personal qualities...personality, values etc.......Talent Development Resources --..home page...site map

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Meredith Salenger on having multiple interests “I write poetry (ever since I was a little girl that has been my favorite thing to do). One of my poems was published in 1996. "My other hobbies go in waves - I'll be very interested in one thing for a few months and then focus on something else. I have been learning to play guitar... I love to read, I like to be outdoors... I have been getting into Yoga.” Actor Meredith Salenger - from Unofficial Page. She graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Psychology.

author Barbara Sher on "scanners" "Scanners love to read and write, to fix and invent things, to design projects and businesses, to cook and sing, and to create the perfect dinner party... "To Scanners the world is like a big candy store full of fascinating opportunities, and all they want is to reach out and stuff their pockets." > from article: What is a Scanner? - by Barbara Sher > related page :  nurturing talent & creativity

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Cultural Creatives Perhaps, the most clearly identified groups of people interested in living more meaningful and fulfilling lives have been identified by Paul H. Ray, Ph.D., executive vice president of American LIVES, Inc., a market research and opinion polling firm specializing in surveys based on Lifestyles, Interests, Values, Expectations, and Symbols of Americans. Ray has identified a group, Cultural Creatives, as a subculture of shared values that makes up a quarter of the American population. Cultural Creatives' most important values are: altruism (being of service), voluntary simplicity, idealism, spiritual development, ecological sustainability, concern for mutuality in relationships, and the importance of cultural creativity and activism for a better world. This group is estimated to be over 50 million Americans who share these values, and further studies suggest that at least this many Cultural Creatives live outside the United States. So, if one out of every four Americans shares these common values, why can't we find them in our neighborhood? Perhaps it is because we do not have a structure or way to alert each other that we exist. Or, at least we have not until the Internet. In the years of operating Life on Purpose Institute as an online enterprise and community, I have seen that it is possible to attract a sizable 'Purpose Pod' of people who share many of my core values, my vision for what is possible, and who desire to be purposefully of service, to live an abundant and simple live, and to connect with God.

While it may take a bit of effort and some purposeful patience to attract a Purpose Pod of people around you, it is worth it. Why? Because the more you surround yourself with people of like minds and spirits, the easier it becomes for everyone to live true to their Life Purpose. While it is great to have people in your immediate geographical area to share your life with, you are no longer restricted to geography. A good starting point is the Life on Purpose Institute web site, where we are growing a global cyber-community of purposeful, passionate and playful people. Brad Swift - from his Purposeful Pondering Ezine > image from culturalcreatives.org site > book: .The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People  Are Changing the World  by Paul H. Ray, Ph.D. and Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ph.D.

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on boredom and the volatility of interest John Laroche [Chris Cooper] - Talking to "The Orchid Thief" writer Susan Orlean about his previous obsession and area of expertise - exotic fish : Then one morning, I woke up and said, "F**k fish." I renounce fish, I will never set foot in that ocean again. And there hasn't been a time where I have stuck so much as a toe back in that ocean. Susan Orlean [Meryl Streep], astonished : But why? John Laroche : Done with fish.

photo: John Laroche [Cooper] in a Florida swamp, poaching rare orchids in the film Adaptation  (2002) [dvd] ~ ~ ~ > posting on GT-Adults list Are all [gifted adults] like this? I know I am... I tend to be interested in something for anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of years, and then get interested in something else and more or less drop the first pursuit... Once I grasp a concept or skill, I quickly get bored, and am ready to move on to something else... > related pages :   nurturing talent.....self-limiting

Heidi Woan - Miss Los Angeles Chinatown 2004, age 18 "Through her proficiency in computer applications and developed social skills, Heidi was awarded the Centurion Academic Pupil Recognition Award for Business at Saugus High School.  Her unique characteristics are assets as she aspires toward a career as a business executive in advertisement where she can incorporate her interest in graphic design." [from bio]

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.. .. He was a quiet craftsman. And he's a very humble guy, and extremely gifted. And I guess he appealed to me because he was passionate about what he loved and wanted to do, but he had an unusual way of expressing it. I think he was more of a doer than a talker. // He was an unusual man, and I haven't heard anyone say one negative thing about him. He overcame a lot of hardships, he made huge sacrifices to do the work that he wanted to do. He was a master carpenter, and as a teenager built his own home in Tennessee. And without even saying it too much, he just did it whatever he had to do, even humbling yourself, and putting yourself in positions that were uncomfortable, beneath someone of his talent. And he did it with a great deal of grace and humility. //

