Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T16:32:42.111Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Boredom in art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2017

Andreas Elpidorou*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292. [email protected]

Abstract

In the light of recent findings on the nature of boredom, I argue that boredom is a potentially useful emotion in art reception and show how the Distancing-Embracing model can be applied to boredom.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acee, T. W., Kim, H., Kim, H. J., Kim, J., Hsiang-Ning, R. C., Kim, M., Cho, Y. & Wicker, F. W. (2010) Academic boredom in under- and over-challenging situations. Contemporary Educational Psychology 35(1):1727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbalet, J. M. (1999) Boredom and social meaning. The British Journal of Sociology 50(4):631–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bench, S. W. & Lench, H. C. (2013) On the function of boredom. Behavioral Sciences 3(3):459–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975) Beyond boredom and anxiety. Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Danckert, J. & Merrifield, C. (2016) Boredom, sustained attention and the default mode network. Experimental Brain Research. DOI: 10.1007/s00221-016-4617-5.Google ScholarPubMed
Eastwood, J. D., Frischen, A., Fenske, M. J. & Smilek, D. (2012) The unengaged mind defining boredom in terms of attention. Perspectives on Psychological Science 7(5):482–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elpidorou, A. (2014) The bright side of boredom. Frontiers in Psychology 5:1245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elpidorou, A. (2015) The quiet alarm. Aeon Magazine. Available at: https://aeon.co/essays/life-without-boredom-would-be-a-nightmare.Google Scholar
Elpidorou, A. (2017a) The moral dimensions of boredom: A call for research. Review of General Psychology 21(1):3048.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elpidorou, A. (2017b) The bored mind is a guiding mind: Toward a regulatory theory of boredom. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. DOI: 10.1007/s11097-017-9515-1.Google Scholar
Elpidorou, A. (2017c) The good of boredom. Philosophical Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2017.1346240.Google Scholar
Fahlman, S. A., Mercer-Lynn, K. B., Flora, D. B. & Eastwood, J. D. (2013) Development and validation of the multidimensional state boredom scale. Assessment 20:6885.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farmer, R. & Sundberg, N. D. (1986) Boredom proneness – The development and correlates of a new scale. Journal of Personality Assessment 50(1):417.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisher, C. D. (1993) Boredom at work: A neglected concept. Human Relations 46:395417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Game, A. M. (2007) Workplace boredom coping: Health, safety, and HR implications. Personnel Review 36:701–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenson, R. R. (1953) On boredom. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 1:721.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grubb, E. A. (1975) Assembly line boredom and individual differences in recreation participation. Journal of Leisure Research 7(4):256–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartocollis, P. (1972) Time as a dimension of affects. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 20:92108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iso-Ahola, S. E. & Weissinger, E. (1987) Leisure and boredom. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 5:356–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moller, D. (2014) The boring. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 72(2):181–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ng, A. H., Liu, Y., Chen, J. Z. & Eastwood, J. D. (2015) Culture and state boredom: A comparison between European Canadians and Chinese. Personality and Individual Differences 75:1318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, M. B. & Woolley, J. K. (2010) Tragic and poignant entertainment: The gratifications of meaningfulness as emotional response. In: The Routledge handbook of emotions and mass media, ed. Döverin, K., Scheve, C. von & Konijn, E. A., pp. 134–47. Routledge.Google Scholar
Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Daniels, L. M., Stupnisky, R. H. & Perry, R. P. (2010) Boredom in achievement settings: Exploring control-value antecedents and performance outcomes of a neglected emotion. Journal of Educational Psychology 102(3):531–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Routledge, C., Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Juhl, J. & Arndt, J. (2012) The power of the past: Nostalgia as a meaning-making resource. Memory 20(5):452–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T., Arndt, J. & Routledge, C. (2008) Nostalgia: Past, present, and future. Current Directions in Psychological Science 17(5):304307. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00595.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundberg, N. D., Latkin, C. A., Farmer, R. F. & Saoud, J. (1991) Boredom in young adults: Gender and cultural comparisons. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 22(2):209–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Tilburg, W. A. & Igou, E. R. (2011) On boredom and social identity: A pragmatic meaning-regulation approach. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37:1679–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Tilburg, W. A. & Igou, E. R. (2012) On boredom: Lack of challenge and meaning as distinct boredom experiences. Motivation and Emotion 36(2):181–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Tilburg, W. A., Igou, E. R. & Sedikides, C. (2013) In search of meaningfulness: Nostalgia as an antidote to boredom. Emotion 13(3):450–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vodanovich, S. J. (2003) Psychometric measures of boredom: A review of the literature. The Journal of Psychology 137(6):569–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vodanovich, S. J. & Watt, J. D (2015) Self-report measures of boredom: An updated review of the literature. The Journal of Psychology 150(2):196228. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2015.1074531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinstein, L., Xie, X. & Cleanthous, C. C. (1995) Purpose in life, boredom, and volunteerism in a group of retirees. Psychological Reports 76(2):482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Arndt, J. & Routledge, C. (2006) Nostalgia: Content, triggers, functions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 91(5):975–93. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.975.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed