The Positive Psychology of Interested Adolescents

P1: GXB

Journal of Youth and Adolescence pp594-joyo-379441 September 26, 2002 21:3 Style file version July 26, 1999

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 32, No. 1, February 2003, pp. 27–35 (C© 2003)

The Positive Psychology of Interested Adolescents

Jeremy P. Hunter1 and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi2

Accepted April 11, 2002

Using the experience sampling method (ESM) and a diverse national sample of young people, thisstudy identifies two groups of adolescents: those who experience chronic interest in everyday lifeexperiences and another who experience widespread boredom. These groups are compared againstseveral measures of psychological well-being: global self-esteem, locus of control, and emotionsregarding one’s future prospects. It is hypothesized that a generalized chronic experience of interest,an innate physiological function, can be used as a signal for a larger measure of psychological health,while chronic boredom is a sign of psychic dysfunction. A strong association between the experienceof interest and well-being was found.

KEY WORDS: interest; boredom; adolescence; positive psychology.

INTRODUCTION

Recently, increased attention has been devoted topositive psychological phenomena. While the West hasa long tradition of inquiry about what makes life worth-while, including in the past century William James, JohnDewey, Carl Rogers, and Abraham Maslow, concern withpsychic well-being has seldom been systematically inves-tigated. However, as Maslow might have predicted, nowthat many in the postindustrialized world have temporar-ily solved the problems of physical sustenance, attention isfree to turn towards psychic development and fulfillment.Inglehart’s exploration of world values supports a sim-ilar conclusion, showing that the “returns to happiness”

1Research Director, The Quality of Life Research Center, Peter F.Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University,Claremont, California. Received PhD in psychology (human develop-ment) from The University of Chicago in 2001. Major research interestsinclude the experience of interest, intrinsic motivation, and meditativepractice and the quality of life. To whom correspondence should be ad-dressed at Quality of life Research Center, Peter F. Drucker School ofManagement, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California;e-mail: [email protected].

2C. S. and D. J. Davidson Professor of Psychology and Management andDirector, Quality of Life Research Center, Peter F. Drucker School ofManagement, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California.Received PhD in psychology (human development) from The Univer-sity of Chicago in 1965. Major research interests include the psychol-ogy of adolescence and the study of optimal experience, creativity, andintrinsic motivation.

attributable to economic gain substantially decrease once anation’s GDP moves beyond basic needs (Inglehart, 1997).In the course of human history, perhaps more people thanever before have reached this rarefied level of materialwell-being and are now ready to explore the psychic fron-tiers of the good life. One area of special promise is theexperience of interestand the relevance it has for devel-oping youth.

While the process of modernization has wrought in-credible changes on the human condition in the past300 years, the everyday lives of contemporary childrenbear perhaps the least resemblance to their peers of thepast. To be a young person in preindustrial Europe meantthat everyday life was an insecure and backbreaking affairwhere about half the population people reached adult-hood. Even then, most died by 30. By the age of 7, mostyoung boys started work, often as servants in the homes ofothers, gradually taking up apprenticeship in yet anotherhousehold (Gillis, 1974). The nasty and brutish existenceof most youth left little thought to notions of “optimaldevelopment” or even “development” for that matter. Forthese people, survival was the watchword.

Not until the 1880s, when a growing middle classcould afford to systematically educate their children, didyouth issues come into awareness as something deserv-ing of attention. Instead of being sent out to learn a trade,middle class children were sent to school. This new cir-cumstance of elongated dependence and removal from thecycles of production led to the “discovery of adolescence”

27

0047-2891/03/0200-0027/0C© 2003 Plenum Publishing Corporation

P1: GXB


28 Hunter and Csikszentmihalyi

and established, more or less, the pattern that most youth inthe industrial and postindustrial world follow today (Aries,1965; Gillis, 1974). The rise of youth movements likescouting, the YMCA and YWCA, the enactment of childlabor laws, the development of the kindergarten move-ment, and universal education have made the lives of chil-dren safer, culturally richer, and more secure than everbefore in history.

Yet, these relatively recent developments in the hu-man condition do not seem to be perfect. Despite thesehard-won advances, it is not atypical to imagine a middleclass teenager bored and despondent, alone, angry, andalienated. While universal education is certainly prefer-able to children toiling in mines, the system that consumesthe lives of most youth does not seem to be optimally cali-brated for their developing selves. Csikszentmihalyiet al.(1993) have shown that school for most young peopleis a dull and uninspiring place to be in. Far from nur-turing youngsters into expressive, intellectually alive andcurious, confident, and able beings, school for manyAmerican youth is a trial to be endured. Boredom is socommon that many consider it a normal phase ofgrowing up.

