Skip to main content

Personal Expressiveness: Philosophical and Psychological Foundations

Item

Title

Personal Expressiveness: Philosophical and Psychological Foundations

Abstract/Description

Psychological and philosophical perspectives are employed in an exploration of the reasons particular individuals experience an activity as personally expressive while others may find the same activity neutral or even aversive. The relationships between personal expressiveness and intrinsic motivation, flow, and self-actualization are considered. The construct of personal expressiveness is shown to have its roots in eudaimonistic philosophy. Living in a manner consistent with one's daimon or "true self" gives rise to a cognitiveaffective state labeled "eudaimonia" that is distinguishable from hedonic enjoyment. A personally expressive personality pattern is described integrating concepts from diverse theories including (a) a sense of personal identity, (b) self-actualization, (c) an internal locus of control, and (d) principled moral reasoning. A series of empirical investigations is proposed to test the theoretical concepts of personal expressiveness advanced.

Author/creator

Date

Volume

11

Issue

1

Pages

47-73

Resource type

Background/Context

Medium

Print

Background/context type

Conceptual

Open access/free-text available

Yes

Peer reviewed

Yes

ISSN

0271-0137

Citation

Waterman, A. S. (1990). Personal Expressiveness: Philosophical and Psychological Foundations. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 11(1), 47–73.

Comments

No comment yet! Be the first to add one!

Contribute

Login or click your token link to edit this record.

Export