How Creativity isCreated

COPYRIGHT © 2004 BY MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D.Quality of Life Research Center

Claremont Graduate University

Claremont, CA

Moscow

June 25, 2012

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 ModelSe

lects

Transmits Information

Culture

Domains A

E

FC

B D

Soci

ety Fields

A

C B

E

Produces Novelty

Genetics & Environment Persons

A

CB

2.The OrganizationSe

lecte

d

Transmitted

Knowledge Procedure Traditions

MarketManagement

Novelty

Labor Pool

Individual Worker

Organizational Culture

3.The PersonRetention Learning

Knowledge

FieldStandards Expectations

Innovation

Cognition Motivation

Personality

Domain

DESCRIPTION OF HOW IT FEELSWHEN 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 FEELSWHEN DOING RESEARCH GOES WELL

“To go into a dark room and look 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.”

Cell biologist Joseph G. Gall (1991)

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.