the world, a way of broadening one’s repertoire of experiences, a means for generating novelty.

When there is nothing specific to do, our thoughts soon return to the most predictable state.
The conclusion that the natural state of the mind is chaos is based on my studies with the Experience Sampling Method, which show that when people are alone with nothing to do, their thoughts tend to become disordered and their moods negative (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi 1992; Csikszentmihalyi and Larson 1984; Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi 1990). As the neuropsychologist George Miller said, “The mind survives by ingesting information” (Miller 1983, p. 111); when there is no information to keep it
in an ordered state, the mind begins to lose control of attention, at least temporarily. As with most such generalizations, this rule does not apply to everyone: Individuals who have learned to control their minds even in the absence of external inputs of information—by learning a symbolic system and its operations, such as prayer, meditation, mathematics, poetry—can avoid the entropy of solitude, and even enjoy it.

The most mundane activities.
On the average, we spend almost 40 percent of our waking life doing “maintenance” activities, such as washing, dressing, eating, and cleaning (e.g., Kubey and Csikszentmi
halyi 1990). These are not productive activities that generate income or some tangible product, nor are they leisure activities we do because they are inherently enjoyable. Maintenance activities involve routines we must do repeatedly just to survive (e.g., eat) and to get along with others (e.g., wash and dress). Many people feel that this part of life is “wasted” because it is neither fun nor productive. Thus it would improve the quality of life greatly if one were able to transform even a small portion of this wasted time into enjoyable experience.

Gardening.
A good example of how gardening produces flow is described in a research report of a study conducted in Germany by Dieter Reigber (1995).

Relinquishing control over attention.
One of the most often heard comments on my concept of psychic energy is that it applies only to Western cultures, and that the highest achievements of Eastern religions and philosophies depend not on the control of attention, but on the contrary—its surrender. I think this objection is based on a misunderstanding of what the process of “surrendering” or “relinquishing” control of attention
entails. In my opinion, these processes of surrender are among the most difficult acts of control that consciousness can accomplish. Given the naturally chaotic state of the mind, to achieve the affectless, unfocused consciousness of the mystic requires enormous effort and long training. Therefore, I believe that at least in this respect East and West are similar: In both cultures, the highest psychic accomplishments depend on the control of attention.

Microenvironments.
How the personal space one creates and the objects one surrounds oneself with affect a person’s self is discussed in Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton (1981) and Rudmin (1991).

Learning the dynamics of one’s emotions.
The therapeutic use of the Experience Sampling Method to record one’s activities and experiences is described in Delespaul (1995), Delle Fave and Massimini (1992), and deVries (1992). The ESM makes it possible for the psychiatrist or therapist (and, by extension, for the patient also) to assess the patient’s quality of life, and to propose changes in activities and habits that might improve it.

The creativity of artists in this century.
The argument that modern artists express the lack of trust in values and beliefs previously taken for granted is certainly not a new one; my own small addition to this argument is in Csikszentmihalyi (1992b).

Prodigies.
The best account of exceptionally gifted children is by Feldman (1986). A recent book by Ellen Winner (1996) summarizes the truths and the myths about the development of gifted children.

Abrams, J., and C. Zweig, eds. 1991.
Meeting the shadow
. Los Angeles: St. Martin’s Press.

Adlai-Gail, W. 1994. The flow personality and its correlates. Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago.

Albert, R. S., ed. 1983.
Genius and eminence
. New York: Oxford University Press.

Albert, R. S., and M. A. Runco. 1986. The achievement of eminence: A model based on a longitudinal study of exceptionally gifted boys and their families. In
Conceptions of giftedness
, edited by R. J. Sternberg and J. E. Davidson. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 332-60.

Alexander, K., and M. Day. 1991.
Discipline-based art education: A curriculum sampler
. Santa Monica, Calif.: Getty Center for Education in the Arts.

Amabile, T M. 1983.
The social psychology of creativity
. New York: Springer Verlag.

——.1990. Within you, without you: The social psychology of creativity, and beyond. In
Theories of creativity
, edited by M. A. Runco and R. S. Albert. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, pp. 61-91.

Andreasen, N. C. 1987. Creativity and mental illness: Prevalence rates in writers and their first-degree relatives.
American Journal of Psychiatry
144:1288-92.

Arendt, H. 1956.
The human condition
. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Asakawa, K., and M. Csikszentmihalyi. 1995. Quality of experience and internalization of values in Asian American adolescents: An exploration of educational achievements. Submitted for publication.

Baer, J. 1993.
Creativity and divergent thinking
. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Barron, F. 1969.
Creative person and creative process
. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

——. 1988. Putting creativity to work. In
The nature of creativity
, edited by R. J. Sternberg. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 76-98.

Barrow, J. D., and F. J. Tipler. 1986.
The anthropic cosmological principle
. New York: Oxford University Press.

Barsalou, L. W. 1982. Context independent and context dependent information in concepts.
Memory and Cognition
10:82-93.