There's still quiet segregation in a lot of American life. In the climate he was living in, it was really the law of the land. I think nowadays, it's much more clandestine and not so easily detectable. But in his day, coming up as a young man with a family, it was the law of the land; it was the letter of the law. And what appealed to me about Dr. Thomas is the way that he navigated and negotiated a relationship with himself in those environments. You know, there's a way that the world feels about a man, and then there's a way that the man feels about himself. And I think Dr. Thomas had a very clear idea of who he was and what he wanted to do. And he just had this extraordinary focus, and he was a very sensitive and aware. When he started to work in medicine, he was definitely an anomaly. And he stood out. He just negotiated a very different relationship with his surroundings that allowed him to stay focused and didn't disturb his aim. Mos Def - about his character Vivien Thomas in the HBO movie Something the Lord Made [site] Thomas was a colleague of Johns Hopkins head of surgery Alfred Blalock (played by Alan Rickman). They developed radical new procedures and instruments for their patients: "blue babies" - infants suffering from a congenital heart defect. Vivien Thomas was eventually awarded an honorary doctorate.

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A former computer specialist for NASA. Learned the strange skill of talking backwards while attending a school for exceptional children.  Was once leader of a band called "Wayward Gene and the Natural Selection."     from bio of Michael J. Anderson - 'Samson' in "Carnivale"

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.. .. The myth that prodigies have brilliant futures is strengthened by the fact that many eminent and creative people throughout history showed exceptional abilities as children. We forget that this does not imply the reverse -- that exceptional children become adult creators. Most gifts never fully develop. Many gifted children burn out. ..... For those who do make it into the roster of creators, a certain set of personality traits proves far more important than having  a high general IQ, or a high domain-specific ability, even one at the level of a prodigy.

Creators are hard-driving, focused, dominant, independent risk takers. They have experienced stressful childhoods, and they often suffer from forms of psychopathology.  This picture of creators suggests that high-ability children without at least some of these factors have little hope of becoming major creators as adults. .... Creators must be able to persist in the face of difficulty and overcome the many obstacles in the way of creative discovery. .... A willingness to toil and to tolerate frustration and persist in the face of failure is crucial. Ellen Winner, PhD - Professor of Psychology at Boston College,  and Senior Research Associate at Project Zero,  Harvard Graduate School of Education in her book Gifted Children : Myths and Realities

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.. .. Drew Barrymore says, "Young girls come up to me all the time to ask for advice. I think they see me as a survivor. They figure if I can be happy after all I've gone through, there's hope for everyone."  Before she was 18, Barrymore had grappled with alcoholism, drug addiction and numerous failed relationships.  [Calgary Sun, April 4, 1999]

.. .. When people talk about my family, they talk so much about their ability and their skill and how great they are, but then they always have to throw in, "But they were just so screwed up, and they were so crazy."  I think to be really great and interesting, you have to be a little crazy. I just don't think one comes without the other. Drew Barrymore .... [Inside the Actors Studio, June 2003] ...her autobiography : Little Girl Lost

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.. .. A third characteristic of eminent individuals is an extraordinary ability to cope with tension and marginality (Gardner, 1994).  Tensions, both intellectual and personal, result from trying to solve major intellectual problems within a an area and produce novel work.  Marginality is a result of living and working frequently on the edges of acceptance by the critics and gatekeepers of the talent domain.  Only individuals who can tolerate high levels of tension can succeed in putting forth novel work.  Eminent individuals have been found to enjoy the tensions and stresses that accompany their work. They, in fact, thrive on it.  Some researchers believe that creative producers are more comfortable in states of tension and marginality and, if their work becomes "too acceptable" to the critics within their talent domain, they will move on to a new problem in order to "up the ante" or "turn comfortable synchrony into asynchrony" (Gardener, 1994).  Being comfortable with tension and stress allows one to take riskier paths, choose more difficult problems, and straddle diverse and disparate fields of inquiry.  As children, eminent individuals have developed coping skills to handle high levels of tension or marginality in their lives.  Many had stressful childhoods with tense and even traumatizing family situations (Ochse, 1993; Albert, 1994; Simonton, 1992).

