Creativity and anxiety: An experimental study

Tested a group of 31 psychiatric patients with anxiety as one of their main symptoms using a percept-genetic (PG) test measuring creativity or willingness to reconstruct subjective interpretations of the stimulus. A control group of 43 from an earlier study was also included. For half of the subjects a threatening motif was presented subliminally during part of the PG series. By means of an interview, an estimation was made of the subjects' urge to create and of the severity of their anxiety. The Meta-Contrast Technique (MCT) was used to describe defenses in the clinical group. Taking into account their urge to be creative, the clinical subjects received relatively few positive scores on the PG test. The subliminal addition to the anxiety level did not facilitate creative functioning as was the case with the normal subjects. The main obstacles to creative functioning seemed to be grave anxiety and rigid defense mechanisms or, to generalize, low tolorance of the anxiety necessarily associated with creative work.     

Lateralization of defence mechanisms related to creative functioning

Eighty-four undergraduate students were randomly divided into left and right visual half-field groups. They were tested in either visual half-field with a percept-genetic test of anxiety and defense mechanisms (the MCT). The subjects also took a test of creative functioning (the CFT) and degree of lateralization in the MCT was related to level of creativity in the CFT. Subjects low in creativity were significantly lateralized on measures typical for the right visual half-field group (isolation and repression) and tended to differ on a left visual half-field measure (regressive strategies). For high creative subjects no differences were found between the visual half-field groups. Also, high creative persons more often responded with non-hemisphere-specific defenses than low creative ones. The results were interpreted as due to differing levels of transmission of information between the two hemispheres of the brain.     

Identification with an aggressor or a victim and its relation to creativity

Studied identification using a meta-contrast design. The first stimulus was the word 'I'. The second stimulus depicted an aggressor and a victim facing each other. The subliminal 'I' was flashed on either the victim or on the aggressor, or completely withheld. The subjects were 33 school children, aged 10–12 years. They also took a percept-genetic (PG) test of creativity, measuring willingness to return to and recognize early conceptions of a stimulus picture (a still-life). The results showed that the creative children reacted with less anxiety and defense when manipulated to identify with the aggressor than with the victim. The uncreative children showed the opposite reaction, namely a preference for the passive, surrendering victim.     

Sex, ethnic, and social differences in test anxiety among Israeli adolescents

The effects of sex, ethnicity, and social class on levels of test anxiety were examined among a sample of 416 adolescent students in Israel. Significant sex differences in mean levels of test anxiety were found, with girls scoring consistently higher than boys across ethnic, social, and grade categories. Pupils of low socioeconomic status (SES) also scored consistently higher than pupils of high SES across grades. Nevertheless, this study provides little support for the commonly held view that sociocultural or sex group differences in school achievement are due, in any meaningful way, to differences in test anxiety. The group differences, though significant for SES and sex, were of negligible magnitude, and the correlation between test anxiety scores and grade point average was minimal for the group as a whole and nonsignificant for students of Eastern background, who have been purported to be particularly affected by high levels of test anxiety. The findings do support other cross-cultural studies, which have found only a modicum of shared variance between test anxiety and grades. It is concluded that test anxiety is not a particularly valid predictor of achievement or ability.     

恐惧管理中死亡焦虑不同防御机制之间的关系

根据恐惧管理理论, 个体主要通过世界观、自尊和亲密关系三种防御机制来应对必死性意识引发的死亡焦虑。主流观点认为三种防御机制在防御死亡焦虑时的地位是平等的, 符合“流动补偿机制”。本文讨论了流动补偿机制的局限性, 提出三种防御机制之间关系的新观点: 优先级假设, 认为三种防御机制地位并非平等, 而是存在优先级: 亲密关系优先于世界观和自尊, 世界观优先于自尊。在梳理了支持证据后, 本文尝试从发展性视角对优先级假设提出可能的解释, 认为这种优先级来源于防御机制的发展顺序和衍生关系。     

Psychological defense in anticipation of anxiety: eliminating the potential for anxiety eliminates the effect of mortality salience on worldview defense

A large body of research has shown that when people are reminded of their mortality, their defense of their cultural worldview intensifies. Although some psychological defenses seem to be instigated by negative affective responses to threat, mortality salience does not appear to arouse such affect. Terror management theory posits that the potential to experience anxiety, rather than the actual experience of anxiety, underlies these effects of mortality salience. If this is correct, then mortality-salience effects should be reduced when participants believe they are not capable of reacting to the reminder of mortality with anxiety. In a test of this hypothesis, participants consumed a placebo purported to either block anxiety or enhance memory. Then we manipulated mortality salience, and participants evaluated pro- and anti-American essays as a measure of worldview defense. Although mortality salience intensified worldview defense in the memory-enhancer condition, this effect was completely eliminated in the anxiety-blocker condition. The results suggest that some psychological defenses serve to avert the experience of anxiety rather than to ameliorate actually experienced anxiety.     

发明创造问题解决中的原型位置效应

以科学发明创造问题为实验材料,采用“学习-测试”两阶段实验范式,对发明创造问题解决中的原型位置效应进行探讨,结果发现：（1）原型位置主效应显著,后呈现原型成绩显著优于先呈现原型;（2）原型位置效应受创造性倾向影响,随创造性倾向的提高而显著降低;（3）原型位置效应不受启发量影响,但不同创造性个体受高低启发量影响;（4）发明创造问题解决得分与创造性倾向总分相关显著,二者在原型位置效应上表现相同的效应。     

Category assignment and relatedness in the group ideation process

When groups gather to generate creative ideas on a particular topic, they can consider many aspects or components of the problem. Because such a multitude of alternatives can be overwhelming, groups may find it helpful to focus on specific aspects or categories of the problem. However, it is not clear whether it is best for group members to focus on the same components of the problem at the same time or whether it is better for group members to focus on different components of the problem. Furthermore, the impact of this type of focus may depend on the extent to which the different components of the problem are closely related semantically. It may be easier to generate ideas in semantically related areas but semantically unrelated areas may stimulate generation of more creative ideas. The present study provided a comprehensive test of the effects of task components or category assignment and the degree of relatedness of the assigned categories on the creativity of groups. Groups that were jointly assigned a small set of categories to focus on at the beginning of their session generated more ideas, explored more categories and exhibited higher clustering of similar ideas than the groups whose members were assigned their own unique category. The groups assigned with low related categories surveyed more categories than those assigned with categories of high relatedness. This study suggests that interdisciplinary or diverse groups or teams should have some common focus in the initial phase of their creative sessions and focus on unrelated aspects of the problem in this phase.     

高中生考试焦虑的团体辅导干预研究

通过对高一、高二学生被试实验组13人进行为期一周的考试焦虑团体辅导、控制组14人进行一般性团体辅导,探讨团体辅导对高中生考试焦虑水平的改善作用。结果表明,经过干预训练后,实验组被试的考试焦虑水平显著低于控制组被试、对考试重要性的认识显著优于控制组被试,但在考试策略上不存在显著差异。这意味着考试焦虑的团体辅导干预能有效地降低考试焦虑水平、提升对考试重要性的合理认识程度。     

Creativity Under Attack: How People’s Role in Competitive Conflict Shapes Their Creative Idea Generation

Although creativity is helpful if not needed to deal with conflicts, research on the effects of conflict on creativity shows inconsistent findings. In this study, the possibility that effects may depend on people’s role in conflict was considered. Whether, when, and why assuming the role of attacker or defender in conflict affects creative idea generation was therefore investigated. The prediction was tested if attackers are more creative than defenders. In addition, control over the situation as a moderating variable and anxiety as a mediator were considered. Participants (n = 115, M_age = 22.06, SD_age = 2.75, 83 women) were recruited in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and were randomly assigned to an attacker, defender, or role control condition. Controllability over the situation was manipulated within-subjects and anxiety and creativity were measured during 2 rounds of idea generation. Results revealed no differences in creative performance and anxiety between defenders and attackers and that defenders generated a greater number of ideas than people in the role control condition. Exploratory analyses further revealed that attackers and defenders generated a greater number of aggressive ideas. Finally, attackers and defenders experienced more anxiety, but increased anxiety did not account for observed differences in the number of (aggressive) ideas. The effect of controllability could not be investigated due to a failed manipulation. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Dissimilarity in Creative Categorization

Theories of categorization need to account for ways in which people use their creativity to categorize things, especially in the context of similarity. The current three‐phase study is a preliminary attempt to understand how people group concepts together as well as to explore the role of similarity between concepts in creative categorization. Participants were asked to categorize a list of 100 words and the resulting categories were rated for creativity by another set of participants. In the last phase, similarity between words from all the categories was computed using latent semantic analysis. There was a significant correlation between similarity values and creativity ratings for all the categories. In addition, a new set of participants were asked to rate the similarity among the words in the least and most creative categories and there was a significant difference between the mean ratings of the two types of categories. The results indicate that creative categorization is characterized by grouping of dissimilar words. People use creative imagination to construct novel categories by linking apparently dissimilar words.     