Baumrind, D. 1989. Rearing competent children. In
Child development today and tomorrow
, edited by W. Damon. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 349-78.

Bidwell, C., M. Csikszentmihalyi, L. Hedges, and B. Schneider.
Images and experiences of work in adolescence
. In press.

Block, J. 1971.
Lives through time
. Berkeley, Calif.: Bancroft Books.

——. 1981. Some enduring and consequential structures of personality. In
Further explorations in personality
, edited by A. I. Rabin, J. Aronoff, A. M. Barclay, and R. A. Zucker. New York: John Wiley and Sons, pp. 27-43.

Bloom, B. 1985.
Developing talent in young people
. New York: Ballantine Books.

Bortz, W. M. 1991.
We live too short and die too long
. New York: Bantam Books.

Bourdieu, P. 1980. La capital social.
Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales
31:2-4.

Brannigan, A. 1981.
The social basis of scientific discoveries
. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Burke, J., and R. Ornstein. 1995.
The axemaker’s gift
. New York: Putnam.

Burckhardt, J. 1926.
Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien
. Leipzig.

Calvino, I. 1985.
Difficult loves
. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.

Campbell, D. T. 1960. Blind variation and selective retention in creative thought as in other knowledge processes.
Psychological Review
67:380-400.

——. 1974. Evolutionary epistemology. In
The philosophy of Karl Popper
, edited by P. A. Schlipp. La Salle, III.: Open Court, pp. 413-63.

——. 1995. In what sense does a selectionist model p
rovide epistemological “justification” for scientific belief? Paper presented at The Episte
mology Group meeting, The Evolution of Knowledge and Invention, Royal Society of Arts, London, United Kingdom, May 24.

Castaneda, C. 1971.
A separate reality
. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Cattell, R. B., and J. E. Drevdahl. 1955. A comparison of the personality profile (16PF) of eminent researchers with that of eminent teachers and administrators.
British Journal of Psychology
46:248-61.

Cellini, B. 1952.
The autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
. Translated by D. B. Guralnik. Cleveland, Ohio: Fine Editions Press.

Claridge, G. 1992. Great wits and madness. In
Genius and eminence
. 2d ed. Edited by R. S. Albert. New York: Pergamon Press, pp. 329-50.

Costa, P. T, Jr., and R. R. McCrae. 1978. Objective personality assessment. In
The clinical psychology of aging
, edited by M. Storandt, I. C. Siegler, and M. F. Elias. New York: Plenum.

——. 1984. Personality as a lifelong determinant of well-being. In
Emotion in adult development
, edited by C. Z. Malatesta and C. E. Izard. Beverly Hills, Calif: Sage, pp. 141-58.

Cropley, A. 1990. Creativity and mental health in everyday life.
Creativity Research Journal
3:167-78.

Cross, P. G., R. B. Cattell, and H. J. Butcher. 1967. The personality pattern of creative artists.
British Journal of Educational Psychology
37:292-99.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1975.
Beyond boredom and anxiety
. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

——. 1978. Attention and the wholistic approach to behavior. In
The stream of consciousness
, edited by K. S. Pope and J. L. Singer. New York: Plenum, pp. 335-58.

——. 1982. Towards a psychology of optimal experience. In
Review of personality and social psychology:
3, edited by L. Wheeler. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, pp. 13-36.

——. 1985a. Emergent motivation and the evolution of the self. In
Motivation in adulthood
, edited by D. Kleiber and M. H. Maehr. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press, pp. 93-113.

——. 1985b. Reflections on enjoyment.
Perspectives in Biolo
gy and Medicine
28:469-97.

——. 1988a. Society, culture, person: A systems view of creativity. In
The nature of creativity
, edited by R. J. Sternberg. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 325-39.

——. 1988b. Motivation and creativity: Towards a synthesis of structural and energistic approaches to cognition.
New Ideas in Psychology
6:159-76.

——. 1990.
Flow: The psychology of optimal experience
. New York: HarperCollins.

——. 1992a. Öffentliche meinung und die psychologie der ein
samkeit. In
Öffentliche meinung: Theorie, methode, befunde
, edited by J. Wilke. Freiburg: Verlag Karl Alber, pp. 31-40.

——. 1992b. Imagining the self: An evolutionary excursion.
Poetics
21:153-67.

——. 1993.
The evolving self: A psychology for the third millennium
. New York: HarperCollins.

——. 1994. Memes vs. genes: Notes from the culture wars. In
Changing the world
, edited by D. H. Feldman, M. Csikszentmihalyi, and H. Gardner. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, pp. 159-72.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and O. Beattie. 1979. Life themes: A theoretical and empirical investigation of their origins and effects.
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
19:45-63.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and I. Selega Csikszentmihalyi, eds. 1988.
Optimal experience: Psychological studies of flow in consciousness
. New York: Cambridge University Press.