However, most children do not start out bored anddetached. Interest and curiosity about the world is a hall-mark of childhood experience. Maria Montessori, theItalian pediatrician-turned-educator, believed that the ex-pression of high intrinsic interest characterized a “nor-malized” (e.g. healthy) child (Montessori, 1949[1967]).Interest is present from birth and fosters human develop-ment by mobilizing resources for worldly engagement. Itdoes this by engendering “the feeling of being engaged,caught up, fascinated, or curious. There is a feeling ofwanting to investigate, become involved, or expand theself by incorporating new information and having newexperiences. . . ” (Izard, 1991, p. 100). Interest impelsgrowth-oriented behaviors—exploration, learning andcreativity—increasing the likelihood for successful adap-tation and survival (Izard, 1991; Izard and Ackerman,2000; Piaget, 1981).

To effectively live in a demanding and changingenvironment, one must necessarily actively relate to it.Interest functions as the tool self-organizing creatures(Brandtstadter, 1998) use to direct attention to select in-formation from the environment. William James’ pithydescription captures this aspect of interest:

Millions of items of the outward order are present to mysenses which never properly enter into my experience.Why? Because they have nointerestfor me. My expe-rience is what I agree to attend to. Only those itemswhich I notice shape my mind—without selective in-terest, experience is an utter chaos. Interest alone gives

accent and emphasis, light and shade, backgroundand foreground—intelligible perspective, in a word.(James 1890, p. 402)

By focusing on certain things and not others, the world isreduced to a manageable place. Akin to parts of a cam-era, interest alters the size of the aperture of attentionby widening or constricting the amount of informationthat enters awareness. By influencing the contents of con-sciousness, interest mediates the relationship between per-son and world.

Selection, however, is only one facet of interest, an-other is to provide motivation for developing skills andabilities. According to Sylvan Tomkins, interest is so es-sential for cognitive growth that the “absence of the affec-tive support of interest would jeopardize intellectual devel-opment no less than destruction of brain tissue. . .Thereis no human competence which can be achieved in theabsence of a sustaining interest” (Tomkins, 1962, p. 343).Because of this basic role in learning John Dewey feltthat individual interest should be the center of educationalendeavor (McDermott, 1981). Learning complex tasks re-quires persistence and focus, interest provides concentra-tive “staying power” in the face of difficulty. When thingsare interesting, concentration comes easy and persistingat them is less laborious and burdensome. Interest is alsoassociated with a drop in heart rate, a quieting response,which prepares the senses to receive and respond to infor-mation, (Izard, 1991). Interest cultivates an internal milieuthat optimizes the acquisition of information. Researchshows that when students are interested in what they arereading, they

are likely to recall more points, recall more informationfrom more paragraphs, recall more topic sentences, writemore sentences, provide more detailed information abouttopics read, make fewer errors in written recall, and pro-vide additional topic relevant information. (Renninger,2000, p. 374)

The benefits of interest extend beyond comprehension too.When interested in a topic, students are likely to earn hi-gher grades and test more successfully (Csikszentmihalyiet al., 1993; Schiefele and Csikszentmihalyi, 1995). In-terest’s role in cognitive development cannot beunderestimated.

The cognitive boons of interest and its motivationalpower are also complemented by the fact that interest feelsgood. Izard (1991, p. 108) reports

the phenomenology of interest is also characterized by arelatively high degree of pleasantness, self-assurance anda moderate degree of impulsiveness and tension. Joy isoften part of the pattern of emotion in an interest-elicitingsituation.

P1: GXB


The Positive Psychology of Interested Adolescents 29

The experience of this positive state is characterized by3 qualities: (1) being caught up and fascinated, (2) enjoy-ing what one is doing while (3) in a state of arousal orexcitement. Deci (1992) holds that the convergence of in-terest, enjoyment, and excitement signals the presence ofintrinsic motivation. Others also report the experience ofinterest is enjoyable, rewarding, and associated with goodfeelings (Fazio, 1981; Renninger, 1989, 1990, 2000). Ex-amples of intense interest, like optimal experience or flow(Csikszentmihalyi, 1975, 1990, 1997; Csikszentmihalyiand Csikszentmihalyi, 1988), are among the most enjoy-able moments of being alive. Abiding interests, sources ofinterest engaged in over time, can even provide intellec-tual and behavioral structures around which the life courseforms (Csikszentmihalyiet al., 1993; Csikszentmihalyiand Beattie, 1979; Rathunde, 1993). The complexity ofthe experience of interest with its overlap into emotional,volitional, and cognitive areas, provide an optimal statefor interfacing the psyche to the environment. Throughthe experience of interest, nature wires us for worldlyinvolvement.

Consider what happens when the experience of in-terest is absent. The loss of interest is one of the key fea-tures of depression (Klinger, 1993). Instead of bringingJames’ “intelligible perspective” (James, 1890, p. 402)characteristic of normal functioning, depression makesthe world dull, gray, and lifeless. The things that usu-ally make us sit up and take notice seem strangely un-promising and empty. Even the fundamentals associatedwith being alive: the company of others, food, and sex arenot compelling enough to devote energy to. Wakefulnessbecomes dreadful and oppressive. When depressed, thedisappearance of psychic handles to hold on to severelyimpacts a person’s ability to function normally. From thisextreme case, we can see that even in the most mun-dane of waking states interest binds us to the surroundingworld.

While not as intense as a full-fledged depressive state,boredom is also characterized by an absence of expe-riencing interest (Farmer and Sundberg, 1986; Klinger,1993). Where interest is enjoyable, stimulating, and fo-cused, boredom is an unpleasant state of low arousal andmotivation (Mikulas and Vodanovich, 1993). If interest isviewed as the drive an individual uses to learn, discover,and grow, boredom marks an entropic state of disengage-ment impeding psychological growth over the long term.Zuckerman (1979) suggests that boredom-prone personsare likely to fall into alcoholism and other types of sub-stance abuse like marijuana, psychedelics, and other stim-ulants. Later research reveals that in addition to drug use,boredom-prone youth are attracted to extreme forms ofsensation-seeking and antisocial behavior (like burglery

or vandalism) (Hamilton, 1983; Orcutt, 1984; Sommersand Vodanovich, 2000; Wasson, 1981).

A bored kid’s attraction to “cheap thrills” mayoriginate from an inability to structure experience in plea-surable ways, what Scitovisky calls “skilled consump-tion” (Scitovsky, 1976). Delinquent adolescents have beenshown to be poor at creating fantasies and elaborate ideas,“Their thought world appears to be a rather barren place.”(Hamilton, 1983, p. 366, Cited in Spivack and Levine,1964). Without the generative possibilities of the imagi-nation and the skills to manifest them, the allure of de-structive and thrilling behavior becomes an easy source ofentertainment. Even many nondelinquent youth live forthe weekend when they can party and get drunk with theirfriends, suggesting the skills for structuring enjoyment arenot particularly widespread. If interest provides the foun-dation for building skills that can be converted into enjoy-able activity, boredom may be the result of an inability tocultivate such talents. Without such skills, the possibilitiesinherent in the world become fewer and fewer. Vandalismand getting high emerge as easy ways to find excitement.Considering this, the chronic experience of boredom couldbe thought of as the “evil twin” of interest.

To test this hypothesis, this study examines thoseyouth who maintain a widespread experience of interestin daily life and compares them to those whose experi-ence is much less optimal. By uncovering whether Inter-ested youth compared to their Bored peers have higher,more stable global self-esteem, an internal locus of con-trol, and view their futures with hopefulness adds cre-dence to the notion that experiencing interest is associ-ated with positive development. This research program isdistinct from past efforts to either investigatesituation-specific examples of interest (Hidi, 1990) or the develop-ment of individual interestscentered on specific subjectmatter (Renninger, 2000). This approach examinesper-sonsin natural settings who encounter everyday life witha sense of inquiry and enjoyment. In other words, the fo-cus here is less the “target” of interest, that is, particularinterest-piquing moments or abiding material relevant toan individual, and more the person who chronicallyexpe-riencesinterest. However, this approach does not foregothe possibility of either type, situational or individual, butexamines persons for whom experiences of interest are asalient feature of everyday life.

METHODS

Sample

The data from this study comes from the 1st year ofa 5-year (1992–1997), longitudinal project, where 1215

P1: GXB



junior and senior high school students from 33 publicschools across the country, representing the 6th, 8th, 10th,and 12th grades, participated in a multimodal researcheffort geared toward understanding career development(Csikszentmihalyi and Schneider, 2000). The study wassponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and con-ducted at the National Opinion Research Center’s Ogburn-Stouffer Center (Bidwellet al., 1992) at the University ofChicago. Twelve communities representing the full rangeof socioeconomic conditions, from poverty-level urbanareas to affluent suburbs, participated in this study. Fur-thermore, students from these locales were randomly cho-sen to proportionally represent their school in terms ofethnicity, gender, race, and scholastic ability level. Theywere given a full-scale instrument battery that includedthe NELS questionnaire (modified from the NationalEducational Longitudinal Study of 1988, NELS:88), aFriend Sociometric Form (FRIENDS), and the CareerOrientation Scale (COS), which measures the student’sknowledge of working life and their career goals. Theyalso participated in a week of Experience Sampling (ESM).This group of students is referred to as the “focal group.”Seventy-four percent of the focal students completed theESM over the 5 year period, whereas 87% of the focal stu-dents completed the NELS, COS, and FRIENDS surveys.

ESM Procedures

The ESM involves the participant wearing a wrist-watch programmed to signal 8 times a day for 1 week.The watch signaled randomly within every 2-h period be-tween 7:30A.M. and 10:30P.M. and no signal was within30 min of another. At each signal, the participant fills outan experience sampling form (ESF) that asks various ques-tions about the participant’s activities, location, compan-ionship, and mood. To insure a level of quality control,only those participants who completed 15 or more ESFwere included in the final database. This keeps with pastpractices by Csikszentmihalyiet al. (1993).

For the 1st year data (the data reported in this pa-per), 74% of the total ESM study returned the sufficientnumber of forms, which is similar to past ESM stud-ies of adolescents (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson, 1987;Csikszentmihalyi and Schneider, 2000). The final sampleconsisting of 806 individuals represented by 28,193 re-sponses, were included. These responses captured nearlyevery aspect of daily life, from school, to work, to play, tohome life.

MEASURES

The primary measure, the Interested–Bored con-struct, was created to capture the nuances of the experience

of interest. It combines 3 questions from the ESM: a9-point Likert scale asking “Was this activity interest-ing?,” a 10-point Likert scale asking “Did you enjoy whatyou were doing?” and a 7-point Likert scale defined by“Excited–Bored.” This formulation follows theoreticaltreatments on the nature of interest offered by Dewey(McDermott, 1981) and others (Tomkins, 1962; Izard,1991). Because the 3 component questions are scaled dif-ferently, they were proportionally equalized by convertingthem toz-score variables keyed to the average of the wholesample, or grand mean, for each variable. After this theywere summed to form the Interested–Bored construct. Themeasure describes a continuous state of varying levels ofengagement with the world at the experiential level. Wethen calculated average Interest scores for each person anddivided the distribution into quartiles. The extreme ends,2 equal-sized groups (n = 207), form the main analyticalcharacters of this study. At one end are youth who expe-rience stimulation, enthusiasm, and pleasure, and on theother, adolescents in a disconnected state of apathy.

Table I displays the demographic composition of theBored and Interested groups. The groups differ signif-icantly in several criteria, namely social class of com-munity (SCC) (χ2 = 23.0; p < 0.0001), ethnicity (χ2 =20.5; p < 0.001), and age (as measured by grade) (χ2 =10.4; p < 0.015). The largest and most significant dif-ferences in SCC occur in poor and upper middle classes,where poor Interested students outnumber Bored ones andupper middle class Bored students outnumber Interestedones. Similarly, Interested African Americans outnum-ber Bored Blacks; while Whites represented in the Boredgroup outnumber those in the Interested. Gender distribu-tion tilts toward girls and no difference between the groupswas found. Finally, Interested students have greater repre-sentation in the 6th grade than do the Bored ones, while the10th grade has a larger share of Bored students. Becauseof these differences, later analyses will control for the ef-fects of SCC, race, and grade in analyses of covariance(ANCOVA).

The remaining measures come from the NELS,namely scales of self-esteem, locus of control, optimism,and pessimism. Data for the entire group is not availablebecause some students failed to complete the forms fully.The missing data come from throughout the sample, so noone group is systematically absent. The availableN willbe reported in the tables.

Global self-esteem (GSE) measures the positive andnegative feelings one holds about the self. Based on theRosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1965), it consist of 7 items,4 positively and 3 negatively phrased, exemplified by state-ments like “In general, I feel good about myself,” “I am aperson of worth,” “On the whole I am satisfied with my-self,” “At times, I think I am no good at all,” “I usually feel

P1: GXB



Table I. Demographic Representation of Interested (N = 205) and Bored (N = 204) Groups by Percent

Percentage breakdownB/W group Percent representation

Interested group Bored group t Value difference signficance in total sample

SCC (χ2 = 23.0, p < 0.0001, df = 4)Poor 19.0 10.3 −2.5 14.1Working 19.0 14.2 −1.3 NS 16.3Middle 40.0 33.3 −1.4 NS 33.5Upper middle 17.6 36.2 4.6 25.9Upper 5.3 5.9 0.2 NS 10.2

Race (χ2 = 20.5, p < 0.001, df = 5)Asian 5.4 7.8 1.0 NS 6.6Latino 18.0 14.7 −0.9 NS 15.8African American 28.3 12.8 −4.0 17.4White 47.3 64.2 3.5 59.3

Gender (χ2 = 1.3, NS, df= 1)Male 39.0 44.6 1.1 NS 40.9Female 61.0 55.4 −1.1 NS 59.1

Grade (χ2 = 10.4, p < 0.015, df = 3)6th 35.6 22.6 −2.9 28.18th 26.4 29.4 0.7 NS 28.610th 19.5 29.4 2.3 23.612th 18.5 18.6 0.0 NS 19.8

emotionally empty,” “I don’t have much to be proud of,”and “I am able to do things as well as others” (Rosenberg,1986). These are 4-point items ranging from 1 (stronglydisagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha for these7 variables was 0.82 for the entire sample, 0.84 for theBored group and 0.77 for the Interested. Factor analysisof these 7 items found that they form one factor with aneigenvalue of 3.4, accounting for 48.8% of the variance. Tocreate a single construct the negative items were summedand subtracted from the sum of the positive ones.

