Research

OverviewCurrent ProjectsPublicationsTalksPosters

Overview

Investigations at the Quality of Life Laboratory are focused on empowering people to live the lives they find most fulfilling and meaningful by enabling them to:

  1. Develop and actualize their capabilities
  2. Integrate them into an identity
  3. Channel their personal uniqueness to create works of lasting value

This involves studying human performance (creativity), the interpersonal relationships that promote personal development (mentoring), cognitive enablers of high performance (flow, trance), and the context in which people create (workplace culture).

Current Projects

How people can develop and exhibit their best selves through positive experiences

  • Microflow: Is it possible to have optimal experiences even under suboptimal conditions?
  • Short Positive Experiences: Can you have a good time when you don’t have time?
  • Street Hypnosis: If you met a hypnotist on the street, would you want to try it?
  • Hypnotic Phenomenology: What are hypnotizable people capable of doing? (Collaboration with John Mohl)
  • Solitude: Is spending time alone necessarily a bad thing? (Collaboration with Thuy-Vy Nguyen)
  • Self-Insight: How do we come to understand ourselves? (Collaboration with Thuy-Vy Nguyen)
  • Positive Living: What is the best life you can live? (Collaboration with Xuan Gao)
  • Enhancing Student Creativity: How do we train teachers to encourage creativity in their students? (Collaboration with Jen Katz-Buonincontro)

Making the workplace a great place to work

  • Creativity at Work: To what extent are we able to be creative at our workplaces and in our jobs?
  • Creativity Tools: Is there a better way to brainstorm? (Collaboration with KILN)
  • Team Flow: How do teams get into flow? (Collaboration with Jef van den Hout)
  • Emotion and Leadership: How do leaders enable good following? (Collaboration with Jen Katz-Buonincontro)

Talks

Optimal Experience (Flow, Microflow)

  • “Using Microflow to combat boredom.” Orin C. Davis. European Conference on Positive Psychology, June, 2016.
  • “The Implications of Microflow on Flow Theory.” Orin C. Davis. European Conference on Positive Psychology, July, 2014.
  • “Microflow in the Workplace.” Orin C. Davis. International Positive Psychology Association Conference. June, 2013.
  • “Finding Microflow in the Workplace.” Orin C. Davis. European Conference on Positive Psychology, June, 2012.
  • “Microflow: The Optimal Sub-Optimal Experience.” Orin C. Davis. International Positive Psychology Association conference, July, 2011.
  • “Microflow: The Optimal Sub-Optimal Experience.” Orin C. Davis. University of Pennsylvania, June, 2011.
  • “Microflow at Work.” Orin C. Davis. Positive Psychology Work Group, February, 2011.
  • “What Is Microflow and How Do We Use It?” Orin C. Davis. Positive Psychology Work Group, February, 2011.
  • “Microflow: An Experience Worth Waiting For.” Orin C. Davis. Guest lecture at American Jewish University. April, 2010.
  • “Investigations in Positive Psychology: Flow and Mircoflow.” Orin C. Davis. Guest lecture at American Jewish University. September, 2008.

Teamwork and Team Flow

  • How a Collective Ambition Ignites Team Flow. Jef van den Hout & Orin C. Davis. International Positive Psychology Association Conference, July, 2015.
  • “Toward a Theory of Team Flow.” Jef van den Hout & Orin C. Davis. European Conference on Positive Psychology, July, 2014.
  • “The Theory of Team Flow.” Jef van den Hout & Orin C. Davis. International Positive Psychology Association Conference. June, 2013.
  • “Building Synergy and High Performance Through Team Flow.” Orin C. Davis. Association of Change Management Professionals. April, 2013.
  • “Using the Team Flow Monitor.” Jef van den Hout & Orin C. Davis. European Conference on Positive Psychology, June, 2012.
  • “Toward a Theory of Team Flow.” Jef van den Hout & Orin C. Davis. International Positive Psychology Association conference, July, 2011.
  • “Building Team Flow.” Orin C. Davis. University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, March, 2012.
  • “Extending Flow and Group Flow to Business Teams.” Jef van den Hout & Orin C. Davis. Technical University of Eindhoven, June, 2010.
  • “The Flow Experience of Business Teams.” Jef van den Hout & Orin C. Davis. Universiteit Utrecht, June, 2010.

Creativity/Innovation

  • The relationship between sensory processing sensitivity, empathy, and creativity. Orin C. Davis & Jian Ju Ma. American Psychological Association conference, August, 2016.
  • “Does a Measure of Creative Personality Predict Creative Accomplishment of Self-Actualization?” Orin C. Davis & Tess R. Suchoff. Positive Organizational Scholarship Research Conference, June, 2015.
  • “Using Experience Sampling Methodology to Understand the Nature of Learning in Engineering Technology Courses.” Jennifer Katz-Buonincontro & Orin C. Davis. American Psychological Association conference, August, 2014.
  • “Validating a Measure of the Creative Personality.” Orin C. Davis. American Psychological Association conference, August, 2014.
  • “Creativity in Daily Life and the Creative Personality.” Orin C. Davis. American Psychological Association conference, August, 2012.
  • “What It Takes to Start Innovating.” Orin C. Davis. Positive Psychology Work Group, May, 2012.
  • “Getting Complex, Getting Creative, & Getting Self-Actualized.” Orin C. Davis. Positive Psychology in Action, Positive Health Promotion Forum, May, 2012.

Hypnosis

  • “The Gift of High Hypnotizability.” John C. Mohl & Orin C. Davis. American Psychological Association conference, August, 2013. (request slides)
  • “Hypnosis: How It Works and What It Does.” Orin C. Davis. Brown University, April, 2012.
  • “Hypnosis Myths in the Media and on the Stage.” Orin C. Davis. American Psychological Association conference, August, 2010. (request slides)
  • “Examining Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Through the Lens of the Creative Personality.” Orin C. Davis. American Psychological Association conference, August, 2009. (request slides)
  • “Jump! How High? Using ERPs in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex to Characterize Hypnosis.” Davis OC. Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging Retreat, September, 2005.

Positive Psychology (General)

  • “Solitary Activities and Happiness Orientations.” Thuy-vy T. Nguyen & Orin C. Davis. American Psychological Association conference, August, 2011.
  • “The Flow of What We Know: Methodologies in Positive Psychology.” Orin C. Davis. Guest lecture at Pomona College. April, 2008.

Abstracts/Posters

Positive Psychology

  • Katz-Buonincontro, J.L., & Davis, O.C. Studying Engineering Technology Courses Designed to Promote Student Creativity. American Educational Research Association Conference. April, 2016. (request reprint)
  • van den Hout J & Davis OC. The Theory of Team Flow. Abstract and Poster, European Conference on Positive Psychology. July, 2014. (request reprint)
  • van den Hout J & Davis OC. Team Flow Conditions. Abstract and Poster, European Conference on Positive Psychology. July, 2014. (request reprint)
  • Nguyen, TT, Davis OC, & Deci, EL. Intrinsic Striving for Excellence versus Introjected Pursuit of Perfection. International Conference on Motivation, August, 2012. (request reprint)
  • Gao, X, & Davis OC How Do Happy People See Their Lives Differently From Others? American Psychological Association conference, August, 2012. (request reprint)
  • Nguyen TT, Pearlman SL, & Davis OC. Developing Self-Insight: The Self-Determination Theory Perspective. International Positive Psychology Association conference, July 2011. (request reprint)
  • van den Hout J & Davis OC. Toward a Theory of Team Flow. Abstract and Poster, European Conference on Positive Psychology. June 2010. (request reprint)
  • Davis OC, Nakamura J, Csikszentmihalyi M. Microflow: Models and Phenomenology. Abstract and Poster, International Positive Psychology Association Conference, June 2009. (request reprint)
  • Davis OC, Nakamura J, Csikszentmihalyi M. Toward Creating an Optimal Mentoring Environment for Medical Residents. Abstract and Poster, American Psychological Association Conference, August 2008. (request reprint)
  • Davis OC, Nakamura J, Csikszentmihalyi M. A First Look at the Phenomenology of Microflow. Abstract and Poster, Western Psychological Association Conference, April 2008. (request reprint)

Hypnosis

  • Gao X, & Davis OC. Factors that Contribute to the Willingness to Try “Street Hypnosis”. American Psychological Association conference, August, 2012. (request reprint)

Neuroscience

  • Kennedy DN, Kaiser JR, Albaugh MD, Normandin JJ, Papadimitriou GM, Jackson JS, Davis OC, Hodge SM, Tulloch SN, Boriel DL, Haselgrove C, Piennar R, Tang L, Howard JD, Caviness Jr. VS, Makris N, Yeterian EH. An MRI-based Wiring Diagram of the Human Cerebrum. Abstract, Society for Neuroscience Conference, June 2005.
  • Makris N, Schmahmann JD, Howard JD, Kaiser JR, Hodge SM, Papadimitriou GM, Boriel DL, Tang L, Tulloch SN, Davis OC, Jackson JS, Haselgrove C, Piennar R, Hui KKS, Seidman LS, Rauch S, Caviness VS Jr., Kennedy DN. Segmentation of the Human Cerebellar Cortex Using MRI-based Atlasing. Abstract, Society for Neuroscience Conference, June 2005.
  • Davis OC, Carrol RC. The Current State of Mind? How the Trafficking of AMPA Receptors Affects the Signaling at a Synapse. Albert Einstein College of Medicine Summer Undergraduate Research Program Abstract Compendium. August, 2003. (Also presented as a poster.)