According to Csikszentmihalyi, what is the difference between creativity with a big “C” and
creativity with a small “c?”
Psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi describes creative people as having flexibility and
fluency in ideas, with the ability to know a good idea from a bad one. Creative ideas can be
used to solve everyday problems, sometimes called “little c” creativity, or can be used to
imagine ideas and create products that change our lives, sometimes called big “C”
creativity, such as digital technology and the Internet.
How does Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi explain the concept of optimal experience?
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi refers to the pleasure people derive from a creative process
leading to a goal as optimal experience. He refers to the process itself as flow, to describe
the motion in which each step of the task seemed to flow effortlessly into the next.
What did Lewis Terman discover in his study of intelligence, intelligence testing, and
creativity?
Terman followed more than 1,500 academic geniuses throughout their lives and found that
they usually excelled in their careers, were socially and personally well adjusted, and were
physically healthier than others. They were not, however, likely to be more creative than
other people. By 1959, after almost 40 years, not one of them had produced highly creative
works or been awarded Pulitzer or Nobel Prizes.