Week 1 The Mechanisms Underlying Talent Development and Creativity: A Historical
Overview
● The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance
Individual differences are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. The
search for stable characteristics that could predict or account for superior performance of elite
individuals has been unsuccessful. The difference between expert and normal performance isn’t
due to innate talent but to a long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific
domain.
● Deliberate Practice and Performance in Music, Games, Sports, Education and
Professions: A Meta-Analysis
There are 2 classical views:
- Experts are born= training is necessary to reach a high level of performance, but innate
ability limits the ultimate level of performance a person can achieve
→ Galton
- Deliberate-practice view= high levels of deliberate practice are necessary to attain
expert level performance.
→ Ericsson. Large proportion of variance in performance is explainable by other factors
than deliberate practice.
● A Dynamic Network Model to Explain the Development of Excellent Human Performance
Key to excellence does not reside in specific underlying components, but rather in the ongoing
interactions among the components. Excellence emerges out of a dynamic network consisting
of mixtures of interacting components such as genetic endowment, motivation, practice and
coaching. Components are focused on nature-nurture and multidimensional models. For
interaction talent and creativity are emergent.
Talent= potential to reach excellence in the future. Normative (related to others) and
ipsative (one’s own previous performance) approach.
Creativity= creating or producing something new. Has to be original, useful and
surprising.
Deliberate practice= engagement in structured activities created specifically to improve
performance in a domain. 10.000 rule of practice.
Nature= talent is located in the person. Evidence: child prodigies, domain-specific
excellence at an early age. Genes play a role. Identifying exact proportions and the role
of (single) genes remains difficult.
Nurture= talent is elicited by the environment. Coach/teacher are significant others.
Birthplace and cultural factors also have an influence. If talent and creativity develop out
of a gene x environment interaction, and one of these is virtually 0, talent and creativity
won’t develop.
Dynamic Network Model= talent develops through dynamic interactions between
components. It accounts for multidimensionality and its complex dynamic nature.
Higher-order properties are emergent phenomena → patterns of order and structure that
emerge on the basis of interactions between lower-level components.
Week 2 Achievement Goals, Self-Determination, and Self-Regulation
, ● Competence as central, but not sufficient for high-quality motivation. A
Self-Determination Theory Perspective
The Self-Determination Theory is a macrotheory of human motivation and personality
development. It distinguishes several basic psychological needs, the satisfaction of which are
essential to optimal functioning and well-being.
Motivation= moved to act. Intrinsic motivation= activities in which the individual finds inherent
satisfaction. Extrinsic motivation concerts all instrumental motivation. When activities are
autonomously engaged, and invested with interest or value, a person’s competencies most
effectively develop, and energy for applying them most easily is mobilized by the individual. It is
then that a person’s accomplishments contribute most to personal and social wellness.
● Achievement Goals and Self-Regulation in the Sport Context
10 basic social psychological principles of high performance and effective self-regulation that
are central in sports and other performance contexts:
1. Enhance motivation, performance and self-regulation through goal setting
2. Structure the multifaceted nature of achievement goal pursuit into a hierarchical goal
system
3. Differentiatie achievement goals on the basis of evaluative standard and valence
4. Set approach goals rather than avoidance goals
5. Develop interventions that focus on self-based and task-based approach goals
6. Delineate athletes’ idiosyncratic development trajectories to better understand the
process of goal attainment and self-regulation.
7. Work on strengths and weaknesses simultaneously
8. Distinguish between high pressure situations and athletes’ psychological reactions to
pressure
9. Accept fluctuating internal states and focus on goal-relevant cues and contingencies
10. Control the controllables → overarching principle of effective self-regulation
● In the context of a sports match, the goal to win is most important, right?
Most athlete’s overarching achievement goal is an other-based approach goal. Athletes with an
overarching other-based approach goal also rely on self-based criteria and task-based criteria.
Overview
● The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance
Individual differences are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. The
search for stable characteristics that could predict or account for superior performance of elite
individuals has been unsuccessful. The difference between expert and normal performance isn’t
due to innate talent but to a long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific
domain.
● Deliberate Practice and Performance in Music, Games, Sports, Education and
Professions: A Meta-Analysis
There are 2 classical views:
- Experts are born= training is necessary to reach a high level of performance, but innate
ability limits the ultimate level of performance a person can achieve
→ Galton
- Deliberate-practice view= high levels of deliberate practice are necessary to attain
expert level performance.
→ Ericsson. Large proportion of variance in performance is explainable by other factors
than deliberate practice.
● A Dynamic Network Model to Explain the Development of Excellent Human Performance
Key to excellence does not reside in specific underlying components, but rather in the ongoing
interactions among the components. Excellence emerges out of a dynamic network consisting
of mixtures of interacting components such as genetic endowment, motivation, practice and
coaching. Components are focused on nature-nurture and multidimensional models. For
interaction talent and creativity are emergent.
Talent= potential to reach excellence in the future. Normative (related to others) and
ipsative (one’s own previous performance) approach.
Creativity= creating or producing something new. Has to be original, useful and
surprising.
Deliberate practice= engagement in structured activities created specifically to improve
performance in a domain. 10.000 rule of practice.
Nature= talent is located in the person. Evidence: child prodigies, domain-specific
excellence at an early age. Genes play a role. Identifying exact proportions and the role
of (single) genes remains difficult.
Nurture= talent is elicited by the environment. Coach/teacher are significant others.
Birthplace and cultural factors also have an influence. If talent and creativity develop out
of a gene x environment interaction, and one of these is virtually 0, talent and creativity
won’t develop.
Dynamic Network Model= talent develops through dynamic interactions between
components. It accounts for multidimensionality and its complex dynamic nature.
Higher-order properties are emergent phenomena → patterns of order and structure that
emerge on the basis of interactions between lower-level components.
Week 2 Achievement Goals, Self-Determination, and Self-Regulation
, ● Competence as central, but not sufficient for high-quality motivation. A
Self-Determination Theory Perspective
The Self-Determination Theory is a macrotheory of human motivation and personality
development. It distinguishes several basic psychological needs, the satisfaction of which are
essential to optimal functioning and well-being.
Motivation= moved to act. Intrinsic motivation= activities in which the individual finds inherent
satisfaction. Extrinsic motivation concerts all instrumental motivation. When activities are
autonomously engaged, and invested with interest or value, a person’s competencies most
effectively develop, and energy for applying them most easily is mobilized by the individual. It is
then that a person’s accomplishments contribute most to personal and social wellness.
● Achievement Goals and Self-Regulation in the Sport Context
10 basic social psychological principles of high performance and effective self-regulation that
are central in sports and other performance contexts:
1. Enhance motivation, performance and self-regulation through goal setting
2. Structure the multifaceted nature of achievement goal pursuit into a hierarchical goal
system
3. Differentiatie achievement goals on the basis of evaluative standard and valence
4. Set approach goals rather than avoidance goals
5. Develop interventions that focus on self-based and task-based approach goals
6. Delineate athletes’ idiosyncratic development trajectories to better understand the
process of goal attainment and self-regulation.
7. Work on strengths and weaknesses simultaneously
8. Distinguish between high pressure situations and athletes’ psychological reactions to
pressure
9. Accept fluctuating internal states and focus on goal-relevant cues and contingencies
10. Control the controllables → overarching principle of effective self-regulation
● In the context of a sports match, the goal to win is most important, right?
Most athlete’s overarching achievement goal is an other-based approach goal. Athletes with an
overarching other-based approach goal also rely on self-based criteria and task-based criteria.