Locus of control measures beliefs about personalcausation. People with an internal locus of control feelthey are more masters of their own destiny, and are re-ferred to as “Origins” while “Pawns” are those who lo-cate control externally and believe they are victims of fateand circumstance (Rotter, 1966). This measure, abridgedfrom Rotter’s Locus of Control scale (Rotter, 1966), alsoconsists of 7 items, with 1 positively phrased while theremaining were negative. They are “When getting aheadsomebody/thing stops me,” “My plans hardly ever workout,” “I feel useless at times,” “I do not have enough con-trol over my life,” “When I make plans, I am certain theywork,” “Good luck is more important that hard work,” and“Luck is very important in life.” Like self-esteem, theseare also 4-point items ranging from 1 (strongly disagree)to 4 (strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha for these 7 vari-ables was 0.77 for the entire sample, 0.69 for the Boredgroup and 0.74 for the Interested. Factor analysis foundthat they form a factor with an eigenvalue of 2.7 account-

ing for 38.5% of the variance. To create a single constructthe single positive item was subtracted from the sum ofthe negative ones.

Optimism and pessimism are assessed through8 items, 4 positive and 4 negative, that gauge the kinds offeeling one has towards the future. These scales, rangingfrom 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much), each ask about a differ-ent emotion. The positive ones include feeling confident,curious, enthusiastic and powerful, while the negative onesare doubtful, lonely, angry, and empty. We formed 2 vari-ables, 1 negative (eigenvalue= 2.5, explaining 31.1% ofthe variance), and 1 positive (eigenvalue= 1.6, explain-ing 20.5% of the variance) by summing the correspond-ing items. The optimism variable had a Cronbach’s alphaof 0.60 for the entire sample, 0.70 for the Bored groupand 0.50 for the Interested. The pessimism variable had aCronbach’s alpha of 0.72 for the entire sample, 0.71 forthe Bored group and 0.75 for the Interested.

RESULTS

For each of these constructs, an analysis of covari-ance (ANCOVA) controlling for grade, race and SCC wasperformed to see if the averages between Bored and In-terested groups were notably different. To summarize,the measures of self-esteem, locus of control, optimism,and pessimism all showed highly significant differencesbetween the 2 groups.

P1: GXB



Table II. Analysis of Covariance of Global Self Esteem With Expe-rience of Interest, Controlling for Race and Social Class of Community

Adjusted mean Unadjusted mean Unadjusted SD

Bored (N = 153) 5.25 5.29 4.03Interested 8.38 8.33 3.38

(N = 145)

Total sample mean (N = 623)= 7.04± 3.7; F = 50.00, p < 0.000.Main effect df= 1; residual df= 293.

Global Self-Esteem

Table II shows that Interested students report sig-nificantly higher self-esteem (M = 8.38) than the Bored(M = 5.25), F(1, 293)= 50.00, p < 0.0001. The influ-ence of grade, race, and social class does not yield signif-icant results. Furthermore, the average self-esteem of theentire sample is between both groups at 7.04. Therefore,even compared the to entire focal group, Interested stu-dents report a higher level of esteem. A between-groupst test (t = −7.0, df= 309, p < 0.0001), reveals that thestandard deviation of an Interested student’s self-esteem is3.37, while Bored students show greater variability at 4.03.

Locus of Control

Table III shows that Interested youth are more likelyto believe they originate their actions (M = 8.16) whileBored students lean more toward the “Pawn” end of thescale (M = 10.56), F(1, 206)= 37.9, p < .00001.Again, the two groups fall between the sample mean, withthe Bored group showing less signs of personal causationand the Interested showing more. As with self-esteem, theeffects of the covariates showed no significant differences.

Optimism

When envisioning their future, Table IV shows thatInterested students feel more hopeful (M = 5.43) than

Table III. Analysis of Covariance of Locus of Control With Experienceof Interest, Controlling for Race and Social Class of Community



(N = 148)

Note.Larger means indicate greater external locus of control.Total sample mean (N = 641)= 9.3± 3.34; F = 37.90, p < 0.000.Main effect df= 1; residual df= 306.

Table IV. Analysis of Covariance of Optimistic Emotions WithExperience of Interest, Controlling for Race and Social Class of

Community



(N = 187)


do the Bored students (M = 4.73), F(1, 371)= 33.31,p < 0.0001. The entire sample’s daily experiences arebetween these two atM = 5.10. Unlike the case of theprevious variables, the covariates Grade (F = 3.83, p <0.051) and Race (F = 3.98, p < 0.047) had a significantimpact on optimism. Whites and Blacks reported feelinggreater amounts of optimism than Latinos or Asians, while8th graders reported less optimism than the other grades.

Pessimism

When it comes to projecting negative emotions to-ward the future, Table V shows that Bored students do somore strongly (M = 2.61) than Interested students (M =2.10), F(1, 374)= 17.83, p < 0.0001. The sample aver-age is again between these two atM = 2.34. In this case,the covariates exhibited little influence on the amount ofpessimism.

DISCUSSION

This paper aims to establish evidence that thewidespread experience of interest can be seen as a symp-tom of larger psychological well-being. After identifying2 groups of students whose daily experiences falls at op-posing ends of a continuum of interest, we compared themon a variety of measures of well-being. These results indi-cate a clear difference between young people who experi-ence chronic interest in their everyday lives versus those

Table V. Analysis of Covariance of Pessimistic Emotions WithExperience of Interest, Controlling for Race and Social Class of

Community



(N = 186)


P1: GXB



who experience boredom. In general, the findings suggestthat the Interested children are much more likely to viewthemselves as effective agents in their world.

