Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, University of Southern California – Transcendent Thinking and Teens

What is transcendent thinking and how does it impact teenagers?

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Fahmy and Donna Atallah Chair in Humanistic Psychology and Professor of education, psychology and neuroscience at the University of Southern California, has an answer.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is a professor of education, psychology, and neuroscience at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and founding director of the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education (candle.usc.edu).

Transcendent Thinking and Teens

We talked to teenagers and listened to how they make sense of the world, and showed for the first time that based on how they try to grapple with the bigger picture of a story or situation, we could predict how their brains were going to grow. When teens showed us that they were curious about what things meant beyond the specific story they were reacting to–what it means for the world more broadly, or for their own future, or that they were questioning how and why institutions or systems work as they do… those kinds of thinking predicted brain growth two years later. We called this “transcendent” thinking because the teen was showing us that they were trying to transcend the current details to also think about the bigger implications….

We interviewed 65 high school students about true stories of other teens from around the world and asked them to explain how they felt about each story. Students then underwent fMRI brain scans that day and two years later. We compared the two scans for each teen and found that we could predict growth in their brain across the two years irrespective of IQ, socio-economic status, and parents’ education levels.

When we followed the participants into their early twenties, the brain development predicted by transcendent thinking in turn predicted identity development and life satisfaction and success in young adulthood.

We believe that transcendent thinking may grow the brain because it involves coordinating brain networks involved in focused thinking with those involved in internal reflection and more creative-type thinking. They had to really put effort into thinking, but also to let their minds question and imagine.

The results suggest that current movements to redesign schools to support students’ engagement with complex perspectives and emotions are on the right track—and may even support mental health and wellness.