from article: Psychological Factors in the Development of Adulthood Giftedness from Childhood Talent by Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, PhD, director of the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University <related books - Anne Fishkin, Bonnie Cramond, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius. Investigating Creativity in Youth Gardner, H. "The fruits of asynchrony: A psychological examination of creativity." Changing the World. A Framework for the Study of Creativity. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994, pp. 47-68. Ochse, R. Before the Gates of Excellence. The Determinants of Creative Genius. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1993. Albert, R. "The contribution of early family history to the achievement of eminence." Talent Development. Proceedings from the 1993 Henry B. and Jocelyn Wallace National Research Symposium on Talent Development. Eds. N. Colangelo, S.G. Assouline and D.L. Ambroson. Dayton, OH: Ohio Psychology Press, 1994, pp. 311-360. Simonton, D. K. "The child parents the adult: On getting genius from giftedness." Talent Development: Proceedings from the 1991 Henry B. and Jocelyn Wallace National Research Symposium on Talent Development, Eds. N. Colangelo, S. G. Assouline, and D. L. Ambroson. New York: Trillium, 1992, pp. 278-297   ~ ~ photo: "Thus, rather than becoming a crazed killer or vengeful victimizer of men, Niki de St. Phalle's fury -- some of which stemmed from having been sexually abused by her father -- fostered a fecund creativity, that served her well throughout her prolific career."  from The Psychology of Creativity: redeeming our inner demons -  an interview with Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D.

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You know how it is in a small town -- you're supposed to get married, have a brood of kids and keep your mouth shut. I didn't do any of those. Janis Joplin... [Biography tv profile] ...bio: Love, Janis - by Laura Joplin

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.. .. Most of the talented women I studied exhibited specific personality traits including determination, motivation, creativity, patience, and the ability to take and, in some cases, thrive on risks.  The one trait clearly exhibited by every woman was determination.  The ability to strive for success and continue to work hard, often under adverse conditions and sometimes without the love and support of her family and/or partner, was evident in all.  Each explained her source of determination and motivation differently. Some were certain it had developed from the positive role modeling of their parents in teaching them how to work.

Others believed they developed their motivation because of a strong purpose in their lives such as preserving the environment, being a successful composer, or bringing theater to disadvantaged urban youth. Still others believed that their motivation came from a desire to produce, to leave a mark upon the world, and from the sheer joy of the creative act.  They each displayed creativity, which was evident in their talent areas as well as in the way they found time for family and relationships.  The sheer volume of their work and their persistent evolution into higher talent forms resulted both from their own creativity as well as the intense love for their work.  These talented women also displayed patience. Some waited years to have the opportunity to invest considerable blocks of time to develop their own talent, and some worked steadily over the years only to be acknowledged for their specific talents later in life. from Chapter One [online] of book Work Left Undone:  Choices and Compromises of Talented Women -  by Sally Reis, PhD

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Hope Davis is often referred to as a thinking man's sex symbol, probably because in many of her movies she communicates a ravishing melancholia. ...  In that 1998 paean to romantic loneliness ["Next Stop Wonderland"], the actress was often perched on a barstool, either half-heartedly querying personal ad respondents or musing on fate with co-workers, but always looking sleepy-sexy.  It's as if the internal dialogue between her lovelorn character's yearning and standoff-ish selves were a new kind of screen charisma: chemistry with oneself. "She's never a blank slate," says her longtime friend and "The Secret Lives of Dentists" co-star Campbell Scott. "In fact, when she's quiet, Hope seems severely full."  [from "Less is really more" - by Robert Abele, LA Times, August 10 2003]

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The most comprehensive review of the personality trait research, with a specific focus on traits of creative individuals, is that of Barron and Harrington [which] listed a set of core characteristics of creative individuals that emerge in different domains.  The core characteristics are: high valuation of aesthetic qualities in experience, broad interests, attraction to complexity, high energy, independence of judgement, autonomy, intuition, self-confidence, ability to resolve antinomies or to accommodate apparently opposite or conflicting traits in one's self-concept, and a firm sense of self as "creative." ...from Affect, Creative Experience, And Psychological Adjustment by Sandra Walker Russ

related pages:........identity........self-esteem / self concept........awareness / thinking........intuition

