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November 10, 2005
Why We're Having Fun
If you listen to Pete Carroll after the game, he always mentions how much fun they have. It's one reason I started liking him several years ago. After all, it's just a game but the announcers try to make it into something more important. "I just hope everyone else is having as much fun as I am," he said at halftime during one crucial game.
On the flip side, this year SC's quarterback, Matt Leinhart had (for him) a bad game against Notre Dame and the next week Leinhart told the press, "I've gotten away from what I want to do. I just want to go out there, enjoy the game, and have fun." I'll bet there was a coach or two in the background helping him to remember that attitude.
What's going on here? Why the focus on fun? Surely, they're doing more than just having fun to be in the running for a third national championship. I think I got a clue in Cameron, et. al (editors) Positive Organizational Scholarship. In a contributed article by Barbara Fredrickson (p. 168):
"The hypothesis ... that positive emotions broaden thinking and action repertoires is supported by two decades of research by Isen and colleagues... Induced positive emotions produce patterns of thought that are notably unusual, flexible, creative, integrative, open to information, and efficient." (skipping over a slew of references to the underlying research papers)
Now, I can't think of a better list of adjectives for a job like a quarterback on a football team: flexible, creative, integrative, open to information, and efficient. Wow!
Furthermore, (p. 169)
"The cognitive literature had already documented a downward spiral in which depressed mood and the narrowed, pessimistic thinking it engenders influence one another reciprocally, leading to ever worsening functioning and moods, and even clinical levels of depression."
Hmmm. We've always known that fun classes are more fun to teach. Now we see that not only are they more fun, but the positive emotional experiences are starting the flow of "creative, integrative, open to information, efficient thinking." How'd you like some more of that in your classroom??? And fun is not the only positive emotional experience ... they discuss lots more.
Isn't this fascinating?
I want to keep reading about it through the weekend. Another interesting book: Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-Lived by Keyes and Haidt.
Am I the last person in the U.S. to learn about this? Does anyone else have experience with POS? Anybody know anybody at the POS center at U. Michigan? Please write Ideas@TeachingMIS.com if you do.
Have a fun week!
Posted by DavidK at November 10, 2005 07:05 PM | Permalink