Believing that the self is good and worthy providesa setting for effective personal functioning. The globalself-esteem measures showed significant differences be-tween Bored and Interested students. However, researchhas suggested that having high self-esteem alone is notenough, esteem must be both high andstable (Kerniset al., 1993; Waschull and Kernis, 1996). Though there areseveral varieties of esteem variability (Rosenberg, 1986;Savin-Williams and Demo, 1983), Kernis and colleaguessuggest that “the essential nature of unstable self-esteeminvolves the propensity to exhibit variability in self-feelings across time” (Kernis, 1993, p. 1190). We cantest this if we examine the repeated ESM measures ofself-esteem, also based on the Rosenberg Scale. Here wefind the standard deviations of the Bored (SD= 1.40) andInterested (SD= 0.99) students differ significantly (p <0.000). As with the GSE scores, the mean value of Inter-ested student’s ESM esteem is significantly (p < 0.000)higher (7.2) than Bored students’ (5.4. This suggests thatInterested students enjoy a more durable positive self-concept, while Bored students are less stable and negativein their self-assessment.

The literature on boredom proneness (BP) has foundsimilar results regarding self-esteem. McCleod andVodanovich (1991) reported a significant negative cor-relation between boredom-prone students and both self-esteem and autonomy. A line of research that has producedconsistent results is the tendency of boredom prone indi-viduals to dwell on themselves and their internal states.Research like that conducted by Wink and Donahue(1997) found boredom proneness to be significantly re-lated to high narcissism. Seib and Vodanovich (1998)have shown that BP relates strongly to high negative self-awareness, while those high in positive self-awarenesswere much less likely to be Boredom Prone, a findingconsistent with the Interested students. Some have sug-gested that those high in negative self-awareness may ac-tually not be particularly aware of their internal states atall and also experience lower self-esteem (Conway andGiannopoulous, 1993).

It is also expected that Interested students are morelikely to perceive themselves as having greater internal lo-cus of control. If interest is the psychic “relational mech-anism” between person and world, then those who honorinterest would also be more likely to believe that the abilityto influence one’s fate is also high. The relationship be-tween locus of control and global self-esteem also bearsitself out. Statistically, global self-esteem correlates neg-atively with greater external locus of control (r = −0.62,

p < 0.0001). This is to say that if I do not believe myself tobe a person of worth, then the likelihood of also believingthat there is little I can do to influence my fate might alsobe high, and Bored students seem to sympathize with thiscircumstance. The lack of a sense of personal causalityfrom one’s efforts also undermines the effort to act withintrinsic involvement in the world, the body at rest stays atrest.

Students who chronically experience interest, how-ever, take a different tack. To experience interest, by defi-nition, implies that one is interested insomething. Interestdoes not occur without a referent, whether it might be theattractive person standing across the room from me, orthe fascinating book on the bestseller list. This necessar-ily means that to facilitate experiencing interest I mustgrapple with my reality in a way that somehow affectsit. This could be walking across the room to start up aconversation, or going to the library to borrow the desiredbook. Interestrequiresaction. It follows then, that thosewho experience a great deal of interest in their lives wouldalso likely believe they are the volitional force behind theiractions.

The strength of the positive findings regarding In-terested students continues on towards their feelings re-garding the future. They are much more likely to feelmore positive (enthusiastic, powerful, and confident) andless negative (lonely, Doubtful, and Empty) about grow-ing older than Bored students. These emotional projec-tions take on an even more interesting cast when consid-ered in the light of the prevalence of upper middle classBoredom. One would assume that access to resources in-creases the likelihood a person would feel optimistic andhopeful about the future. However, this does not seem tobe the case. The prevalence of material resources doesnot seem to automatically result in the accumulation ofpsychic ones.

The experiences of Interested youth indicate the cal-culus for well-being extends beyond familial finances tothe economy of the psyche. Interest’s association withother measures of well-being suggests this innate pro-cess is the foundation for building what might be thoughtof aspsychological capital(Csikszentmihalyi, in press).If the experience of interest is an innate means of opti-mally relating to the environment, then those individualswho maintain a widespread sense of interest over time de-velop greater internal resources than those who are disen-gaged. The dividend that comes from acting with interestis the sense of personal effectiveness arising from beingthe causal agent of one’s life. The fact that Interested youthlook to their future with greater confidence, enthusiasm,and power reflects this “past performance.” Because theytrust their own experience and skills, the probability of

P1: GXB



their success is certainly higher than a person wrackedwith doubt and emptiness.

Of course, as we mentioned, just as interest doesnot happen without a referent, people who maintain awidespread sense of interest do not grow in a vacuum. TheInterested person requires the support of a social systemand cultural resources to direct the raw impulse of inter-est towards complex, useful, and rewarding ends (Eccleset al., 1998; Rogoff, 1990; Valsiner, 1998). So in a sense,the development of psychological capital must be girdedby social capital. Renninger (2000) details how nascentinterests in children often require adult influence to mod-ulate the level of challenge or to help develop goals beforethe child can do so autonomously. Therefore, support inenhancing and directing interest might provide an effec-tive fulcrum to leverage personal development.

