Highest Happiness: An Analysis of Artists' Peak Experience
Psychological Reports October 1, 1989 Ellen H. Yeagle, Gayle Privette, Frances Y. Dunham
Peak experiences—moments of highest happiness—are described similarly by artists and non-artists. Twenty-nine exhibiting artists and 123 university students in social sciences each wrote about a personal incident of peak happiness and rated descriptions on Likert-type scales. Multivariate analysis of variance and t tests found no significant differences between the groups' descriptions. Both groups' accounts aligned with major theoretical descriptions of peak experiences. Demographic differences and triggers varied between groups, but the similarity in experiential descriptions supports Maslow's claim that peak experiences are universal.