How Leisure Activities Correspond to the Development of Creative Achievement: insights from a study of highly intelligent individuals1

Abstract The contribution of leisure time activities to highly intelligent people's creative achievement has rarely been investigated. By using highly intelligent adults' (N = 246) retrospective estimates of frequencies of leisure time activities, a special developmental profile of leisure time usage was found for the more successful individuals in contrast to the less successful. Highly intelligent, successful individuals spent more of their free time on self‐realizing activities, like demanding hobbies, making music or engaging actively in sports, both during adolescence and in later years, and they showed a rising frequency of intellectually demanding activities with growing age. The results can be interpreted in terms of the expert‐novice framework, the problem solving approach to creative thinking, and in terms of the developing identity of young people. 1 Acknowledgment: The empirical study reported in this paper was carried out during the time the author worked at the Institute of Educational Psychology and Empirical Pedagogy of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The stimulation and generous support provided by its director, Professor Kurt Heller, and his staff are gratefully acknowledged. Notes 1 Acknowledgment: The empirical study reported in this paper was carried out during the time the author worked at the Institute of Educational Psychology and Empirical Pedagogy of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The stimulation and generous support provided by its director, Professor Kurt Heller, and his staff are gratefully acknowledged.