——. 1993. Family influences on the development of giftedness. In
The origins and development of high ability
. Chichester, UK: Wiley (Ciba Foundation Symposium 178), pp. 187-206.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and J. W. Getzels. 1973. The personality of young artists: A theoretical and empirical exploration.
British Journal of Psychology
64:91-104.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and R. Larson. 1978. Intrinsic rewards in school crime.
Crime and Delinquency
24:322-25.

——. 1984.
Being adolescent: Conflict and growth in the teenage years
. New York: Basic Books.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and F. Massimini. 1985. On the psychological selection of biocultural information.
New Ideas in Psychology
3:115-38.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and J. Nakamura. 1989. The dynamics of intrinsic motivation. In
Handbook of motivation theory and research
. Vol. 3,
Goals and Cognitions
, edited by R. Ames and C. Ames. New York: Academic Press, pp. 45-71.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and K. Rathunde. 1993. The measurement of flow in everyday life.
Nebraska Symposium on Motivation
40:58-97.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and E. Rochberg-Halton. 1981.
The meaning of things
. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and K. Sawyer. 1995. Creative insight: The social nature of a solitary moment. In
The nature of insight
, edited by R. J. Sternberg and J. E. Stevenson. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 329-64.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and U. Schiefele. 1992. Arts education, human development, and the quality of experience. In
Arts in education. The ninety-first yearbook of the Society for the Study of Education
, edited by G. Reimer and
R. A. Smith. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 169-91.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and M. Wong. 1991. The situational and personal correlates of happiness: A cross-national comparison. In
The social psychology of subjective well-being
, edited by F. Strack, M. Argyle, and N. Schwartz. London: Pergamon Press, pp. 193-212.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., K. Rathunde, and S. Whalen. 1993.
Talented teenagers
. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Damon, W. 1995.
Greater expectations: Overcoming the culture of indulgence in America’s homes and schools
. New York: The Free Press.

Dawkins, R. 1976.
The selfish gene
. New York: Oxford University Press.

Deci, E. L., and M. Ryan. 1985.
Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior
. New York: Plenum.

Delespaul, P. A., and E. G. 1995.
Assessing schizophrenia in daily life. The experience sampling method
. Maastricht: UPM.

Delle Fave, A., and F. Massimini. 1992. The ESM and the measurement of clinical change: A case of anxiety disorder. In
The experience of psychopathology: Investigating mental disorders in natural settings
, edited by M. W. de Vries. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 280-99.

Dennett, D. C. 1991.
Consciousness explained
. Boston: Little, Brown.

Dennis, W. 1966. Creative productivity between the ages of twenty and eighty years.
Journal of Gerontology
21:1-18.

deVries, M. W., ed. 1992.
The experience of psychopathology: Investigating mental disorders in natural settings
. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Diamond, J. 1992.
The third chimpanzee
. New York: HarperCollins.

Dobbs, S. M. 1993.
The DBAE handbook
. Santa Monica, Calif: The J. P. Getty Trust.

Dozier, R. W., Jr. 1992.
Codes of evolution
. New York: Crown.

Dreistadt, R. 1969. The use of analogies in incubation in obtaining insight in creative problem solving.
Journal of Psychology
71:158-75.

Dweck, C. S. 1986. Motivational processes affecting learning.
American Psychologist
41: 1040-48.

Eco, U. 1994.
Six walks in the fictional woods
. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Eiduson, B. T. 1962.
Scientists: Their psychological world
. New York: Basic Books.

Erikson, E. H. 1950.
Childhood and society
. New York: Norton.

——. 1968.
Identity: Youth and crisis
. New York: Norton.

Eysenck, H. J. 1952.
The scientific study of personality
. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

——. 1973.
Eysenck on extroversion
. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Feldman, D. H. 1980.
Beyond universals in cognitive development
. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.

——. 1986.
Nature’s gambit
. New York: Basic Books.

——. 1994. Creativity: Proof that development occurs. In
Changing the world: A framework for the study of creativity
, by D. H. Feldman, M. Csikszentmihalyi, and H. Gardner. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, pp. 85-102.

Feldman, D. H., M. Csikszentmihalyi, and H. Gardner. 1994.
Changing the world: A framework for the study of creativity
. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.

Ford, C. M., and D. A. Gioia, eds. 1995.
Creative action in organizations
. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Freeman, M. 1993.
Finding the muse: A sociopsychological inquiry into the conditions of artistic creativity
. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Freud, S. 1947.
Leonardo da Vinci: A study in psychosexuality
. New York: Random House.

——. [1908] 1955. The Moses of Michelangelo. Edited
and translated by J. Strachey.
The Standard Edition
8:211-38.

Gajdusek, D. C. 1995. Early inspiration.
Creativity Research Journal
7:341-49.

Gallagher, W. 1993.
The power of place: How our surroundings shape our thoughts, emotions, and actions
. New York: HarperPerennial.

Gardner, H. 1988. Creativity: An interdisciplinary perspective.
Creativity Research Journal
1:8-26.