Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M Csikszentmihalyi

Publications and source records attributed to M Csikszentmihalyi.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Catalytic creativity. The case of Linus Pauling.

This article illustrates how creativity is constituted by forces beyond the innovating individual, drawing examples from the career of the eminent chemist Linus Pauling. From a systems perspective, a scientific theory or other product is creative only if the innovation gains the acceptance of a field of experts and so transforms the culture. In addition to this crucial selective function vis-à-vis the completed work, the social field can play a catalytic role, fostering productive interactions between person and domain throughout a career. Pauling's case yields examples of how variously the social field contributes to creativity, shaping the individual's standards of judgment and providing opportunities, incentives, and critical evaluation. A formidable set of strengths suited Pauling for his scientific achievements, but examination of his career qualifies the notion of a lone genius whose brilliance carries the day.

Chemistry↗
PubMed2000

Positive psychology. An introduction.

A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless. The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living. Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses. The 15 articles in this millennial issue of the American Psychologist discuss such issues as what enables happiness, the effects of autonomy and self-regulation, how optimism and hope affect health, what constitutes wisdom, and how talent and creativity come to fruition. The authors outline a framework for a science of positive psychology, point to gaps in our knowledge, and predict that the next century will see a science and profession that will come to understand and build the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

The effect of perceived challenges and skills on the quality of subjective experience.

This article investigates the effects that perceived challenges and skills in activities have on the quality of everyday life experience. Based on flow theory it was predicted that quality of daily experience would depend on the challenge experienced and skill required in specific situations, as well as on the balance between challenge and skill. The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) was used on a sample of 208 talented adolescents to measure daily variations in four dimensions of experience (concentration, wish to do the activity, involvement, and happiness) in four contexts (in school, with relatives, with friends, and in solitude). The four dimensions of experience were regressed on the predictors challenges, skills, and their absolute difference expressing the balance/imbalance of challenges and skills. Hierarchical linear modeling, explained in detail herein, was conducted on a 1-week sample of experiences. Findings confirm the prediction of flow theory that the balance of challenges and skills has a positive and independent effect on the quality of experience. Yet some differences of parameter estimates were found between dimensions of experience and between social contexts. These heterogeneities call for a further improvement of the flow model.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Family influences on the development of giftedness.

The relationship between early family environment and later creative achievement is rather ambiguous. On the one hand, a context of optimal support and stimulation seems necessary. On the other hand, the lives of some of the greatest creative geniuses contradict this notion, being full of early trauma and tragedy. On the basis of longitudinal studies of young artists and talented adolescents, as well as a retrospective study of mature creative individuals, we explore the outcomes of various family environments. It seems that the two extremes of optimal and pathological experience are both represented disproportionately in the backgrounds of creative individuals. However, creative persons whose childhood was more traumatic appear less satisfied with themselves and their work. So, although a difficult childhood might be more conducive to creative achievement, it does not seem to lead to a serene adulthood. Our study of talented teenagers showed that students who came from a 'complex' family environment that provided them with both support and stimulation were more likely to take on new challenges in their area of talent and to enjoy working on and developing their skills. Such students reported feeling happy more often than those from other family types, and were significantly happier when spending time alone or in productive work.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Motivation and academic achievement: the effects of personality traits and the quality of experience.

The present study examined the relationship of personality, experience while studying, and academic performance. One hundred and seventy talented high-school students (68 males, 102 females) completed the Personality Research Form (PRF) and recorded their experience via the Experience Sampling Method (ESM). The results showed that controlling for ability, work orientation, a PRF factor, was a better predictor of grade than experience. However, an experiential variable,intrinsic motivation while studying, was related to the difficulty level of courses students took over the 4 years of high school. The results supported the notion that there are two kinds of motivation in scholastic achievement, one directed toward long-term goals, the other directed toward ongoing experience.

Achievement↗
PubMed1989

Optimal experience in work and leisure.

