Transcript The Lotka Curve

How Creativity is
Created
Moscow
June 25, 2012
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D.
Quality of Life Research Center
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont, CA
COPYRIGHT © 2004 BY MIHALY
CSIKSZENTMIHALYI. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
1. Small “c” or private creativity,
which enriches one’s life without
necessarily being recognized
2. Big “C” or public creativity, which
changes the way a culture sees the
world, understands how it works, or
goes about living.
©Csikszentmihalyi 2004
• Is rare
• Is socially valued
• Is pursued to completion
©Csikszentmihalyi 2004
1.General Model
Culture
C
B
F
D
E
Domains
A
E
Produces
Novelty
2.The Organization
Organizational
Culture
Knowledge
Procedure
Traditions
Novelty
3.The Person
Domain
Knowledge
Innovation
DESCRIPTION OF HOW IT FEELS
WHEN WRITING POETRY GOES WELL
“You're right in the work, you
lose your sense of time, you're
completely enraptured, you're
completely caught up in what
you're doing…. there's no future
or past, it's just an extended
present in which you're making
meaning…”
Poet Mark Strand, 1991
DESCRIPTION OF HOW IT FEELS
WHEN DOING RESEARCH GOES WELL
“To go into a dark room and look
Cell biologist
Joseph G. Gall (1991)
through the microscope and see these
glowing objects which may be moving
around or may be stationary, and in
different colors – it's a video game, if
you will. It's just beautiful…I can sit in
front of a microscope for three or four
hours at a time, just looking at the
material and analyzing it….I can be
very disconcerting to other people in
the degree to which I can concentrate
on something and not pay too much
attention to what's going on around
me.”
Recent work on the
Neuropsychology of Creativity:
• Bengsten, S.L., Csikszentmihalyi,M. and Fredrik
Ullen. (2007) Regions involved in the generation
of musical structures during improvisation in
pianists. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19:5,
pp. 1-13..
Personality Characteristics Of Creative Individuals
“Complexity”
1.
Great energy, vitality, “bounce” ---- Ability to rest, sleep at will.
2.
Smartness, convergent thinking ---- Naiveté, childishness, divergent
thinking.
3.
Playfulness, openness to experience ---- Discipline, responsibility.
4.
Imagination, fantasy ---- Reality oriented.
5.
Extroverted, sociable ---- Introverted, solitary.
6.
Ambitious, proud, competitive ---- Humble, selfless, cooperative.
7.
Sensitive, feminine ---- Adventurous, masculine.
8.
Traditional, conservative ---- Rebellious, iconoclastic.
9.
Attached, involved, passionate ---- Detached, aloof, objective.
10.
Suffering, vulnerable, insecure ---- Joyful, strong, self-confident.