Transcript Creativity-Flow-DEG 3

Creativity: Flow and the Psychology
of Discovery and Invention by M.
Csikszentmihalyi
Summary by David E. Goldberg
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
[email protected]
Text
• Csikszentmihalyi, M.
(1996). Creativity: Flow
and the psychology of
discovery and invention.
New York: HarperCollins.
• Was professor of
psychology at University
of Chicago. Now at
Claremont College.
Creativity Too Big a Term
• Three senses:
– Those who express unusual thoughts.
– Those who experience world in novel ways.
– Those who have changed culture in some
important respect.
• Two other terms: “talent” and “genius.”
Process
• 1990-1995 Videotaped interviews with 91
exceptional individuals
• Make a difference to culture and >60 years old.
• 275 contacts. 1/3 declined, 1/3 accepted, 1/3 did
not respond
• 14 Nobel prizes.
• Rejections as interesting.
• Too good to be true?
Creative Process
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Where is creativity?
The creative personality
The work of creativity
The flow of creativity
Creative surroundings
Systems Model of Big C Creativity
• 3 elements:
– Domain: symbolic rules and procedures.
– Field: individuals who are gatekeepers to the domain.
– Person: the creative one.
• Creativity defined: Creativity is any act, idea, or
product that changes an existing domain, or that
transforms an existing domain into a new one.
Consequences of the Theory
• Not a personal theory.
Domain+Field+Person important.
• Must know the domain.
• Must take place in extant domain-field.
• Depends upon environment: Renaissance
example.
• Surplus of time bought by wealth as
necessary.
Domains Help or Hinder?
• 3 Dimensions:
– Clarity of structure
– Centrality within culture
– Accessibility
• For example, Clarity: youth in preeminence.
Field as Filter
• Art example: 500,000 artists. How much
art becomes part of culture.
• Competition among memes is fierce.
• Incompetent fields taking over domains:
Lysenko example, Church and Galileo.
Person
• Individual contribution as both under- and
overrated.
• Luck as a factor.
• Must internalize the system.
Creative Personality
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Genetic predisposition doesn’t hurt.
Curiosity, wonder, and interest.
Access to a domain.
Access to a field: Bottlenecks.
Complexity as key.
10 Dimensions of Creative Complexity
1. Physical energy
versus quiet at rest
2. Smart and naïve
3. Disciplined and
playful.
4. Fantasy versus
reality.
5. Extroversion versus
Introversion
6. Humble and proud
7. Masculine and
feminine.
8. Conservative and
rebellious
9. Objective and
passionate.
10. Suffering and
enjoyment
Work of Creativity
• Extended Wallas framework: preparation,
incubation, insight, evaluation, elaboration
• Emergence of problems.
• Sources: personal, domain requirements,
social pressures.
• Presented versus discovered problems
• Incubation as the mysterious time.
Theories of Incubation
• Freudian: pursuit of acceptable versus
unacceptable sexual desire.
• Cognitive theories: associative and parallel
processing.
• Field, domain, and unconscious thought:
Need to take stand against received wisdom.
The Flow of Creativity
• The joy of invention.
• Flow experience:
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Clear goals
Immediate feedback
Balance between challenge and skills
Actions and awareness merged.
Extractions excluded
No worry of failure.
Self-consciousness disappears.
Distortion of time
Activity feeds on itself (autotelic).
Pleasure in the Right Things
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Flow and complexity.
Aristotle’s definition of the good.
Living a life of intricate complexity.
Richness of variety.
Creative Surroundings
• Place matters.
• Pager experiments: Most creative when
walking, driving, or swimming.
Semiautomatic state.
• Complex sensory stimuli as diversion.
• Rhythm: patterns of work can be important.