From left, Ken Sheldon and his two sons, Tristan Sheldon and Cam Sheldon, are pictured on prime of Wind River Peak in Wyoming. Photograph courtesy Ken Sheldon.
Feb. 13, 2023
Contact: Eric Stann, 573-882-3346, StannE@missouri.edu
Creativity is what makes Ken Sheldon tick and retains him completely happy.
A Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Psychology on the College of Missouri, Sheldon is a component tutorial, half rockhound, half musician, half photographer — and extra not too long ago, he’s a author, too.
“I worth creativity most in life,” he mentioned. “I like the thrill of creating new connections and creating issues. I’ve this form of stressed power, so I prefer to make issues and do issues and write issues. It feels nearly pretty much as good as something.”
His rockhounding days began years in the past when he and his spouse have been in grad college. They’d take summers off and hit the highway.
Tristan Sheldon, certainly one of Ken Sheldon’s sons, holds up a rock known as a Carnelian agate whereas on the west coast of the USA in Oregon. Photograph courtesy Ken Sheldon.
A glass piece constituted of uncommon rocks known as agates that was designed by Ken Sheldon. Photograph courtesy Ken Sheldon.
“We’ve all the time taken our children with us wherever we go,” Sheldon mentioned. “We do a number of backpacking journeys up within the mountains. That is normally the place I can discover the uncommon rocks.”
He’s particularly keen on uncommon rocks like agates, which he has used to design beautiful stained-glass home windows in his house.
“I can take this rock known as an agate, slice it, and put them collectively to make stained glass. When gentle comes by it, it seems actually cool with plenty of colours and patterns,” Sheldon mentioned. “I assume it began after I was little; I keep in mind I had a rock assortment after I was 8 or 9 years outdated.”
When Sheldon isn’t touring together with his household or instructing as a professor, he could be discovered taking part in tennis, photographing nature or making music.
“I’m additionally a keyboard participant and composer,” Sheldon mentioned. “For the final 10 years, I used to be in a band right here in Columbia known as the Hellbenders based mostly on the endangered Ozark salamander.”
The Hellbenders performed eclectic music with folks influences throughout Columbia, however Sheldon’s spectacular musical expertise didn’t come as a shock. He accomplished his senior honors thesis on melodic notion.
Sheldon has studied quite a few psychological ideas together with enlightenment, happiness and intrinsic motivation, and a big a part of his analysis covers the pursuit of happiness. As an illustration, in his new guide Freely decided: What the brand new psychology of the self teaches us about how one can reside, he focuses on the idea of free will interlaced with self-determination.
Ken Sheldon stands among the many mountains of the Wind River Vary in Wyoming. Photograph courtesy Ken Sheldon.
“Rising up, my stepdad, although he was a regulation professor, challenged me on the free will query, which is a part of how I obtained into the subject of this guide,” Sheldon mentioned. “He and I had a number of mental debate, going forwards and backwards. So, in the course of the pandemic I simply began writing about free will.”
Sheldon has written eight tutorial books previously, however his latest guide is totally different.
“The primary half of the guide is all about why free will is perhaps actual and determinism is perhaps false,” he mentioned. “The second half of the guide covers self-concordance. We actually do select and choose our objectives, however can we do it nicely? The ultimate a part of the guide talks about what happiness is and the way do you get it?”
A glass piece constituted of uncommon rocks known as agates that was designed by Ken Sheldon. Photograph courtesy Ken Sheldon.
After attending seminar coaching, workshops and researching the idea of happiness for a number of many years, Sheldon has seen a central theme emerge alongside the best way.
“I all the time assume again to the phrase within the Declaration of Independence that we should always have the ‘proper to pursue happiness’ as a basic American proper,” Sheldon mentioned. “I believe that’s extremely good recommendation, as a result of life is an experiment and we’re attempting to determine what makes us completely happy and what doesn’t. It is so essential to have the ability to pursue that and study out of your errors. That’s certainly one of my largest findings in any case my years of analysis.”
Story written by Erin O’Connell
