Controlled Substance‐related Beliefs and Use: Relationships to Undergraduates' Creative Personality Traits

The relationship between creativity and various mind‐altering substances — especially alcohol — has been a popular topic among creativity researchers and the public at large. Yet experimental studies have found little evidence that alcohol use has a causal influence on creativity, with most studies of creative production showing negative or neutral effects. However, the impact of high levels of creativity on future alcohol use (i.e., the reciprocal relationship) has been rarely studied. The present study examined the relationship between creative personality characteristics, use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, and alcohol‐related beliefs among 431 undergraduates. Results of correlational and t‐test analyses suggest that creative personality is not significantly correlated with use of these three controlled substances, and that the relationships between personality scores and self‐reported beliefs about alcohol are generally weak, with notable exceptions. The paper concludes with specific recommendations regarding research on the relationship between creativity and the use of controlled‐substances.     

Within‐person Relationship between Creative Self‐efficacy and Individual Creativity: The Mediator of Creative Process Engagement and the Moderator of Regulatory Focus

Integrating the dynamic self‐regulatory framework with the motivational self‐regulation perspective, we theorize and test how and when creative self‐efficacy increases individual creativity at the within‐person level. Conceptualizing creative process engagement as a self‐regulation effort, we theorize that creative process engagement mediates the within‐person effect of creative self‐efficacy on individual creativity. We further explore how creative self‐efficacy and chronic regulatory focus interact to affect the within‐person mediating effect. A sample of 145 R&D workers provided two monthly reports for their creative activities and experiences over 8 months. The findings provide empirical support for the hypothesized mediating mechanism. At the within‐person level, creative process engagement mediates the relationship between creative self‐efficacy and individual creativity. The results also show that chronic regulatory focus moderated the mediated relationship. Specifically, creative self‐efficacy is positively related to individual creativity for employees with a strong prevention focus and negatively related to individual creativity for employees with a strong promotion focus.     

The Effects of Leader Support for Creativity and Leader Gender on Subordinate Creative Problem-Solving Performance

Ample correlational research shows that leader support for creativity is related to subordinate creativity, yet research examining the causality of this relationship experimentally is scant. Furthermore, most studies that demonstrate support for this relationship have used relatively subjective creativity measures that do not tap as effectively into the creative problem-solving process. Thus, we experimentally examined whether leader support for creativity affects subordinate creative problem-solving performance. We also examined whether this relationship depends on leader gender. We used experimental vignette methodology and a sample of 247 working adults to test these relationships. We found that high (vs. low) leader support for creativity resulted in a significantly higher number of ideas generated. Additionally, posthoc analyses showed that high (vs. low) leader support for creativity resulted in a significantly higher number of original ideas and higher number of quality ideas generated. We also found that when the leader was a woman (vs. man), average originality of ideas was significantly higher. We found no significant interactive effects of leader support for creativity and leader gender. We discuss how this study further elucidates our understanding of leader support for creativity, as well as avenues for future creativity research involving leader gender.     

Creativity in Men and Women: Threat,Other-Interest,and Self-Assessment

Previous research into gender and creativity has provided little evidence for consistent differences between men and women in creative performance. This research revisits this topic by proposing a person × situation approach, arguing that gender differences in creative performance only occur in certain contexts, but not others. Based on the assumption that men and women tend to differ in self versus other orientation, experimental instructions varied whether our participants’ (n = 169) creative efforts benefit the self or others, and whether creativity occurred under conditions of threat or not. In the absence of threat, women outperformed men in the originality of their creative efforts when the task was beneficial to others. This effect was eliminated in the presence of competitive threat. In contrast to some previous work, threat also increased creative performance under some circumstances. Results also revealed gender differences in self-assessment of creativity such that women seemed to be somewhat more attuned to the objective level of the originality of their creative performance than men. The discussion focuses on implications for research on gender differences in creativity, arguing that researchers must appreciate that gender differences in creativity, so far as they exist, are likely embedded in specific situational contexts.     

Working Memory,Cerebellum, and Creativity

There is little doubt that career experiences contribute to scientific achievement; however this relationship has yet to be thoroughly investigated in terms the effects on scientific creativity. In this study, a historiometric approach was used to examine 3 areas of adult career experiences common to scientific achievement. In doing so, prior theoretical work was used to identify career experiences relevant to scientific achievement, and 3 theoretical models were proposed to account for these experiences—adversity, collaborations, and work strategies. Biographies of eminent scientists were then content coded and analyzed. The results indicated that the adversity model did not predict scientific creativity. However, the work strategies model and, to some degree, the collaborations model showed some promise in understanding the development of creative potential in scientists. The nature of the significant relationships among the model components and scientific creativity are discussed in addition to their implications for the development of the creative potential of scientists.     

CREATIVITY AND CROSS-CULTURAL VARIATION

Is the nature of creativity essentially the same around the globe? The effect of cultural factors on creativity is reviewed. Distinct Western and Oriental perspectives on the definition of creativity and the creative process are described. Culture is also shown to channel creative activity by promoting certain domains, social groups, and characteristic ways of approaching the world. The effects of world-view and pressure for conformity are then presented as cultural features that relate to the nurturance of creativity across domains. The cultural variation described is supported by ethnographic and experimental evidence. Limitations on the scope of the review and methodological issues in cross-cultural research on creativity are also discussed. The effects of culture on creativity are understood within an interactive framework that incorporates both the person and the environment.     

Extroversion Personality,Domain Knowledge,and the Creativity of New Product Development Engineers

Creativity refers to a person’s thinking of new and useful ideas at work. Drawing on the personality literature, this study proposes that employees with high extroversion personality will exchange job relevant information with colleagues to generate creativity. Drawing on the information exchange theory, this study further proposes that the effect of extroversion personality with creativity via information exchange will be stronger for workers with insufficient domain knowledge. Data collected from Taiwanese new product development engineers support our hypotheses. Previous research found that extroverted persons perform more creatively because they are more confident in their abilities. This study further demonstrates that, after controlling for self-efficacy, extroverted engineers can still think of creative ideas via exchanging information with colleagues. Although domain knowledge has been shown as crucial to creativity, few studies have explored how to stimulate creative ideas from workers with insufficient domain knowledge. This study demonstrates a useful substitute for domain knowledge, namely the extroversion personality, which may inspire creativity via exchanging information with colleagues.     

Intellectual Creativity and the Teacher

ABSTRACT Teachers must be trained to recognize the creative student, and we now have some useful materials for this purpose. Four characteristics of intellectual creativity are universality, diversity, its nature as a process, and its dependence on large inputs of information. The creative person is as complex as the creative process, and often possesses contradictory or inconsistent traits. We can encourage creativity through subject-matter instruction, but this requires that teachers be trained to recognize and develop creativity, and be innovative themselves. Teachers need freedom to experiment with the involved concepts of divergent thinking if these are to be developed more fully in school classrooms.     

Potential Originality and Effectiveness: The Dynamic Definition of Creativity

Given the central role of creativity in the future post-information society, a call for a pragmatist approach to the study of creativity is advocated, that brings as a consequence the recognition of the dynamic nature of this phenomenon. At the foundation of the proposed new theoretical framework lies the definition of creativity itself, which is turned from static to dynamic through the introduction of the concept of potential originality and effectiveness. Starting from this central definition, and through the introduction of the auxiliary definitions for focus area, creativity goal, creative agent, creative potential of an agent, creative potential of an environment, creative process, product of a creative process, creativity potential of a process, representation of the product of a creative process, and estimator, we arrive at the definitions of creative achievement and creative inconclusiveness. Although both aspects are key in the creative process, creative inconclusiveness was not part of previous definitions, but it is argued that its role is fundamental for effective education in creativity. The new definitions are shown to have full backward compatibility with the extant corpus of scientific research in creativity, as well as forward effectiveness in suggesting novel investigation approaches to support the consideration of new theoretical hypotheses.     

Workplace creativity: Psychological,environmental, and organizational strategies

This study used an experimental approach to investigate the conditions under which creative outcomes should be expected from the interplay of individual creativity, the innovation orientation of the organizational culture, and the rewards distribution rules. The results of this study suggest that the individual creativity of technically educated people working in group settings constitutes a predominant factor in the creative performance of its members and in the overall group creative performance. Moreover, consistent with predictions derived from previous person-environment fit studies, the innovation orientation of the organizational culture enhanced the creative behavior of groups formed by more creative individuals, but it did not significantly increase the creative behavior of groups formed by low-creativity individuals. Finally, rewards distribution rules that generate intra-group competition seem not to directly improve or impair individual creative behavior or the final group creative outcome.     

Estimating Creativity with a Multiple-Measurement Approach Within Scientific and Artistic Domains

This article presents the structure and the composition of a newly developed multifaceted test battery for the measurement of creativity within scientific and artistic domains. By integrating existing procedures for the evaluation of creativity, the new battery promises to become a comprehensive assessment of creativity, encompassing both domain-general and domain-specific components. In particular, the test battery was designed for the measurement of the 2 main stages of the creative thinking process: ideation and evaluation. The test battery also includes 2 measures of creative achievement and can be used to assess professional levels of creativity in artistic and scientific creativity, as well as everyday creativity. Because creative thinking is not an isolated phenomenon in human behavior, the battery includes the measurement of 2 constructs, intelligence and personality, both of which are highly relevant for creativity. Preliminary results from a vast administration campaign of this test battery are presented.     

情绪影响创造性认知过程的神经机制

先前有关情绪与创造力的研究多以行为实验为主, 且存在研究结果不一致、缺乏可比性等问题。本项目拟借助认知神经科学技术, 以认知加工的初级过程和次级过程为线索, 采用新颖性判断、远距离联想、顿悟字谜任务等改进的实验范式, 通过时空二维脑机制参数, 重点测查创造力相关脑区激活的时间进程与空间模式, 揭示情绪影响创造性认知活动的大脑动态加工过程。     

I want to be creative,but … preference for creativity,perceived clear outcome goals,work enjoyment,and creative performance

In today’s quickly changing work environment, many individuals want to be creative at their workplace, but only some of them succeed at manifesting these tendencies. In three studies, using both field and experimental data, we focused on transforming individuals’ preference for creativity, defined as an inclination for liking and wanting to be creative, into actual creativity. We first conducted a pilot Study 1 to establish discriminant validity to related constructs and provided initial evidence on predictive and incremental validity of the preference-for-creativity scale. Next, we performed a field Study 2, where we found that transforming preferences for creativity into supervisor-rated creativity is contingent upon employees’ perceptions of clear outcome goals. Clear outcome goals fostered individuals’ preference for creativity to result in higher levels of supervisor-rated creative behaviour—a finding that was replicated in an experimental Study 3. Furthermore, we explored whether work enjoyment mediated the moderated relationship between preference for creativity and creative outcomes. The results supported our mediated moderation model, whereby the manipulation of clear goals led to higher work enjoyment, influencing individuals’ preference for creativity to result in higher ratings of their creative outcomes.     

Climate for Creativity: A Quantitative Review

Abstract

Creativity is commonly held to emerge from an interaction of the person and the situation. In studies of creativity, situational influences are commonly assessed by using climate measures. In the present effort, a meta-analysis was conducted to examine 42 prior studies in which the relationships between climate dimensions, such as support and autonomy, and various indices of creative performance were assessed. These climate dimensions were found to be effective predictors of creative performance across criteria, samples, and settings. It was found, moreover, that these dimensions were especially effective predictors of creative performance in turbulent, high-pressure, competitive environments. The implications of these findings for understanding environmental influences on creativity and innovation are discussed.     

Examining Gender with General Creativity and Preferences for Creative Persons in College Students within the Sciences and the Arts

The purpose of the research was to investigate gender similarities and differences in general creativity constructs with their preferences for creative persons. Data were collected from 247 participants (87 engineering, 24 psychology students with a psychology major, 51 psychology students with a major other than psychology, 30 English, and 55 music students) from a large Mideastern Big 10 university. All participants completed measures of general creativity (creative personality, creative temperament and cognitive risk tolerance) and a demographic questionnaire with the request to list 10 creative persons and their given field. Results indicated that males and females tended to have similar levels of general creativity, yet the most frequently listed creative eminent persons tended to be male. The most frequently listed creative person selections were in science and art, with the three most frequently selected eminent persons being in the science domains. The most frequent creative person selections, consistently selected by at least 10 participants, were Caucasian males.     

中英青少年科学创造力发展的比较

将中学生科学创造力测验施测于英国6所中学的1190名青少年及中国2所中学的1087名青少年的研究,得出如下结论：第一,青少年的科学创造力存在显著的年龄差异。随着年龄的增大,青少年的科学创造力呈持续上升趋势,但在14岁时要下降;11-13岁、14-16岁是青少年的科学创造力迅速发展的关键时期;第二,青少年的科学创造力存在性别差异。英国女生的科学创造力比男生强,差异显著;中国男生的科学创造力比女生强,差异不显著;第三,中英青少年的科学创造力存在显著的差异。在创造性的问题解决能力方面,中国青少年明显高于英国青少年,但中国青少年在其它方面的科学创造力及总成绩则明显低于英国青少年;第四,中国青少年的科学创造力存在显著的学校类型差异。重点中学学生的科学创造力显著高于普通中学学生的科学创造力。     

从信息加工的角度看创造力过程

传统意义上定义的创造力并不能完全揭示创造性行为和认知的本质,最近的研究从认知信息加工的角度提出了创造力活动中的认知过程具有一定的普遍性和规律性,并将认知过程分为初级过程和次级过程,初级过程为产生合成过程,提取和组织信息;次级过程则是对信息进行更高层次的筛选和监控,同时初级过程和次级过程存在一定的交互作用     

Creativity, depression and suicide.

The relationship between suicide and creativity has long been a subject of considerable concern. The author presents evidence indicating that in fact depression, suicide, and creativity are related. Several hypotheses for the relationship are posited. It is suggested that the same changes in the serotonergic system that are associated with depression in general and with impulsive suicides and homicides in the extreme may also be responsible for an element of risk taking that characterizes creativity and innovation in a person psychodynamically predisposed to being creative.     

Working memory benefits creative insight, musical improvisation, and original ideation through maintained task-focused attention

Anecdotes from creative eminences suggest that executive control plays an important role in creativity, but scientific evidence is sparse. Invoking the Dual Pathway to Creativity Model, the authors hypothesize that working memory capacity (WMC) relates to creative performance because it enables persistent, focused, and systematic combining of elements and possibilities (persistence). Study 1 indeed showed that under cognitive load, participants performed worse on a creative insight task. Study 2 revealed positive associations between time-on-task and creativity among individuals high but not low in WMC, even after controlling for general intelligence. Study 3 revealed that across trials, semiprofessional cellists performed increasingly more creative improvisations when they had high rather than low WMC. Study 4 showed that WMC predicts original ideation because it allows persistent (rather than flexible) processing. The authors conclude that WMC benefits creativity because it enables the individual to maintain attention focused on the task and prevents undesirable mind wandering.