Imaginary Worlds and Creativity with Michele Root-Bernstein (Podcast)

Psychology June 09, 2015 / By Scott Barry Kaufman

SYNOPSIS

Creativity scholar Michele Root-Bernstein discusses her work exploring the playful imaginative worlds of children and their correlation with creativity.

Creativity scholar Michele Root-Bernstein discusses her work exploring the playful imaginative worlds of children and their correlation with creativity. Scott and Michele tease out the implications of imaginary worlds on education, giftedness, vocation, self-perception and more. Some other topics include the importance of play, technology’s effects on self-expression and high-level creative achievement.

In this episode you will hear about:

How the presence of imaginative worlds in children may predict adult creativity
The vital importance of creativity in the sciences
Whether or not play is a skill that can be developed
The value of unstructured playtime in education
How visualizing your future self can help you realize your dreams
Video games as they relate to imaginary worlds
The presence of imaginary worlds in Macarthur fellows
The distinction between intellectual giftedness and creative giftedness
The correlation of self-identifying as a creative person with creativity

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Resources:

“Michele Root-Bernstein is an historian, a haiku poet, an independent scholar in creativity studies affiliated with Michigan State University and a teaching artist associated with the John F. Kennedy Center. Co-author of the book Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People, she researches, lectures, workshops, writes and blogs on the practices and processes of creative imagination in all walks of life.” –Blurb taken from Amazon.com

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Author

Scott Barry Kaufman

Scott Barry Kaufman is a humanistic psychologist exploring the depths of human potential. He has taught courses on intelligence, creativity, and well-being at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. He is interested in using his research to help all kinds of minds live a creative, fulfilling, and self-actualized life. Scott likes to share his enthusiasm and knowledge of the science of potential through his books, teaching, coaching, podcast, blog, articles, and speaking engagements. In his latest book Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, Kaufman presents a new hierarchy of human needs for the 21st century, one that allows for the fulfillment of individual potential as well as the actualization of transcendent purpose and peak experiences. Kaufman hosts the #1 psychology podcast in the world— The Psychology Podcast— which has received over 12 million downloads and was included in Business Insider’s list of “9 podcasts that will change how you think about human behavior.” Kaufman’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review. Kaufman’s early educational experiences made him realize the deep reservoir of untapped potential of students, including bright and creative children who have been diagnosed with a learning disability (see the free monthly webcast “Critical Conversations on Cognitive Diversity”). Scott received a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Yale University, and an M. Phil in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge under a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. In 2015, he was named one of “50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world” by Business Insider. Scott is a co-founder of The Creativity Post.

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