Shoot the Canon from a Cannon – Constructive Psychology Information

Editor’s be aware: This can be a very delayed article in appreciation of one of many founders of the optimistic psychology area. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi died on October 20, 2021 on the age of 87, having proposed and examined most of the concepts central to the sphere, particularly the idea of move.

Classes on Changing into a Scientist from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Throughout a lab dialogue about human growth, my fellow grad pupil inquired, “How [exactly] is upward striving outlined?” With out lacking a beat, our advisor quipped “That you simply need to take the elevator.”

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi was at all times firing off one-liners like that, at the same time as he threw me soiled appears to be like for my very own punnery (most likely as a result of it takes pun to know pun).

Mike was by no means large on formalities, which is why everybody who knew him known as him “Mike”. However he additionally revered that my cultural background didn’t enable me to be on a first-name foundation with my advisor till I completed my doctorate. That juxtaposition of informality and acceptance of others’ culturally-inspired formality was one in every of many nice qualities that I admired in “Dr. Csíkszentmihályi,” as I known as him, and emblematic of his means to navigate this various, advanced world. A diplomat’s son, Mike grew up with a deep understanding of the rules of heterodoxy. He lived them all through his profession.

Which Thought Do You Assume is Proper?

My first 12 months as a doctoral pupil was my seventh as a researcher, so I used to be no stranger to the vagaries of educational politics after I began growing concepts for unbiased analysis that may complement my duties on the grant-funded tasks of the lab. I met with Mike and Jeanne Nakamura (Mike’s doctoral pupil a few years prior, a co-founder of the lab at Claremont, and collectively my advisor) for espresso, and punctiliously laid out a set of theories I had been growing to research one thing known as microflow that appeared solely in a number of disparate publications. There have been three potential routes I may take for this undertaking, however I used to be a bit cautious about one in every of them as a result of it blatantly disagreed with a few of Mike’s earlier work on the topic and had the potential to problem primary tenets of his theories.

So, I cautiously introduced the idea with quite a lot of caveats, together with it as one in every of many potential routes to take. Mike and Jeanne each observed what I used to be doing, and within the ensuing dialogue it got here out that I used to be involved about stepping on toes, being disrespectful by difficult my advisor’s prior work, and so forth.

Mike, nonetheless, was concerned with just one factor: “Which [theory] do you suppose is true?”

I shyly admitted that I believed the contradictory one was truly the right one, and Mike and Jeanne instantly inspired me to work on that one, pledging their efforts to assist me convey the idea to fruition even when we discovered it contradicted the findings of the previous.

Don’t Get Too Hooked up to Your Personal Concepts

Regardless of how established Mike’s work was, and irrespective of how a lot proof there was, there was at all times loads of room for him to be unsuitable about issues. He at all times valued the variations and inspired me to be an unbiased thinker, even when it meant trampling on the canon. The truth is, he went as far as to chide me as soon as for being too dogmatic about his personal concept. I used to be shocked as a result of I had by no means seen a scientist so humble about his personal work that he wouldn’t let folks get hooked up to his theories. However, his admonishment stayed with me all through my analysis profession, reminding me by no means to get so enamored of an concept that I used to be unwilling to view options.

Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

Mike bolstered this instructing over many alternative discussions concerning the analysis on move, creativity, and human growth. I keep in mind any variety of discussions the place one in every of us made some extent that contradicted the established view, and each time I identified that we had been successfully contradicting an earlier level, he mentioned the equal of “That was so final 12 months!”

Concepts Change Over Time

Simply because he held a selected viewpoint for many years didn’t imply he would maintain it eternally, and he demonstrated repeatedly that studying his publications was lots like seeing a snapshot of his thoughts in movement. It appeared fastened solely due to the medium. It served as a continuing reminder by no means to let my pondering stagnate, and to view my very own publications as an understanding of the second. That lesson stayed with me as I wrestled with the inevitable imposter syndrome of being a scientist, and helped me to put in writing down my work at the same time as I knew that it didn’t fully mirror my understanding of what I had found.

Look to the World of Concepts At Massive

In true dialectical style, Mike was additionally quite exacting in his calls for of his college students, consistently pushing us to do higher and be higher, however at all times in that refined, mild approach that he had each with folks and with phrases. He wished us to transcend the boundaries of our pondering, which regularly meant drilling all the way down to first rules and likewise treating no concept as too sacred to rebut or evolve. Respectful disagreement was a should each in seminars and within the lab, as was analyzing (nay, scrutinizing!) a number of sides of a difficulty of curiosity. We had been anticipated to attract upon outdoors influences, such that our work was knowledgeable not simply by the canonical sources, however by the world of concepts at massive. He inspired us at all times to hunt extra analogies and attain deeper ranges of understanding.

Have Enjoyable

In fact, there was enjoyable. We had been by no means allowed to be so damned severe that we weren’t having an excellent time, which might be why Mike randomly appeared my approach in the midst of a lab assembly, nodded in the direction of the bag of soy nuts from which I used to be snacking, and requested, “Is that birdseed?”

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2004). Move, the key to happiness. TED discuss.

Upward striving: Wollack, S., Goodale, J. G., Wijting, J. P., & Smith, P. C. (1971). Improvement of the survey of labor values. Journal of Utilized Psychology, 55, 331–338.

First main point out of microflow after 1975: Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2005). The idea of move. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez, Handbook of optimistic psychology, pp. 89-105.

My dissertation on microflow: Davis, O.C. (2010). Utilizing ready time properly: Towards a concept of microflow. (Doctoral thesis, Claremont Graduate College, 2010). Thesis Abstracts Worldwide, 72, 1.

Reference to dialectics: Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Move and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperPerennial.