Visual Creativity Across Cultures: A Comparison Between Italians and Japanese

Culture-related differences in visual creativity were investigated, comparing Italian and Japanese participants in terms of divergent (figural completion task) and product-oriented thinking (figural combination task). Visual restructuring ability was measured as the ability to reinterpret ambiguous figures and was included as a covariate. Results showed that in divergent thinking, Italians only outperformed Japanese participants in elaboration and in product-oriented thinking in terms of originality of products. Visual restructuring ability was found to play a key role both in originality and practicality of products. Both groups scored the same in terms of fluency, originality, and flexibility of visual divergent thinking, as well as in term of practicality of creative products. These findings are consistent with the idea that Italians and Japanese have the same creative potential, although from the early stages of the design Japanese seem to show a greater tendency to take practicality constraints into account when creating in the visual domain.     

Creativity of Chinese and American Cultures: A Synthetic Analysis

The article integrates the seven papers of the two special issues with a special focus on discussing the differences in people's beliefs about creativity between the Chinese and American cultures: How it is conceived, evaluated, and nurtured. It uses three metaphors to capture major differences in these aspects, and highlights areas with profound cultural variations in conceptions and creative education for future research.     

Obstacles to Personal Creativity between Brazilian and Mexican University Students: A Comparative Study

The study focused on personal obstacles to creativity between 385 Brazilian and 305 Mexican university students. The Obstacles to Personal Creativity Inventory, designed and validated by Alencar (1999b), was administered to these students. The results indicated that Lack of Time/Opportunity was the most frequent obstacle. Significant differences were observed between Brazilian and Mexican students in the cluster of obstacles named Lack of Motivation, and between male and female students in the cluster of obstacles named Inhibition/Shyness. The results point to several obstacles to personal creativity which are common among university students. These obstacles should be known by those involved in education in order for them to help students to be less susceptible to obstacles that hinder their creativity.     

Psychological Similarities and Differences between Women and Men across Cultures

Most research looking at psychological similarities and differences between women and men has been carried out in North America and Western Europe. In this paper, I review a body of cross‐cultural evidence showing that it is precisely in these Western countries that women and men differ the most in terms of personality, self‐construal, values, or emotions. Much less‐pronounced gender differences are observed, if at all, in Asian and African countries. These findings are unexpected from the perspectives of the two most influential frameworks applied to sex differences coming from evolutionary psychology and social role theory. However, recent research related to social comparison and self‐categorization theories suggests a promising approach to explain why more egalitarian societies can paradoxically create greater psychological differences between women and men.     

Cultural and Bilingual Influences on Artistic Creativity Performances: Comparison of German and Chinese Students

Empirical research on the relationship between culture and creativity has thus far yielded no consistent results. Investigations of the differences are mostly post-hoc, and results are inconclusive. A creativity-value-oriented theory is proposed to explain cultural differences, as an alternative to ethnic and language effects. This study was conducted to compare the performances of artistic creativity of Germans and Chinese. Results revealed that the four groups of students examined (German students of Caucasian descent, German students of Asian descent, Chinese students studying abroad, and Chinese students studying in China) differed in their artistic creativity. German participants (Caucasian Germans and Asian Germans) produced more creative and aesthetically pleasing artwork than did their Chinese counterparts (Chinese studying abroad and domestic Chinese). This difference was observed by both German and Chinese judges. There no significant subgroup differences in creative performances—no difference between the two German groups, and no difference between the two Chinese groups. Finally, although there were significant differences between German judges, Chinese judges studying abroad, and domestic Chinese judges in judging the artworks, these were not due to a preference for artwork from students from their own cultural background. Chinese and German judges roughly agreed on what constitutes creativity. These results suggest that cultural differences affect creative performances.     

跨文化判断与决策(英文)

本文对判断和决策研究领域所发现的跨文化差异进行了回顾。鉴于大多数判断和决策的跨文化研究都集中于对亚洲和西方文化的比较,本文也主要关注这方面的研究发现。具体来说,本文回顾了在概率判断及信心、风险知觉、冒险行为、消费者行为以及经济判断和决策中所存在的跨文化差异。综述结果表明尽管亚洲人和西方人的判断和决策行为存在很大的跨文化差异,研究也发现了显著的文化内差异。目前关于判断和决策的跨文化差异的研究还相对匮乏,未来还需要更多的研究来进一步了解判断和决策行为的跨文化差别及机制。     

自尊与创造力相关的元分析

研究目的在于明确自尊与创造力的关系, 并探讨影响二者关系的因素。通过文献检索, 搜集了24项关于自尊与创造力关系的研究, 被试总体人数为3956名。元分析研究发现, 自尊与创造力之间存在正相关, 但是二者相关受创造力研究取向的影响。在以结果为取向的创造力研究中, 95%的置信区间包括0, 自尊与创造力相关系数不稳定, 存在异质性; 而以人格为取向的创造力研究, 95%的置信区间不包括0, 自尊与创造力相关系数稳定, 二者存在显著的正相关, 相关系数为0.289。     

Nurturing and Enhancing Creativity of Nursing Students in Taiwan: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Creativity and innovation are considered important measures of core competence in Taiwan for students of all levels, including nursing students. Integrating creativity with interdisciplinary teaching modules could increase creativity for nursing students; however, this has not been empirically determined. The purpose of this study was to determine if incorporating interdisciplinary teaching into a teaching for creativity module (TCM) could enhance creative thinking and creative abilities of nursing students. Students enrolled in a capstone nursing course for the development of healthcare-related products were divided into 2 groups. Both groups participated in the 18-week course; however, one group received creativity training with interdisciplinary teaching during the course, which was taught by nursing faculty who completed a TCM workshop. Students who received the interdisciplinary TCM intervention scored significantly higher than controls on measures of creative thinking. Our findings suggest a TCM program, which incorporates interdisciplinary teaching, and instruction in techniques for creativity, such as brainstorming, attribute listing, assessment matrix, and paired comparison, can stimulate divergent thinking abilities of nursing students.     

城乡高中生认知方式与创造力关系的比较研究

对随机抽取的1216名城乡高中生实施《镶嵌图形测验》,然后抽取其中766名学生分别作场独立组和场依存组,并实施《创造性思维测验》。发现:1、城乡高中各年级场独立性学生在创造力方面较场依存性学生有明显优势。2、城乡高中场依存和场独立学生在创造力三个特性上各自存在不同程度的性别差异、文理科差异,某些方面表现出较明显的城乡差异。     

Immigrant Sex: the Transport of Affection and Sensuality across Cultures

This paper outlines the ways in which an individual’s notions of sexuality are challenged by immigration. It describes four basic facets of sexuality and the ways in which each are rooted in culture. These include (1) the relative importance of sexuality in daily life; (2) potential or overt homosexuality; (3) marriage—whether based on arrangement or love; and (4) cross-cultural romantic and marital relationships. Immigration can stir up conflicts in each of these realms and lead to defensive retreat into familiar customs or a counterphasic plunge into new cultural avenues. Ideally, it would lead to a working-through of these conflicts and subsequent growth in the immigrant’s understanding of his or her sexual self.     

聋生和听力正常学生解决加减文字题的眼动比较研究

采用EyetinkⅡ眼动记录仪,探讨了聋生与解题正确率高的听力正常学生表征和解决加减文字题的差异。被试为小学3年级学生．聋生12名．听力正常学生8名。研究结果表明：（1）在解决加减文字题时,聋生与解题正确率高的听力正常学生在阅读方式、关注关键信息上有显著差异,很多聋生阅读没规律．漏看文字题的关键信息;（2）聋生解决加减文字题的困难与其不能正确表征文字题的文本有关。     

汉语母语与英语母语学生英语语音意识发展趋势的比较研究

对汉语母语学生与英语母语学生英语语音意识的发展趋势进行了对比。294名汉语母语学生和109名英语母语学生参加了音节意识任务、首尾音意识任务和音位意识任务测试。研究结果表明：（1）汉语母语学生与英语母语学生发展趋势并不相同：汉语学生英语语音意识发展的迅速期为小学初期,之后发展缓慢;英语母语学生音节意识和首尾音意识随着年级的增长而增长,但音位意识则表现出不规则的变化趋势;（2）随着汉语母语学生年龄的增长,他们与英语母语学生英语语音意识之间的差距并未缩小。     

Teachers' Conceptions of Creativity and Creative Students

Teachers' conceptions of creativity and creative students were investigated. Questionnaires were administered to elementary school teachers to examine their attitudes, beliefs, and current classroom practices. Teachers were found to possess inaccurate concepts regarding what constitutes creativity and revealed conflicts with the classroom behaviors demonstrated by creative students. The paradox between teachers' reported support for creativity enrichment and virtual lack of related classroom practice is explored as a result of multiple misconceptions and contributing variables.     

A Comparison of Assessment Methods and Raters in Product Creativity

Although previous studies have attempted to use different experiences of raters to rate product creativity by adopting the Consensus Assessment Method (CAT) approach, the validity of replacing CAT with another measurement tool has not been adequately tested. This study aimed to compare raters with different levels of experience (expert ves. nonexpert raters) using both CAT and the product creativity measurement instrument (PCMI) to assess the product creativity of 56 design works based on a design competition. The results showed that nonexpert raters who used either CAT or PCMI had higher interreliability than expert raters. Using PCMI was found to result in higher correlation than using CAT for the expert and nonexpert raters, although the correlation between the CAT and PCMI methods was statistically insignificantly different. After regression analysis, the results showed that all PCMI items had higher explanatory power for the creativity scores using CAT and, moreover, the nonexpert raters were found to have higher explanatory power than the expert raters. Based on these results, it is recommended that the use of both nonexpert raters and PCMI is an alternative way of enhancing the flexibility of product creativity assessment.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Curiosity and Creativity

Curiosity, the desire to know, may be associated with creativity, which involves generating ideas that are novel and valuable. This meta-analytic investigation consolidated the results of studies of the association between curiosity and creativity. Across 10 studies, which included 2,692 individuals, there was a significant association between more curiosity and greater creativity (weighted effect size r = .41, 95% CI [.27, .54], p = .0001). For studies examining the association of the exploration dimension of curiosity with creativity, the weighted effect size was r = .48, 95% CI [.09, .74], while for studies examining the deprivation sensitivity dimension of curiosity with creativity the weighted effect size was r = .20, 95% CI [.10, .29]. The association of self-report measures of curiosity with self-reports of creativity was r = .52, 95% CI [.40, .62], while the association of self-report measures of curiosity with rated creativity was r = .16, 95% CI [.10, .22]. These meta-analytic results are congruent with some theoretical assumptions regarding curiosity and creativity and can be a foundation for efforts to facilitate creativity.     

“Me”, “We”, and Materialism: Associations between Contingent Self-Worth and Materialistic Values across Cultures

Abstract

Individuals with high levels of externally contingent self-worth tend to base their self-esteem on factors such as appearance, competitive success, and others’ approval. Such tendencies might also elevate people’s focus on material possessions. However, cultural moderation of these associations has yet to be explored. A cross-cultural survey among Chinese and Dutch college students examined the link between externally-based contingent self-worth and materialistic values, as well as the mediating roles of need to belong and need for self-enhancement. An initial multi-group path analysis indicated a stronger link between externally contingent self-worth and materialism for Chinese students than for Dutch students. For both Chinese and Dutch students, externally contingent self-worth was positively related to materialistic values, need to belong, and need for self-enhancement. Need to belong and need for self-enhancement were positively linked with materialism, and need to belong and need for self-enhancement mediated the link between externally contingent self-worth and materialism. Though the indirect effect via self-enhancement was somewhat stronger among Chinese participants, this research demonstrates that people’s externally contingent self-worth might be a factor predicting materialism across cultures, with need to belong and need for self-enhancement playing similar roles as underlying processes in different societies.     

Creativity and Affective Temperament in Artistic and Non-artistic Students: Different Temperaments are Related to Different Aspects of Creativity

The relationship between creativity and temperament has been well documented in studies with professional artists. This also pertains to affective temperaments which constitute the vulnerability to affective disorders. However, less is known about the contribution of particular temperaments to specific components of creativity, for example, ideational fluency, or originality of thinking. The aim of the present study was to assess affective temperaments and creativity in artistic and non-artistic students. Ninety (39 artistic and 51 non-artistic) students were enrolled in the study. Affective temperaments were evaluated by means of TEMPS-A questionnaire. Creativity was measured with BWAS test assessing the originality of thinking and a sample of tasks derived from BIS battery, assessing ideational fluency. Artistic students showed higher rates of cyclothymic temperament. They also outperformed non-artistic students in both domains of creativity. The originality of thinking correlated positively with the level of cyclothymic temperament, whereas ideational fluency was positively related to hyperthymic temperament. Ideational fluency also correlated with the level of parental education. Results indicate that creativity is related to temperaments underlying predisposition to bipolar affective disorder; however, different temperaments are related to different aspects of creativity.