Sarah Gibbard Cook
  • Home
  • About
  • Writing
  • Contact

When I Was a Child, I Thought as a Child

6/19/2017

4 Comments

 
How would you use an unexpected free day? Psychologists Darya Zabelina and Michael Robinson of North Dakota State University asked college students to write what they would do if school were cancelled for the day. A subset of study participants received the additional instruction to imagine themselves as seven-year-olds.

The researchers say maturing into adulthood strengthens impulse control, logical problem-solving, and self-monitoring. Spontaneity and originality decline. Children approach challenges as exploration and play, adults as a quest for the right solution.

While we can’t turn back the clock on brain development and probably wouldn’t want to, a childlike mindset enhances creativity — in introverts. Introverts are capable of play and spontaneity but don’t often show it. Envisioning themselves as adults, the introverts in the study scored much lower on creative originality than their extraverted peers. But when they imagined themselves as children, introverts soared to the top of the creativity charts. Extraverts, less inhibited, fell somewhere in the middle regardless of adultlike or childlike mindset.

Unleashing your inner child to enhance creativity goes beyond the fluff of pop culture, especially if you’re an introvert.
4 Comments
Lisa
6/19/2017 11:47:12 am

Hmmmm. I understand your point about creativity and personality types and the brain. But how a seven-year-old vs an adult spends an unexpected snow day seems to me not to have a lot to do with creativity. It might have more to do with what they do in any free time, which for a seven-year-old is mostly doodle around, and it certainly isn't to clean their room? Where the adult might go, Cool! I can clean my room!

That said, I had the house to myself all day Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday. My inner introvert came out and I spent it dying yarn!

Reply
Sarah link
6/19/2017 07:38:44 pm

They may have used a measure of originality. Dying yarn would probably count as more original than either cleaning your room or doodling. The child who would build a castle in the yard with space for a friendly dragon might be showing more originality than the one who would watch cartoons. One can quibble individual cases but they did seem to find patterns.

Reply
Beth
6/19/2017 08:58:58 pm

IA day that belonged to me: go with Mozart to a concert; learn a Rachmaninoff prelude (first page) get a piano lesson from Rudolph Serkin, go to the opera in zurich with my husband and other relatives, eat a really good dinner and be happy

Reply
Sarah link
6/19/2017 10:11:58 pm

That sounds like a perfect Beth day at any age!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin. 

    Archives

    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    RSS Feed


      ​get updates

    Sign up
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Writing
  • Contact