The Nerd Battle Royale: Is Grit, Curiosity, or Some Combination the Key to Creativity?
Stop Thinking About Psychological Strengths in Isolation
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Psychologists often fall into the trap of oversimplifying human beings into a handful of qualities. The Big Five Personality Traits? Too many. The Big Four? Still too many. The Big Two? Or perhaps we should just settle for a single General Factor of Personality?
But let's be real, we're all a complex mix of countless personality dimensions. Even if we narrow the conversation down to psychological strengths, the diversity is staggering.
I'm a big fan of Alex Linley's taxonomy of psychological strengths (that kick-ass image above). It's a framework that appreciates the multifaceted nature of human greatness. It recognizes that to truly understand a person, we need to consider a broad spectrum of dimensions that set them apart from others. This means
Identifying qualities that matter
Understanding how often and intensely these qualities manifest
And what I want to focus on today: exploring the value of specific combinations that lead to desirable outcomes such as achievement and equanimity.
I'm excited to give Paid Subscribers/Supporters of Provoked first dibs on my latest publication on this topic. It’s a collaboration with rising star Shengjie Lin, creativity researcher
, and host of The Psychology Podcast,Curious about how Grit and Curiosity work together to predict creative achievement in adults?
Which do you think is the most potent strength?
Feed that hungry brain and dive into the details below…
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