A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless, The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living. Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses. The 15 articles in this millennial issue of the American Psychologist discuss such issues as what enables happiness, the effects of autonomy and self-regulation, how optimism and hope affect health, what constitutes wisdom, and how talent and creativity come to fruition. The authors outline a framework for a science of positive psychology, point to gaps in our knowledge, and predict that the next century will see a science and profession that will come to understand and build the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.

https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/55/1/5.pdf

Positive psychology: An introduction.

So far in this course we have dealt entirely with the evolution of characters that are controlled by simple Mendelian inheritance at a single locus. There are notes on the course website about gametic disequilibrium and how allele frequencies change at two loci simultaneously, but we didn’t discuss them. In every example we’ve considered we’ve imagined that we could understand something about evolution by examining the evolution of a single gene. That’s the domain of classical population genetics. For the next few weeks we’re going to be exploring a field that’s actually older than classical population genetics, although the approach we’ll be taking to it involves the use of population genetic machinery. If you know a little about the history of evolutionary biology, you may know that after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 there was a heated debate between the “biometricians” (e.g., Galton and Pearson) and the “Mendelians” (e.g., de Vries, Correns, Bateson, and Morgan). Biometricians asserted that the really important variation in evolution didn’t follow Mendelian rules. Height, weight, skin color, and similar traits seemed to

Human biochemical genetics

because observed behavior is the result of interactions between environmental factors and genes during the extended period of development. Therefore, to better understand expert and exceptional performance, we must require that the account specify the different environmental factors that could selectively promote and facilitate the achievement of such performance. In addition, recent research on expert performance and expertise (Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988; Ericsson & Smith, 1991a) has shown that important characteristics of experts' superior performance are acquired through experience and that the effect of practice on performance is larger than earlier believed possible. For this reason, an account of exceptional performance must specify the environmental circumstances, such as the duration and structure of activities, and necessary minimal biological attributes that lead to the acquisition of such characteristics and a corresponding level of performance. An account that explains how a majority of individuals can attain a given level of expert performance might seem inherently unable to explain the exceptional performance of only a small number of individuals. However, if such an empirical account could be empirically supported, then the extreme characteristics of experts could be viewed as having been acquired through learning and adaptation, and studies of expert performance could provide unique insights into the possibilities and limits of change in cognitive capacities and bodily functions. In this article we propose a theoretical framework that explains expert performance in terms of acquired characteristics resulting from extended deliberate practice and that limits the role of innate (inherited) characteristics to general levels of activity and emotionality. We provide empirical support from two new studies and from already published evidence on expert performance in many different domains.

/pdf/the-role-of-deliberate-practice-in-the-acquisition-of-expert-3j9768t5su.pdf

The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance.

Building Leadership Effectiveness This program encourages leaders to develop practices that transform values into action, vision into realities, obstacles into innovations, and risks into rewards. Participants will be introduced to the five practices of exemplary leadership: modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart Coaching & Communicating for Performance Coaching & Communicating for Performance is a highly interactive program that will give supervisors and managers the opportunity to build skills that will enable them to share expectations and set objectives for employees, provide constructive feedback, more effectively engage in learning conversations, and coaching opportunities. Skillful Conflict Management for Leaders As a leader, it is important to understand conflict and be effective at conflict management because the way conflict is resolved becomes an integral component of our university’s culture. This series of conflict management sessions help leaders learn and put into practice effective strategies for managing conflict.

기독교 사역과 Leadership

The importance of intellectual talent to achievement in all professional domains is well established, but less is known about other individual differences that predict success. The authors tested the importance of 1 noncognitive trait: grit. Defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals, grit accounted for an average of 4% of the variance in success outcomes, including educational attainment among 2 samples of adults (N=1,545 and N=690), grade point average among Ivy League undergraduates (N=138), retention in 2 classes of United States Military Academy, West Point, cadets (N=1,218 and N=1,308), and ranking in the National Spelling Bee (N=175). Grit did not relate positively to IQ but was highly correlated with Big Five Conscientiousness. Grit nonetheless demonstrated incremental predictive validity of success measures over and beyond IQ and conscientiousness. Collectively, these findings suggest that the achievement of difficult goals entails not only talent but also the sustained and focused application of talent over time.

https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/92/6/1087.pdf

Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals

Creativity in Science: Consolidation: Creativity in Science

Of all the chapters in this volume, this could be the most difficult to write. 
Why? Because it is the only one in which the author examines creativity in 
his or her own domain of creativity. Psychologists may examine creativity in 
the arts, the other sciences, or in various practical domains, such as business, 
with relative impunity. After all, as outsiders looking in, the investigator can 
adopt an objective stance most concordant with a bona fide scientific analysis. 
However, when a psychologist looks at psychologists, it is easier for personal 
biases to interfere. The analysis might be tainted by alliances to particular 
subdisciplines or to specific theoretical or methodological orientations 
(Cronbach, 1957; Kimble, 1984; Simonton, 2000c). In addition, because 
psychology tends to be a more personal enterprise than the other sciences, 
there is perhaps more latitude for the intrusion of individual idiosyncrasies of 
a more subtle kind. Many have noted, for example, how much a psychologist’s 
ideas tend to reflect his or her distinctive background and personality makeup 
(Johnson, Germer, Efran, & Overton, 1988). It was no freak accident that 
Sigmund Freud, the inventor of the Oedipal Complex, had an attractive, young 
mother. Neither was it mere coincidence that Alfred Adler, a middle-born 
child, spoke somewhat derisively of the firstborn as the “dethroned king.” 
Neither, finally, was it just happenstance that Carl Jung, an advocate of thesignificance of archetypes in the collective unconscious, had a sometimes 
psychotic fascination with the mysterious and the occult that extended back to 
childhood. Given these intimate connections between psychologist as person 
and psychologist as creator, how are we to trust anything that psychologists 
have to say about creativity in psychology?

Creativity in Psychology: On Becoming and Being a Great Psychologist

Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills!

The scientific study of talent is frequently said to begin with Francis Galton's 1869 Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences. Galton introduced some environmental influences that nurture the development of scientific talent. He became thereby the very first researcher to introduce the nature-nurture issue to modern science. Even so, Galton continued to research the genetic basis of achievement, introducing twin studies and parent-child statistical correlations that have become an integral part of behavior genetics. Deliberate practice is not only necessary but also sufficient. This total rejection of any involvement of nature makes Galton look like he was a moderate advocate of that alternative position. In rejecting the impact of genetic factors, extreme proponents of deliberate practice not only go well beyond their own data, but also are obliged to ignore the well-established findings of behavior genetics.

Does Talent Exist? : Yes!

Although my own research has focused on genius, according to standard dictionary definitions, genius has considerable conceptual overlap with both giftedness and talent. Thus, the goal of this chapter is to disentangle any conceptual confusions among the three concepts. I begin with giftedness, endorsing unmodified the definition put forward by the National Association for Gifted Children. That endorsement allows me to introduce a distinctive definition for talent. Given those two definitions, I turn to genius, offering yet another conception that renders that construct distinct from either giftedness or talent. From there I advance to the practical implications by addressing the following questions about each of the three concepts: Is high IQ required? What’s the relative role of nature and nurture? Where is it placed in the life span? How is it identified? And can it be enhanced through interventions?

Dean Keith Simonton

Papers

Creativity in Science: Consolidation: Creativity in Science

Creativity in Psychology: On Becoming and Being a Great Psychologist

Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills!

Does Talent Exist? : Yes!

Giftedness, Talent, and Genius: Untangling Conceptual Confusions