Malevolent Creativity in Criminals

The article by Cropley, Kaufman, and Cropley (this issue) showing that creativity can be malevolent is very helpful, giving a better understanding of creativity. In this article, I present 9 examples of malevolent creativity in criminals. These examples should help us better understand both creativity and criminals. We should never again assume that creativity is only positive.     

创造力有其“阴暗面”

创造力有其“阴暗面”。从产品角度而言,创造力可产出伤害性或消极的产品;从个体角度而言,高创造力者可能具有一些消极特征,如精神疾病易感性强、宜人性差、说谎、不诚信等;从情境角度而言,高创造力表现可能与不信任感、生存危机感、社会拒绝等消极因素有关。未来研究应开发高生态效度的恶意创造力测评工具,改进计算恶意创造力水平的算法,探索消极个体特征和消极情境因素作用于创造性思维的认知与神经机制。     

Commentary on Malevolent Creativity

In Malevolent creativity: A functional model of creativity in terrorism and crime, Cropley, Kaufman, and Cropley (this issue) insightfully highlight two important aspects of the creative process. First, although it may not be popular nor initially obvious to discuss negatively applied, malevolent creativity, or terrorism/crime as potentially creative acts, it is certainly to our detriment not to if we truly seek to understand the full-spectrum under which the creative process operates. The second issue examined is the process by which a creative product's novelty declines with the passing of time. Each are briefly discussed.     

愤怒情绪对不同类型恶意创造力表现的影响

个体的恶意创造力主要体现在伤害、欺骗与捉弄他人三方面。本研究旨在考察愤怒情绪对上述三类恶意创造力表现的影响及作用路径。研究设计了愤怒、恐惧和中性三种情绪诱发条件（后两者分别作为愤怒情绪的消极和中性情绪对照）,以考察不同情绪状态下个体在三类恶意创造力表现上的差异。结果发现,对于伤害和欺骗他人,愤怒情绪诱发组在观点流畅性、新颖性和伤害性上均高于中性情绪诱发组;而对于捉弄他人,愤怒情绪诱发组仅在观点流畅性和新颖性上高于中性情绪诱发组。内隐攻击性中介了愤怒情绪对三类恶意创造力表现的影响,而情绪唤醒度仅中介了愤怒情绪对伤害他人恶意创造力表现的影响。上述结果表明,内隐攻击性是愤怒情绪促进不同类型恶意创造力的通用路径,而情绪唤醒度是愤怒情绪促进伤害他人恶意创造力的特异路径。     

愤怒情绪对恶意创造力的影响及调节策略

以两个实验考察愤怒情绪对恶意创造力表现的影响及作用路径, 并探究调节愤怒情绪对削弱恶意创造力表现的效应。实验1比较愤怒、悲伤、中性情绪下个体恶意创造力表现的差异, 发现愤怒情绪下个体生成更多、更新颖的恶意观点, 情绪唤醒度和内隐攻击性中介了愤怒对恶意创造力表现的影响。实验2探究不同情绪调节策略(认知重评、表达抑制)如何影响愤怒个体的恶意创造力表现, 发现认知重评组和表达抑制组的恶意创造力表现比无策略的控制组水平更低, 情绪唤醒度和内隐攻击性中介了两种情绪调节策略对个体恶意创造力表现的影响。上述结果表明, 愤怒情绪通过提升内隐攻击性和情绪唤醒度进而促进个体恶意创造力表现, 而认知重评和表达抑制策略可作为削弱愤怒个体的恶意创造力表现的有效策略。     

Authoritarian–benevolent Leadership and its Effect on Graduate Student Creativity: The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation

Despite numerous studies demonstrating that authoritarian leadership and benevolent leadership exert incompatible influence on an individual’s creativity, the combined effects of authoritarian leadership and benevolent leadership on an individual’s creativity and the related mechanisms have yet to be explained. This study tests a model that considers the combined effects of authoritarian and benevolent leadership on graduate student creativity in the universities in China, while also examining the mediating role of the intrinsic motivation of graduate students. Multisource data were collected from 297 graduate students in 60 university scientific research teams in China. The results show that when authoritarian leadership and benevolent leadership are in congruence, the intrinsic motivation of graduate students and their creativity increase as supervisor authoritarianism and benevolence increases. When authoritarian leadership and benevolent leadership are in discrepancy, the intrinsic motivation of graduate students is higher when low supervisor authoritarianism is combined with high benevolence; however, the findings also show that low authoritarian leadership combined with high benevolent leadership would not increase graduate student creativity. The relationship between authoritarian–benevolent leadership and graduate student creativity is partially mediated by intrinsic motivation. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Commentary on the Functional Creativity Model: Its Application to Understanding Innovative Deception

Cropley, Kaufman, and Cropley (this issue) provide an account of creativity and antisocial behavior, the Functional Creativity Model (FMC), which has utility in the ongoing fight against creative acts of terrorism. Herein, their model is evaluated through its application to understanding the malevolent creativity behind the antisocial use of deception. In particular, malevolent lies that hoodwink victims or unwitting collaborators are considered as part of the planning of terrorists of dastardly deeds. The FMC is also applied to evaluating the counterterrorist prospects of Time Restricted Integrity Confirmation, an innovate method of lie detection that incorporates many of the antiterrorist recommendations of Cropley et al., especially the element of surprise. Recommendations for expanding the FMC are offered.     

青少年心理韧性与恶意创造性行为倾向的关系

恶意创造力因其独特的“危害性”而与一般创造力有所区分。积极的人格特质如心理韧性由于可以促进一般创造力但对恶意有所抑制, 故其对恶意创造力的影响尚不清楚。通过2个研究考察心理韧性与恶意创造力的关系及其作用机制, 以及心理韧性与应激对恶意创造力的共同作用。结果表明：心理韧性水平能够显著负向预测青少年的恶意创造性行为, 且主要通过积极应对方式对恶意创造性行为起作用; 心理韧性对恶意创造性行为的影响也会受到应激环境的调节, 即相对于非应激条件, 应激条件下削弱了积极应对方式对恶意创造性行为的抑制作用。这些结果表明有必要注重培养青少年的心理韧性以抵御外界环境的不良影响, 并正确引导其创造力的发展。     

Experiencing malevolent voices is associated with attentional dysfunction in psychotic patients

Inattention in people with schizophrenia is common. However, there has been little research on the association between inattention and auditory hallucinations. The aim of the study was to investigate how inattention is affected by beliefs about voices as benevolent and malevolent and perceived control of voices. A total of 31 patients who experienced auditory hallucinations and who met the criteria for schizophrenia or other psychosis completed the attention subscale of the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and the Connors’ Continuous Performance Test II (CCPT‐II). The revised Beliefs About Voices Questionnaire (BAVQ‐R) was used to assess malevolent and benevolent beliefs about voices, and severity of auditory hallucinations (the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales; PSYRATS) was used to assess perceived control of voices and frequency of voices. Levels of depression (the Beck Depression Inventory; BDI), anxiety (the Beck Anxiety Inventory; BAI), severity of overall psychiatric symptoms (the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; BPRS), and severity of negative symptoms (SANS) were assessed to control for their potential confounding effects. The relations between the variables were explored with correlations and multiple hierarchical regression analyses. The results indicated that more malevolent, but not more benevolent, beliefs about voices predicted lower levels of attention, independently of general psychiatric symptoms and various other psychotic symptoms such as frequency of and perceived control of voices. These findings suggest an important relationship between malevolent beliefs about voices and levels of inattention. The possible impact of changing beliefs about voices to improve attentional functioning is discussed.     

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.     

Creativity and dementia: a review

In these last years, creativity was found to play an important role for dementia patients in terms of diagnosis and rehabilitation strategies. This led us to explore the relationships between dementia and creativity. At the aim, artistic creativity and divergent thinking are considered both in non-artists and artists affected by different types of dementia. In general, artistic creativity can be expressed in exceptional cases both in Alzheimer's disease and Frontotemporal dementia, whereas divergent thinking decreases in dementia. The creation of paintings or music is anyway important for expressing emotions and well-being. Yet, creativity seems to emerge when the right prefrontal cortex, posterior temporal, and parietal areas are relatively intact, whereas it declines when these areas are damaged. However, enhanced creativity in dementia is not confirmed by controlled studies conducted in non-artists, and whether artists with dementia can show creativity has to be fully addressed. Future research directions are suggested.     

