CHAPTER 7

EXCELLENCE,
AESTHETICS,
CREATIVITY AND
GENIUS
 LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter, students should be able
to:
• define excellence, aesthetic, creativity and
genius
• describe the elements of excellence
• explain the attributes of aesthetic experience
• describe the benefits of music and brain
• describe the benefits of art, music and dance
therapy.
 Excellence
• Excellence define as the acquisition of
extraordinary skill in a specific area of
expertise (Ericsson & Charness, 1994;
Ericsson, 1996).
 The foundations of excellence

• Excellence determine by genetic.

• Excellence takes considerable effort.
The development of excellence
• The element of development of excellence:
a.Large knowledge based on ones specific
domain.
b.The motivational factor of commitment
c. Practice
d. Deliberate practice
- Practice that is focused, planned,
concentrated, and effortful (Ericsson &
Charness, 1994).
 The development of excellence
e. Passion
• Strong inclination toward a self-defining activity that one likes,
finds important, and in which one invests time and energy.
• Vallerand clarified 2 types concept of passion:
a. Harmonious passion is a result of autonomous motivation, is
freely chosen, seems to “fit” with one’s identity, and is engaged in
joyously and effortlessly.
b. Obsessive passion, results in feelings of being controlled, often
involves rigid persistence, and may create conflicts within one’s
identity and life as well as feelings of anxiety and even shame.
• Examples of obsessive passions - gambling and Internet addiction
 The development of excellence
f.Grit
• Combination concepts of persistence and
passion (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, &
Kelly, 2007).
• People who are very self-disciplined,
persistence and passion toward their goals are
high.
 AESTHETICS
• Aesthetics has been defined as “an
appreciation of the beautiful and the
sublime”(Averill, Stanat, & More, 1998).
 Attributes of the aesthetic experience
1. Pleasure – looking at an attractive object
increases our sense of wellbeing.
2. Intrinsic interest – to places/vacation that
people like visiting for leisure or other natural
areas.
3. Challenge – art stimulate people to think and
feels differently leads to view the world,
others and self.
 Music and brain
• Music
a. can help patients heal faster after surgery
b. cancer patients with the healing process
c. Alzheimer’s patients to remember events from their
past
d. people cope better with severe pain
e. boost our immune systems
f. Increase children’s test scores (Dalla Bella et al., 2009).
 Music and brain
g. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder learned to concentrate
(Zatorre & Peretz, 2001).
 Art, music and dance therapy
• Happy music areas of the brain responsible for emotions.
• studies have shown that:
a. boost mood by impacting areas of the brain responsible for
emotions.
b. patients who felt positive emotion and showed better ability to heal
from visual neglect after a stroke (Soto et al., 2009).
c. Mood, mental clarity, tension, and cardiovascular health
d. Individual feel joyful,” their blood-vessel functioning improved
(Miller, Beach, Mangano, & Vogel, 2008).
Heavy metal - physiologically harmful (McCraty, Barrios-Choplin,
Atkinson, & Tomasino, 1998; Trappe, 2010).
• .
Art, music and dance therapy
• Music therapy has helped improve the well-being of hospitalized children
(Longhi & Pikett, 2008), and singing has helped improve well-being along
with increased levels of oxytocin (Grape, Sanderson, Hansson, Ericson, &
Theorell, 2003).
• Music making may help increase well-being, and quality of life in older
persons (Solé, Mercadal-Brotons, Gallego, & Riera, 2010; Wan & Schlaug,
2010).
• Program was launched in Sweden that helps people suffering from mental
health problems by taking them to cultural events like visiting museums
and attending concerts (Visscher, 2010).
 CREATIVITY
• Dean Simonton (2009) defined it as “adaptive
originality.”
• To be creative, an idea or product must be
original, novel
 GENIUS
• genius is a person who displays exceptional
intellectual ability, creative productivity, or
originality, with the achievement of new
advances in a domain of knowledge.
• Lewis Terman (1916)
• Over 140 - Genius or near genius.
• 120 - 140 - Very superior intelligence.
• 110 - 119 - Superior intelligence.
 GENIUS
• Gardner found that many geniuses would
probably not be a very good friend.
• Often they made friends only when they
needed support
• abandon those friendships easily, quickly, and
sometimes heartlessly if they felt it necessary.