Lecture 12: Developing children's talent and reconsidering deliberate practice and flow

Question 1

Additional stuff in the unrequited love lecture

Answer 1

-Physical attractiveness is a big factor
-Has to be reciprocal… interdependent goal
-You can’t change another person’s feelings to get them to like you (usually)

Question 2

Few deliberate practices

Answer 2

 Psychotherapy -learn with clinician
 Chess -watch chess matches, study books about it
 Scrabble - learn the techniques
 Taking notes on lectures -take notes so well you could teach it (goal-oriented way)
 Teaching - relisten to own lectures

Question 3

Ego-involvement

Answer 3

ex: parents care more about my achievement than I do, feels like it’s their achievement, their self-esteem depends on me

Question 4

Deliberate practice and flow (hockey dad and son practice)

Answer 4

According to Eric Erikson (not the same Ericsson), ages 30-40 more outward, generative focus (so normal for parents to want to help)

 Does the story fall in with the work of
– Ericsson - deliberate practice
– Csikszentmihalyi - flow
– Dweck – mastery vs performance orientation
yes, yes, yes?
but hard to know for sure if it’s flow

Question 6

Benjamin Bloom: Home environments of youngsters
who become elite performers:

Answer 6

Parent behavior
#1 Child-Oriented … parents very involved (driving kid far away, sometimes quitting job for kid…)
#2 Achievement-oriented … very aware of competitors
#3 Responsibility -oriented… kids taught to be very responsible (prep own stuff, do hw, wake up on own…)

Question 7

Typical stages of involvement

Answer 7

Phase 1 - Exposure and Playful Interaction…. Parents often chose which sport, introduce it in a playful way, get a fun teacher

Phase 2 - Moderate Skill Building – Internalization… Help kid internalize the value of the practice

Phase 3 - Intensive Preparation Toward Expertise .. Find the best coach, sometimes have to move, drive a lot, child has to specialize… disengagement from other activities, get an expert to manage kid (parent should disengage)

Question 8

When the parent does not withdraw?

Answer 8

Adrien Di Mello Graduated from university
in computational Math at age 11.

Adrien Di Mello… doesn’t look like flow, wanted to get away from father, feels like he missed out on socializing, went back to high school

Question 9

A Mother-Daughter Example: Brooke Raboutou (rock climbing mother and daughter duo)

Answer 9

Brooke Raboutou… seems to enjoy it, seems to be intrinsic, but also born into that, has only ever known that

Question 10

Another Perspective: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (flow guy)

Answer 10

 Prospective Longitudinal
Study of 9th graders
identified as talented in 2
areas.
– Includes ESM for 1 week
 Follow-up in Grade 12 to
see if teens developed
their talent areas.

25% developed their talents
Teenagers who were having flow were the ones who stayed

Question 11

Key Factors Associated w Talent
Development, Csikzentmihalyi 1997

Answer 11

 “A talent will be developed if it produces optimal
experiences”
 A sense of effortless action felt in moments that stand out as the best in our
lives.
 Components:
– Clarity of goals
– Immediate feedback
– Challenges and skills are matched
– Absorbed in the task
– Sense of personal control
– Altered sense of time

One thing missing from the flow is being happy and having fun…. Too absorbed… but after you do it, realize you were having fun

Critical Issue: How to help the child
sustain deliberate practice?
 Help to make it flow.

Question 12

The Flow method:

Answer 12

– Overall goal + as many subgoals as possible
– Find ways to measure progress
– Concentrate & make finer distinctions re challenge
– Develop new skills
– Keep raising the stakes when it becomes boring

Question 13

Ericsson’s misunderstanding of flow?

Answer 13

Ericsson never understood flow

Think flow and and deliberate practice cannot co-occur (not for pleasure)

Prof thinks both deliberate practice and flow can co-exist

Question 14

Similarity/differences between ericsson and Csikzentmihalyi (however you spell his name..)

Answer 14

Both:
 Goal-oriented
 Requires complete attention
 Find ways to measure progress
 Beyond the comfort zone

Differences:
– Play at the edge of our
capabilities; (flow)
– Suffer at the edge of out
capabilities; (deliberate practice)
– Carried by a current? (flow)
– Slip-sliding in rapids? (deliberate practice)

Question 15

Summary of course so far

Answer 15

2 insights:
– 1. Because deliberate practice involves goal-directed
mastery training, the work on goal setting is highly
relevant to how to become more expert.
– 2. Csikzsentmihalyi’s concept of flow may be what is
required to maintain deliberate practice.

Question 16

Grolnick (2001) How to Distinguish Whether
Parental Involvement is Healthy?

Answer 16

Evidence of Psychopathology?
Narcissistic parents
Ego-involved parents
What is the over-arching goal in encouraging
sport or music participation?