Exploring the Interactions between Asian Culture (Confucianism) and Creativity

According to Csikszentmihalyi (1988), creativity is a very complex interaction among a person, a field, and a culture. In keeping with this approach, a look at Asian culture in relation to its impact on creativity is in order. While people may vary in their native capacity for creativity, it is in the individual's interaction with the macrocosm where creative expression can be found. Therefore, this paper will explore the four principles of Confucianism, and how they compare to creativity research in order to discover how Asian culture influences creativity; and what we can do to enhance our students' creative capacity.     

Malevolent Creativity: Does Personality Influence Malicious Divergent Thinking?

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between malevolent creativity and personality, with a specific focus on the traits of antagonism, aggression, and sympathy. Participants (N = 265) completed a series of personality measures and two divergent thinking tasks (uses for a brick and a pencil). Responses were coded for fluency and malevolent creativity. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that gender, conscientiousness, and trait physical aggression accounted for unique variability in malevolent creativity scores. These results confirm the link between personality and malevolent creativity, corroborating the General Model of Aggression and extending understanding of malevolent creativity, a new subfield of creativity research.     

三种压力与创意自我效能感对创造力的影响

以216名初中二年级学生为被试,采用现场实验,探讨个体创意自我效能感在竞争、评价和时间三种压力情境下对创造力的影响。结果发现,三种压力对于总体创造力的影响不同;时间、评价压力分别提高了流畅性和新颖性,竞争压力既提高了流畅性又提高了新颖性,但三种压力情境都降低了变通性;创意自我效能感中间组的学生在压力情境下具有最好的变通表现,而效能感低分组表现最差。     

Seeing the mind of robots: Harm augments mind perception but benevolent intentions reduce dehumanisation of artificial entities in visual vignettes

According to moral typecasting theory, good- and evil-doers (agents) interact with the recipients of their actions (patients) in a moral dyad. When this dyad is completed, mind attribution towards intentionally harmed liminal minds is enhanced. However, from a dehumanisation view, malevolent actions may instead result in a denial of humanness. To contrast both accounts, a visual vignette experiment (N = 253) depicted either malevolent or benevolent intentions towards robotic or human avatars. Additionally, we examined the role of harm-salience by showing patients as either harmed, or still unharmed. The results revealed significantly increased mind attribution towards visibly harmed patients, mediated by perceived pain and expressed empathy. Benevolent and malevolent intentions were evaluated respectively as morally right or wrong, but their impact on the patient was diminished for the robotic avatar. Contrary to dehumanisation predictions, our manipulation of intentions failed to affect mind perception. Nonetheless, benevolent intentions reduced dehumanisation of the patients. Moreover, when pain and empathy were statistically controlled, the effect of intentions on mind perception was mediated by dehumanisation. These findings suggest that perceived intentions might only be indirectly tied to mind perception, and that their role may be better understood when additionally accounting for empathy and dehumanisation.     

The Relationship between Creativity and Interpersonal Problem-Solving Skills in Adults