Followed 78 adult workers for 1 week with the experience sampling method. (This method randomly samples self-reports throughout the day.) The main question was whether the quality of experience was more influenced by whether a person was at work or at leisure or more influenced by whether a person was in flow (i.e., in a condition of high challenges and skills). Results showed that all the variables measuring the quality of experience, except for relaxation and motivation, are more affected by flow than by whether the respondent is working or in leisure. Moreover, the great majority of flow experiences are reported when working, not when in leisure. Regardless of the quality of experience, however, respondents are more motivated in leisure than in work. But individuals more motivated in flow than in apathy reported more positive experiences in work. Results suggest implications for improving the quality of everyday life.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Validity and reliability of the Experience-Sampling Method.

To understand the dynamics of mental health, it is essential to develop measures for the frequency and the patterning of mental processes in every-day-life situations. The Experience-Sampling Method (ESM) is an attempt to provide a valid instrument to describe variations in self-reports of mental processes. It can be used to obtain empirical data on the following types of variables: a) frequency and patterning of daily activity, social interaction, and changes in location; b) frequency, intensity, and patterning of psychological states, i.e., emotional, cognitive, and conative dimensions of experience; c) frequency and patterning of thoughts, including quality and intensity of thought disturbance. The article reviews practical and methodological issues of the ESM and presents evidence for its short- and long-term reliability when used as an instrument for assessing the variables outlined above. It also presents evidence for validity by showing correlation between ESM measures on the one hand and physiological measures, one-time psychological tests, and behavioral indices on the other. A number of studies with normal and clinical populations that have used the ESM are reviewed to demonstrate the range of issues to which the technique can be usefully applied.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1987

The monitoring of optimal experience. A tool for psychiatric rehabilitation.

This article illustrates the use of quantitative time-sampling data in developing a psychology of "optimal experience" to help in the psychiatric development of adequate rehabilitation approaches. The Experience-Sampling Method was used on a sample of 47 Italian adolescent students to measure fluctuations in their experience. We found that the ratio of subjectively experienced challenges and skills was a fundamental parameter that predicted optimal experience as well as boredom and anxiety. In contrast, "low" experience in daily life was viewed as a risk factor that could be minimized to increase the quality of life. Monitoring fluctuations in optimal and low experience may therefore be an important tool in developing personalized psychiatric rehabilitation plans.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1984

Alcohol and marijuana use in adolescents' daily lives: a random sample of experiences.

High school students filled out reports on their experiences at random times during their daily lives, including 48 occasions when they were using alcohol or marijuana. Alcohol use was reported primarily in the context of Friday and Saturday night social gatherings and was associated with a happy and gregarious subjective state. Marijuana use was reported across a wider range of situations and was associated with an average state that differed much less from ordinary experience.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

The socialization effects of cultural role models in ontogenetic development and upward mobility.

This paper presents a summary based on thirty case studies, in an attempt to illustrate the effects of cultural role models on development during childhood and adolescent years and on subsequent social mobility. Two research questions are explored: First, in a sample of thirty males, controlling for variables for race, age, ethnic and religious background, socio-economic background of origin including occupational and educational level of father, and early childhood disruptions in family of origin such as alcoholism of parent, death of parent, experience of poverty, why did fifteen boys coming out of a blue collar background grow up to become university professors while another fifteen boys of comparable origin grew up to become blue collar workers. In what ways, if any, are socialization effects of cultural role models implicated in the differential social class outcomes of these thirty boys who started at a comparable point in life. Second, what psychological processes are involved in the determination of who is socialized by what idea systems. Why is one person susceptible to being socialized by one set of ideas while another person is not. Findings include differential histories between the two groups of males on the dimension of socialization by cultural models. (These findings are counter to the Marxian hypothesis that economic factors are causal in psychological and cultural structuralization.) Further, it is found that an ongoing dominating concern, either conscious or unconscious, is the underlying selection principle in the psychology of knowledge and that books, as one form of cultural model, can serve as a projective indicator of the chief phenomenological concern of an individual.

Adolescent↗