Material circumstances are certainly better for firstworld middle class youth than they were in the Mid-dle Ages. Therefore, widespread malaise among adoles-cents is also not only an undesirable circumstance but atremendous waste of opportunity and resources. Fortu-nately, a substantial number of young people do not suc-cumb to this malaise. Interested youth present a pictureof vitality and well-being that stands in sharp contrastto their Bored counterparts. Interested students believe intheir basic worth, are confident and effective agents in theworld, and are optimistic and hopeful about their future.Of course, we cannot make statements about causality, butit seems clear that interest is associated with a matrix ofbeliefs that govern active involvement.

The implications of this are vast. While these chil-dren do not have to face the hardships of their ancestors,the modern world of work still presents daunting chal-lenges. According to management theorist Peter Drucker(1999, p. 163), workers in the emerging KnowledgeEconomy,

will have to MANAGE THEMSELVES. They will haveto place themselves where they can make the greatest con-tribution; they will have to learn to develop themselves.They will have to learn to stay young and mentally aliveduring a fifty-year working life. They will have to learnhow and when to change what they do, how they do itand when they do it.

If Drucker is right, the Interested youth reported abouthere will be ideally suited for life in the twenty first cen-tury. What remains to be answered is how young peopleacquire the predilection for the openness to experiencethat results in experiencing interest. Our studies suggestthat the social environment plays a significant role in thisdevelopment. In the coming years, we will further explorethese relationships.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study is part of a longitudinal research programof youth and social development supported by a grantfrom the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation given to MihalyCsikszentmihalyi, Charles Bidwell, Larry Hedges, andBarbara Schneider at The University of Chicago.

REFERENCES

Aries, P. (1965).Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of FamilyLife. Vintage Books, New York.

Beattie-Emery, O., and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1981). The socializationeffects of cultural role models in ontogenetic development and up-ward mobility.Child Psychiatry Hum. Dev.12(1): 3–18.

Bidwell, C. E., Csikszentmihalyi, M., Hedges, L., and Schneider, B.(1992). Studying Career Choice: Vol. 1. Overview and Analy-sis. Ogburn-Stouffer Center, National Opinion Research Center,Chicago.

Brandtstadter, J. (1998) Action perspectives in human development. InLerner, R. M. (ed.),Theoretical Models of Human Development:Vol. 1. Handbook of Child Psychology(5th edn.). Wiley, New York.

Conway, M., and Giannopoulous, C. (1993). Self-Esteem and specificityin self-focused attention.J. Soc. Psychol.133: 121–123.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975).Beyond Boredom and Anxiety.Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990).Flow. Harper and Row, New York.Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997).Finding Flow.Basic Books, New York.Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002).Good Business. Viking, New York.Csikszentmihalyi, M., and Beattie, O.V. (1979). Life themes: A theoret-

ical and empirical exploration of their origins and effects.J. Hum.Psychol. 19(1): 45–63.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and Larson, R. (1987). Validity and reliability ofthe Experience Sampling Method.J. Nerv. Ment. Dis.175: 525–536.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., Rathunde, K., and Whalen, S. (1993).TalentedTeenagers: The Roots of Success and Failure.Cambridge Uni-versity Press, New York.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and Csikszentmihalyi, I. S. (1988).Optimal Ex-perience. Cambridge University Press, New York.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., and Schneider, B. (2000).Becoming Adult. BasicBooks, New York.

Deci, E. (1992). The relation of interest to the motivation of behavior:A self-determination theory perspective. In Renninger, K., Hidi, S.,and Krapp, A. (eds.),The Role of Interest in Learning and Devel-opment. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 43–70.

Drucker, P. F. (1999).Management Challenges for the 21st Century.Harper Business, New York.

Eccles J. S., Wigfield, A., and Schiefele, U. (1998). Motivation to suc-ceed. In Damon, W., and Eisenberg, N. (eds.),Handbook of ChildPsychology: Vol. 3. Social, Emotional, and Personality Develop-ment(5th edn.). Wiley, New York, pp. 1017–1095.

Farmer, R., and Sundberg, N. (1986). Boredom-proneness—The devel-opment and correlates of a new scale.J. Pers. Assess.50(1): 4–17.

Fazio, R. H. (1981). On the self-perception explanation of the overjus-tification effect: The role of the salience of initial attitude.J. Exp.Soc. Psychol.17: 417–426.

Gillis, J. R. (1974).Youth and History.Academic Press, New York.Hamilton, J. A. (1983). Development of interest and enjoyment in ado-

lescence. Part II: Boredom and psychopathology.J. Youth Adolesc.12(5): 363–372.

Hidi, S. (1990). Interest and its contribution as a mental resource forlearning.Rev. Educ. Res.60(4): 549–571.

