Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Biography
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.
He is the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Age
Csikszentmihalyi was born on 29 September 1934 in Fiume, then part of the Kingdom of Italy. He is 84 years old as of 2019.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Family
His family name derives from the Csíkszentmihály village in Transylvania. He was the third son of a career diplomat at the Hungarian Consulate in Fiume. His two older half-brothers died when Csikszentmihalyi was still young; one was an engineering student who was killed in the Siege of Budapest, and the other was sent to labor camps in Siberia by the Soviets.
His father was appointed Hungarian Ambassador to Italy shortly after the Second World War, moving the family to Rome. When Communists took over Hungary in 1949, Csikszentmihalyi’s father resigned rather than work for the regime; the Communist regime responded by expelling his father and stripping the family of their Hungarian citizenship.
To earn a living, his father opened a restaurant in Rome, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi dropped out of school to help with the family income. At this time, the young Csikszentmihalyi, then traveling in Switzerland, saw Carl Jung give a talk on the psychology of UFO sightings.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Education
Csikszentmihalyi emigrated to the United States from Hungary at the age of 22, working nights to support himself while studying at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. in 1959 and his Ph.D. in 1965, both from the University of Chicago. He then taught at Lake Forest College, before becoming a professor at the University of Chicago in 1969.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Wife
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s wife is Isabella.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Sons
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has two sons. Te first son is an artist and professor by the name Christopher Csikszentmihályi and the other son is Mark Csikszentmihalyi who is a professor of philosophical and religious traditions of China and East Asia.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Creativity
The author suggests that the common idea of a creative individual coming up with great insights, discoveries, works or inventions in isolation is wrong. Creativity results from a complex interaction between a person and their environment or culture, and also depends upon timing.
For instance, if the great Renaissance artists like Ghiberti or Michelangelo had been born only 50 years before they were, there would not have been the culture of artistic patronage in place to fund or shape their great achievements. Consider also the discoveries of individual astronomers: their discoveries could not have happened unless there had been centuries of technological development of the telescope and evolving knowledge of the universe coming before them.
Csikszentmihalyi’s point is that we should devote as much attention to the development of a domain as we do the people working within it, as only this can properly explain how advances are made.
Individuals are only ‘a link in a chain, a phase in a process’, he notes. Did Einstein really ‘invent’ the theory of relativity? Did Edison ‘invent’ electricity? This is like saying that the spark is responsible for the fire when of course fire involves many elements.
The products of creativity also need to have a receptive audience that can evaluate them. A creation vanishes if it is not recognized. ‘Memes’ are the cultural equivalent of genes, things such as language, customs, laws, songs, theories, and values. If strong, they survive, otherwise they are lost. Creative people seek to create memes that can have an impact on their cultures. The greater the creator, the longer-lasting and deeper the impact of the memes.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Quotes
- As long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferences for their own ends.
- Competition is an easy way to get into the flow.
- Develop what you lack.
- Discipline is not always internalized and actually can breed resentment among children.
- Entropy is the normal state of consciousness – a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable.
- Find a way to express what moves you.
- Find out what you like and what you hate about life. Start doing more of what you love, less of what you hate.
- Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow
In his seminal work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csíkszentmihályi outlines his theory that people are happiest when they are in a state of flow—a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. It is a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being in the zone or in the groove.
The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what they are doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns are typically ignored.
In an interview with Wired magazine, Csíkszentmihályi described flow as being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.
Csikszentmihályi characterized nine component states of achieving flow including “challenge-skill balance, merging of action and awareness, clarity of goals, immediate and unambiguous feedback, concentration on the task at hand, a paradox of control, a transformation of time, loss of self-consciousness, and autotelic experience.
To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur. Both skill level and challenge level must be matched and high; if skill and challenge are low and matched, then apathy results.
One state that Csikszentmihalyi researched was that of the autotelic personality. The autotelic personality is one in which a person performs acts because they are intrinsically rewarding, rather than to achieve external goals. Csikszentmihalyi describes the autotelic personality as a trait possessed by individuals who can learn to enjoy situations that most other people would find miserable. Research has shown that aspects associated with the autotelic personality include curiosity, persistence, and humility.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Books
- Applications of Flow in Human Development and Education
- Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology
- The Systems Model of Creativity
- Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life
- Optimal Experience
- The Meaning of Things
- Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Motivation
A majority of Csikszentmihalyi’s most recent work surrounds the idea of motivation and the factors that contribute to motivation, challenge, and overall success in an individual. One personality characteristic that Csikszentmihalyi researched in detail was that of intrinsic motivation. Csikszentmihalyi and his colleagues found that intrinsically motivated people were more likely to be goal-directed and enjoy challenges that would lead to an increase in overall happiness.
Csikszentmihalyi identified intrinsic motivation as a powerful trait to possess to optimize and enhance the positive experience, feelings, and overall well-being as a result of challenging experiences. The results indicated a new personality construct, a term Csikszentmihalyi called work orientation, which is characterized by achievement, endurance, cognitive structure, order, play, and low impulsivity. A high level of work
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