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Category Archives: Creativity
How to be less confident
Search on Google for information on how to be less confident, and over 90% of the hits will actually be explaining ways to increase your confidence. This does have its perks. According to research from Washington University overconfident managers are more likely … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, intelligence, Leadership, Self confidence
1 Comment
Creativity and Charisma
Look though recent articles on leadership and you will find that creativity to be in high demand. IBM’s Institute for Business Value conducted a survey of 1,500 chief executives and discovered that creativity had risen to top as the most … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Group psychology, Leadership
1 Comment
Charisma and Emotions
Emotional expressiveness seems to be the major component of charisma. When other people can reflect our emotions, or show reactions to events that match our own, we are more likely to trust them. In order to reflect another person’s emotions … Continue reading
The origins of optimism
Optimism and pessimism are not two distinct styles but rather ends of a continuum. At the optimistic end people expect only good events to happen to them. They concentrate on stimuli that indicates a rosy outlook and ignore warning signs … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Mental health, Optimism and Pessimism
Tagged parenting, social economic status
1 Comment
A proper repartee
The group of women sat around a table, discussing their mother’s instructions on being a “Southern Lady.” In their storytelling manner they competed with each to relate the most outlandish piece of advice. “I never could understand that bit about … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Laughter and humor
Tagged brain damage, brain disease, humor, regional humor, sarcasm, social cognition
1 Comment
Laughter and learning
Imagine two different college classes: in one the instructors is always logical and serious; and in the other the instructor throws in frequent jokes only tangentially related the subject. In which class do students learn more? According to research it … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Education trends, Laughter and humor
Tagged attention, humor in education, relieving test anxiety, types of humor
1 Comment
The unprincipled conformist
The rebel with a cause is one of favorite heroic types in fiction. But the “foil” of the principled nonconformist, the unprincipled conformist, is also a common antagonist. What makes this character so villainous? Conformity requires that a person at … Continue reading
Characters and cohorts
In fiction most protagonists like most people are not complete loners. Interactions with their cohorts make up a good portion of novels, so creating these peers takes a bit of thought. What enables a real-life group to be innovative in business also makes … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Group psychology, Literature, Writer's resource
Tagged cohort, doppleganger, Foil, group diversity, maintaining status quo, work groups
1 Comment
When characters confuse
When Edgar Allen Poe published “Murders in the Rue Morgue” in 1841 the murder mystery was a relatively new genre. He wrote a few more of these increasingly popular detective stories before leaving behind his own mystery. In 1849 he … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Writer's resource
Tagged MO. signature aspect, modus operandi, motivations, motive, signature behavior
1 Comment
When characters collide
Consider the possible basic conflicts in fiction: man against environment, man against man, man against society, and man against self. In most plots the conflicts are between people. Even in Robinson Caruso and Castaway, tales of man surviving in isolation, … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Literary devices, Writer's resource
Tagged antagonist, character, conflict, hero, modus operandi, motive, Protagonist, villain
1 Comment
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