P1: GXB



Inglehart, R. (1997).Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural,Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. PrincetonUniversity Press, Princeton, NJ.

Izard, C. E. (1991).The Psychology of Emotions.Plenum Press, NewYork.

Izard, C. E., and Ackerman, B. P. (2000) Motivational, organizational,and regulatory functions of discrete emotions. In Lewis, M., andHaviland-Jones, J. M. (eds.),Handbook of Emotions(2nd edn.).Guilford Press, New York.

James, W. (1890).The Principles of Psychology(Vols. 1 and 2). Dover,New York.

Kernis, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., and Harlow, T.(1993). There’s more to self-esteem than whether its high or low:The importance of stability of self-esteem.J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.65(6): 1190–1204.

Klinger, E. (1993). Loss of interest. In Costello, C. (ed.),Symptoms ofDepression. Wiley, New York, pp. 43–62.

Larson, R., and Richards, M. (1991). Boredom in the middle schoolyears: Blaming schools versus blaming students.Am. J. Educ.99:418–443.

McDermott, J. J. (1981).The Philosophy of John Dewey.The Universityof Chicago Press, Chicago.

McLeod, C., and Vodanovich, S. J. (1991) The relationship betweenself-actualization and boredom proneness.J. Soc. Behav. Pers.6(5):137–146.

Mikulas, W. L., and Vodanovich, S. J. (1993). The essence of boredom.Psychol. Record43: 3–12.

Montessori, M. (1949 [1967]).The Absorbent Mind. Holt, Rhinehart andWinston, New York.

Orcutt, J. D. (1984). Contrasting effects of two kind of boredom onalcohol use.J. Drug Issues14: 161–173.

Piaget, J. (1966)The Psychology of Intelligence. Littlefield, Adams,Totowa, NJ.

Piaget, J. (1981).Intelligence and Affectivity: Their Relationship DuringChild Development.Annual Reviews, Palo Alto, CA.

Rathunde, K. (1993). The experience of interest.Adv. Motiv Achievement8: 59–98.

Rathunde, K., and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1993). Undivided interest andthe growth of talent: A longitudinal study of adolescents.J. YouthAdolesc.22(4): 385–405.

Renninger, K. A. (1989). Individual patterns in children’s play interests.In Winegar, L. T. (Ed.),Social Interaction and the Development ofChildren’s Understanding.Ablex, Norwood, NJ, pp. 147–172.

Renninger, K. A. (1990). Children’s play interests, representation, andactivity. In Fivush, R., and Hudson, I. (eds.),Knowing and Re-

membering in Young Children(Emory Cognition Series, Vol III).Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 127–165.

Renninger, K. A. (1992). Individual interest and development: Impli-cations for theory and practice. In Renninger, K., Hidi, S., andKrapp, A. (eds.),The Role of Interest in Learning and Development.Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 361–396.

Renninger, K. A. (2000). Individual interest and its implications forunderstanding intrinsic motivation. In Sansone, C., Harackiewicz,J. M. (eds),Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: The Search forOptimal Motivation and Performance.Academic Press, San Diego,CA, pp. 373–404.

Rogoff, B. (1990).Apprenticeship in Thinking.Oxford University Press,New York.

Rosenberg, M. (1986). Self-concept from middle childhood through ado-lescence. In Suls, J., and Greenwald, A. G. (eds.),PsychologicalPerspectives on the Self(Vol. 3). Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 107–135.

Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus exter-nal control of reinforcement.Psychological Monographs. 80: 1–28.

Savin-Williams, R. C., and Demo, P. (1983). Situational and transitua-tional determinants of adolescent self-feelings.J. Pers. Soc. Psy-chol.44: 820–834.

Schiefele, U., and Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1995). Motivation and abilityas factors in mathematics and achievement.J. Res. Math. Educ.26(2): 163–181.

Scitovsky, T. (1976).The Joyless Economy.Oxford University Press,New York.

Seib, H. M., and Vodanovich, S. J. (1998). Cognitive correlates of bore-dom proneness: The role of private self-consciousness and absorp-tion. J. Psychol.132(6): 642–652.

Sommers, J., and Vodanovich, S. (2000). Boredom proneness: Its rela-tionship to psychological- and physical-health symptoms.J. Clin.Psychol.56(1): 149–155.

Tomkins, S. (1962).Affect Imagery Consciousness.Polyglot, New York.Valsiner, J. (1998).The Guided Mind. Harvard University Press,

Cambridge, MA.Waschull, S. B., and Kernis, M. H. (1996). Level and stability of self-

esteem as predictors of children’s intrinsic motivation and reasonsfor anger.Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull.22: 4–13.

Wasson, A. S. (1981). Susceptibility to boredom and deviant behaviorat school.Psychol. Rep.48: 901–902.

Wink, P., and Donahue, K. (1997). The relation between two types ofnarcissism and boredom.J. Res. Pers.31: 136–140.

Zuckerman, M. (1979).Sensation Seeking.Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.

Documents

The Positive Psychology of Interested Adolescents