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Lucy makes total sense to me. Emotionally and mentally and in all of her actions, she's probably the closest character to me.. that I've ever come across. ... A lot of the stuff on the "outside" of the character doesn't relate to me at all, but the essence of her emotional life does.  She feels and observes things very deeply. She has a natural talent, and she probably got a lot of attention for it at a certain point in her life, but really she just wanted to do her own work and be left alone. Ally Sheedy- referring to her character in "High Art": photographer Lucy Berliner.[Advocate, June 9, 1998]

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Sandra Bullock, ENFP *, actress, voted "most likely to brighten your day" in high school. "Sometimes I'm all over the place. But I'm incredibly loyal, and I don't like it when somebody puts me in a box. Don't say, 'Oh, she's great, but if I can just calm her down a bit...'  "I once met an old cowboy. His wife was a free spirit and he was very steady. They'd been married for 40 years. I asked him how it worked. He said, 'Well, my dad always told me, `You have a wild pony, don't put up a fence. Just leave a light on at home. If she's happy, she'll always come home.' "Same with me: Don't corral me and I'll always come home. Always. Just let me go out and play during the day. When I'm exhausted, I'll come back." (Source: Playboy, Sept. 1995.) -- from Temperament Quotes page by Teresa Gallagher * more on Jungian/MBTI temperament typing on:  Temperament Definitions page on Teresa Gallagher's site -- and on page - giftedness: characteristics

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I found some of my favorite books in there, including Foucault's Pendulum and Name of the Rose (not as fond of Island of the Day Before, but can't love everything). I love the Herculean intellectual efforts, something complicated, where you feel your brain is actually working. Morgan's LiveJournal September 10th, 2002 Morgan Webb is an associate producer of The Screen Savers

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She's really complex and smart and ambitious and successful, but also insecure and funny and straightforward... makes mistakes, doesn't have everything in perspective; she's erotic... all these things.      Christine Lahti  (about her role as cardiologist on "Chicago Hope") [Lifetime Intimate Portrait Interview]

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In almost everything he did - from game theory to geometry -- he thumbed his nose at the received wisdom, current fashions, established methods... almost always worked alone, in his head, usually walking, often whistling Bach. ...  When he focused on some new puzzle, he saw dimensions that people who really knew the subject (he never did) initially dismissed as naive or wrong-headed. Even as a student, his indifference to others' skepticism, doubt, and ridicule was awesome. Sylvia Nasar- from her book: A Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1994

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Milla Jovovich commented that being chosen to portray Joan of Arc in "The Messenger" was partly a matter of director Luc Besson's response to her own physical qualities: "Luc told me he was convinced I could play Joan when he saw a photo of me taken by (fashion photographer) Pailo Roversi. "He said it made me look so androgynous. You can't tell if I'm a girl or a boy and that's what happened with Joan." ... from article: Warrior Women On Screen

related page:....androgyny

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Innovators do not have a non-conforming personality in general, but they do withstand social conformist influences.  To spread their innovations they are highly connected to society as opposed to the non-conformist, who, to a large degree, lives outside of society, such as Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. ...  The degree to which people are field-independent correlates with their ability to resist social pressure and the influence of social cues. Field-independent people are more likely to exhibit creativity and are more likely to resist the social pressure to conform to tradition. ... Major innovators tend to be non-competitive with others because they do not use others as a frame of reference.  They are not really concerned with other people’s opinions of them and do not compare their own "success" with others'. Instead, in terms of social comparison theory, the comparison may be to one's own performance or the performance of some historical figure. Therefore, creative actions often require that there be a certain detachment from the social order and social approval.

To be creative, individuals also must be able to withstand rejection. Smith, Carlsson, & Sandstrom (Psychological Research Bulletin,1985) found that creators use fewer compulsive or depressive defenses and are free from excessive anxiety. They also found that creative individuals have access to their dream life and their early childhood more often than noncreative individuals and tend to remember both positive and negative qualities of these life experiences. from "Major Creative Innovators as Viewed Through the Lens of the Model of Hierarchical Complexity and Evolution" by Michael Lamport Commons and Linda Marie Bresette - Chapter Nine in book: ...Creativity, Spirituality, and Transcendence: Paths to  Integrity and Wisdom in the Mature Self -  by Melvin E. Miller, Susanne R. Cook-Greuter

related pages:....Eccentricity and Creativity***social reactions/interactions......anxiety.......dreamwork

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*personal qualities : page 2...........androgyny.*****identity..........*

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