Scott Barry Kaufman > Quotes

“While standardized tests can certainly be useful for scientifically investigating the mind and brain, and can greatly inform educational interventions, there’s no reason why educators or anyone else for that matter needs to compare the intelligence of one person to another based on a single dimension of human variation.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined

“most widespread gains in brain training come from programs that simultaneously address multiple aspects of a person, such as traditional martial arts training and enriched school curricula.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined

“People with learning goals are all about increasing their skills, whereas those with performance goals are all about winning, and looking smart. Because”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined

“Writing about a topic that triggers strong emotions for just fifteen to twenty minutes a day has been shown to help people create meaning from their stressful experiences and better express both their positive and negative emotions.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“The common strands that seemed to transcend all creative fields was an openness to one’s inner life, a preference for complexity and ambiguity, an unusually high tolerance for disorder and disarray, the ability to extract order from chaos, independence, unconventionality, and a willingness to take risks. This”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“Within the humanistic psychology framework, the healthy personality is considered one that constantly moves toward freedom, responsibility, self-awareness, meaning, commitment, personal growth, maturity, integration, and change, rather than one that predominantly strives for status, achievement, or even happiness.7”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“The person who behaves badly behaves so because of hurt, actual and expected, and lashes out in self-defense, as a cornered animal might.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“The comparison isn't with others; it's with your former and future selves.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined

“when people consistently move in the direction of growth, feelings of happiness and life satisfaction tend to come along for the ride as an epiphenomenon of growth.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“Creative people are hubs of diverse interests, influences, behaviors, qualities, and ideas—and through their work, they find a way to bring these many disparate elements together.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“It is precisely when the foundational structure of the self is shaken that we are in the best position to pursue new opportunities in our lives.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“Creative people have messy minds.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“Seed incidents tend to break the mind out of ordinary understanding and create new meanings for the writer, as evidenced by the writers’ descriptions of these events as “touching,” “intriguing,” “puzzling,” “mysterious,” “haunting,” and “overwhelming.” Commenting on a family incident that became the seed for a story, one writer said that the event seemed “full of meanings I couldn’t even begin to grasp.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“The hobbies and personal passions we cultivate on our own—whether studying history, creating ink pen doodles, speculating in stocks and shares, playing the piano, or gardening—play a crucial role in shaping meaning in our lives. The creative person is constantly seeking to discover himself, to remodel his own identity, and to find meaning in the universe through what he creates.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive.”8”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“As Barron began to make sense of what he observed, he came to identify a key consistency among creative people. Namely, these people seemed to become more intimate with themselves—they dared to look deep inside, even at the dark and confusing parts of themselves.22 Being open to and curious about the full spectrum of life—both the good and the bad, the dark and the light—may be what leads writers to score high on some characteristics that our society tends to associate with mental illness, while it can also lead them to become more grounded and self-aware. In truly facing themselves and the world, creative-minded people seemed to find an unusual synthesis between healthy and “pathological” behaviors. Armed”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“In other words, the best route to happiness and life satisfaction is through transcending your egoistic insecurities, becoming the best version of yourself, and making a positive contribution to the world around you.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“exploration, love, and purpose. I believe that these three”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“So let me state this as clearly as possible: you may not be entitled to shine, but you have the right to shine, because you are a worthy human being. Changing your self-limiting narratives about your worthiness, asserting needs in a healthy way, overcoming your avoidance of fearful experiences, and taking responsibility for your behaviors—these actions strengthen and stabilize the vulnerable self.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“Maslow believed that if people are inwardly free, they will more often than not choose wisely, in a healthy and growth-oriented direction.4 To Maslow, this is how the psychology of being and the psychology of becoming can be reconciled. Just by being yourself and shedding your defenses and fears and anxieties, you move forward and grow.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“Diogenes proved the law of motion using the phrase Solvitur ambulando, “It is solved by walking,”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive.”8 Psychologist”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“go to selfactualizationtests.com”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“To be sure, at times reality can feel unbearable, and despite the general satisfaction most people feel with their lives, mental illness is actually a lot more common than people realize. In fact, most people develop a diagnosable mental illness at some point in their lives.41 Nevertheless, most people report being fairly happy in life, show positive developmental change across their life-spans, and display extraordinary capacities for resilience, dignity, and grace.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“By replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity we open ourselves up to an infinite stream of possibility. We can let fear rule our lives or we can become childlike with curiosity, pushing our boundaries, leaping out of our comfort zones, and accepting what life puts before us. —ALAN WATTS”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“the imagination network enables us to construct personal meaning from our experiences, remember the past, think about the future, imagine other perspectives and scenarios, comprehend stories, and reflect on mental and emotional states—both our own and those of others.36”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. —ALBERT EINSTEIN”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“George Bernard Shaw: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind

“Two “fairly sure” historical figures were Abraham Lincoln (“in his last years”) and Thomas Jefferson. Seven “highly probable public and historical figures” included Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Addams, William James, Albert Schweitzer, Aldous Huxley, and Baruch Spinoza.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

“Those who employ a problem-focus coping style attempt to deal with stressful situations by changing the source of the stress.”
― Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization