How Leisure Activities Correspond to the Development of Creative Achievement: insights from a study of highly intelligent individuals¹

Giftedness in the Long Term, Professor

“…To support the development of gifted potential most effectively throughout life, it is important to follow indicators such as personal interests (Hany, 1996). Using children's precocity as the prime identifying feature of gifts and talents, with the expectation that precocity would last, could be responsible for their later apparent loss-often called burn out.…”

Modes of Enhancement

“…Throughout two decades of exploration, evidence has been given that activities in a certain domain as a child or adolescent lead to real-world creative accomplishments in that domain as an adult (Milgram & Hong, 1995Milgram, Hong, Shavit, & Peled, 1997); out-of-school activities in adolescence predicted the domain of vocational activity in adulthood both in adolescents who were intellectually gifted (Milgram et al, 1997) as well as in adolescents varying widely in intellectual ability (Hong, Milgram, & Whiston, 1993); and people whose activities in adolescence matched their adult occupation had a higher level of work accomplishment and satisfaction than those for whom such a match was absent (Milgram et al, 1997). Taking an retrospective approach, Hany (1996) found that highly intelligent and successful people, including some patented inventors, spent more of their free time on self-realizing activities (i.e. creating artwork, playing an instrument, and conducting research, etc.)…”

“…Thirdly, students' leisure time activities can be structured and designed in a way that will train students to be better self-regulated learners. Researchers have brought us to the stage where we can differentiate self-actualizing activities (Hany, 1996), self-defining activities (Coatsworth et al, 2005) or structured voluntary activities (Larson, 2000) from other activities which are less stimulant to creativity. Such activities are self-motivated or voluntary instead of being forced or pushed by others (Larson, 2000); and they are complex and challenging and entail constructive attention (Csikszentmihalyi, 1978(Csikszentmihalyi, , 1993(Csikszentmihalyi, , 1996Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1984) and concerted effort (Larson, 2000).…”

Talent Identification and Development in Sport

“…Interestingly, research that highlights the strong relationship between motivation and attainment also implies that neither physique nor initial performance alone is a good predictor of adult attainment as the motivation to develop and excel must also be present. Therefore, while performance itself can be a false indicator of potential, especially in sport where maturational status can play such a significant role, the child's own interests appear to be an excellent, but often neglected, indicator of adult attainment (Hany, 1996;Milgram & Hong, 1997).…”