Test anxiety, coping strategies, and perceived health in a group of high school students: a Turkish sample

A group of high school juniors and a group of high school seniors in Izmir, Turkey completed measures of test anxiety, coping skills, and perceived health status both before and after a major exam period. Students with high test anxiety used less effective coping mechanisms and tended to have poorer perceptions of their health. Prior to the exams, juniors displayed higher test anxiety and used less effective coping mechanisms than seniors. After the exam periods, improvements were seen for both age groups on perceived health, but scores of younger students remained significantly higher than scores of seniors on one of the key measures of test anxiety. Results of the study lend support to those of previous studies done in other cultural contexts, and findings have implications for the development of interventions designed to help students cope with stress.     

Test Anxiety,Coping Strategies,and Perceived Health in a Group of High School Students: A Turkish Sample

A group of high school juniors and a group of high school seniors in Izmir, Turkey completed measures of test anxiety, coping skills, and perceived health status both before and after a major exam period. Students with high test anxiety used less effective coping mechanisms and tended to have poorer perceptions of their health. Prior to the exams, juniors displayed higher test anxiety and used less effective coping mechanisms than seniors. After the exam periods, improvements were seen for both age groups on perceived health, but scores of younger students remained significantly higher than scores of seniors on one of the key measures of test anxiety. Results of the study lend support to those of previous studies done in other cultural contexts, and findings have implications for the development of interventions designed to help students cope with stress.     

Discriminating Clinical From Nonclinical Manifestations of Test Anxiety: A Validation Study

Test anxiety, although being a very common, severe, and impairing psychological disorder, is not coded as a separate diagnosis in the DSM or ICD. In the present study we investigated whether the Test Anxiety Inventory can be used to discriminate clinical and subclinical levels of test anxiety by comparing patients who seek treatment for their test anxiety in an outpatient clinic with carefully matched students with normal test anxiety. The data from 47 test-anxious patients as well as 41 healthy university students were examined. Results show that a cutoff score of ≥ 80 in the Test Anxiety Inventory can discriminate the clinical group from the control students. The symptom pattern of test anxiety was very consistent in the clinical group regardless of the principal diagnosis allocated by the treating clinician. Comorbid depression did not affect the severity of test anxiety. The motivation to avoid failure was one of the most important differences between patients who sought help for their test anxiety and students with nonclinical levels of test anxiety.     

An Investigation of the Relationships of Rorschach Scores,Patterns, and Behavior to Coping and Defense Mechanisms

Relationships were studied between formal Rorschach scores and a set of coping and defense mechanisms which had been rated on the basis of intensive interviews conducted with normal adult subjects. A preliminary study showed that IQ was related to a number of Rorschach scores, so that it was subsequently controlled. The character of the initial results and the attributes of coping functions suggested a second investigation which defined the Rorschach variables more globally. The results of this study very generally follow common expectancies in regard to M, M: FM, and W: M, but A, F extended, and F: Fk + Fc do not follow such trends. Global Rorschach attitudes were found to relate better to coping mechanisms than formal scores.     

The effectiveness of a skills‐based program in reducing public speaking anxiety

Research was conducted to test the effectiveness of a skills‐based program as a method for reducing anxiety during public speaking. Twenty‐five Japanese college sophomores were exposed to a systematic approach for developing a presentation that was theoretically linked to mechanisms to reduce communication apprehension (CA). Students gave four presentations that were graded by both teacher and peer evaluation. Results indicated that the experimental group reported a significantly greater drop in public speaking anxiety than did a control group of 86 students.     

Maternal territoriality as an offspring defense strategy in red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii,Girard)

The offspring‐defense hypothesis of maternal territoriality in solitary and semisocial mammals [Wolff JO and Peterson JA. 1998. Ethol Ecol Evol 10:227–239] was evaluated in another taxon using maternal and nonmaternal female red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), a freshwater decapod crustacean that shows pronounced shelter‐related maternal aggression. The maternal females were of three different categories: (1) ovigerous, (2) carrying primarily stage 1 offspring, or (3) tending offspring that were primarily stage 2. Each female was in residence in an individual aquarium containing only a gravel substrate for 24 hr prior to serial intrusions by male conspecifics. Virtually all of the residents, maternal and nonmaternal, excavated a depression (shelter) in the substrate prior to the first intrusion. The results showed that residents in each of the maternal categories won a significantly higher proportion of their encounters than did the nonmaternal residents, which showed only negligible defense and lost every encounter. However, there were no significant differences in encounter outcomes between the maternal resident categories. There was clear defense of the shelter by maternal females, with virtually all fighting being in or around it, thus demonstrating stable, heightened territorial defense throughout these maternal phases of reproduction. This support of the offspring‐defense hypothesis of maternal territoriality is the first such evidence for a freshwater crustacean and is very similar to that recently reported in a related marine decapod, the American lobster (H. americanus). Aggr. Behav. 27:391–403, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.