The present study evaluated whether creativity training and interpersonal problem-solving training reflect equivalent or complementary skills in adults. A sample of 74 undergraduates received interpersonal problem-solving training, creativity training, neither, or both. Dependent variables included measures of problem-solving and creative performance, and problem-solving and creative style. The results suggested that creativity and interpersonal problem-solving represent complementary skills, in that each training program specifically affected performance only on related measures of performance. A combination of programs affected both abilities. Creativity training and interpersonal problem-solving training are popular psychoeducational interventions that developed in isolation from each other. Originally thought of as a mysterious process, the empirical analysis of the creative act can be traced to the work of Wallas (1926). Under the assumption that creativity is a desirable trait, a number of scales and training programs have been developed to measure and enhance creative skills. Creativity training has been used primarily in educational and industrial settings (e.g., Basadur, 1981). The principles of interpersonal problem-solving training have emerged more recently, in the work of Spivack and Shure (1974; Spivack, Platt, & Shure, 1976) and D'Zurilla (D'Zurilla & Goldfried, 1971; D'Zurilla & Nezu, 1982). These authors conceptualized interpersonal problem-solving training in the context of behavior therapy, and for this reason the literature on interpersonal problem-solving is more closely associated with therapeutic settings. Creativity and interpersonal problem-solving skills can be conceptually distinguished on the basis of their goals. Interpersonal problem-solving refers to one's skill in determining the means by which to achieve a specific end or overcome a specific problem. Creativity, on the other hand, need not be oriented towards achieving specific ends; it is associated with the capacity for thinking in new and different ways. Koestler (1964) has even argued that these two goals can be inimical, at least in adults, in that the ability to combine information in unique ways may be. hindered when the individual focuses his or her thinking on a specific problem. At the same time, there are clear similarities between the two domains of skills. Guilford (1977) noted that “creative thinking produces novel outcomes, and problem-solving involves producing a new response to a new situation, which is a novel outcome” (p. 161). Edwards and Sproull (1984) saw creativity training as a method for improving the quality of solutions to problems and increasing personal effectiveness. They considered problem-solving synonymous with creativity, since both training programs offer a variety of techniques to help identify useful solutions to problems. Similarly, Noller (1979) and others (e.g., Isaksen, Dorval, & Treffinger, 1994) have discussed the concept of creative problem solving, which attempts to integrate principles in the literature on creativity and on problem solving. Isaksen et al. conceptualized the process of creative problem solving as consisting of six steps which fall within three stages. The first stage involves understanding the problem, consisting of three steps: mess-finding, data-finding, and problem-finding. This is followed by the stage of generating ideas, involving the idea- finding step. Finally, there is planning for action, which involves solution-finding and acceptance-finding. The most important difference between the various creativity training models and the interpersonal problem-solving model lies in their emphasis. Creativity training models focus primarily on enhancing skill at generating solutions. The interpersonal problem-solving model places equal emphasis on the implementation and evaluation of potential solutions. Although many authors have suggested that participation in creativity training will have positive effects on social and interpersonal functioning (e.g., Parnes, 1987), only two studies have been conducted examining the relationship between the interpersonal problem-solving training model and creativity skills. Miller, Serafica, and Clark (1989) and Shondrick, Serafica, Clark, and Miller (1992) found that interpersonal problem-solving training for children also enhanced creativity skills, and that children's creative abilities appear to be predictive of their interpersonal problem-solving skills. The question of whether creativity and interpersonal problem-solving are equivalent, complementary, or even inimical has not been adequately addressed in the existing literature. For one thing, there are no studies examining the relationship between the two constructs in adults. This is an important question, given Koestler's (1964) conclusion that they are potentially inconsistent among adults. Second, there are no studies at all regarding the impact of creativity training on problem-solving skills in adults. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether creativity and interpersonal problem-solving skills can be distinguished in an adult sample.     

Understanding Creativity,One Metaphor at a Time

Any effort to clarify the meaning of creativity, although productive, risks limiting this important concept to a singular definition at the exclusion of other valuable interpretations. This article presents generative redefinitions of creativity by surveying a range of metaphors that are used to describe creativity. To explore the polysemic possibilities of creativity, 12 common metaphorical frameworks are examined for the ways in which they expand conceptual understanding, including metaphors such as incubation, illumination, evolution, divergence, investment, algorithm, boundary, organism, and democratic attunement. The purpose of this exploration is not to arrive at a singular understanding of creativity, but to acknowledge, examine, and celebrate the diverse ways it can be conceptualized. This article posits that using the language of metaphor as a tool for comparison and understanding helps sift through the complexity of conceptual differences. The argument concludes that considering multiple metaphors for creativity can generate new ways of appreciating the range of possibility implicit in creativity research.     

Taoistic Psychology of Creativity

In this paper, Lao Tzu's Tao is psychologically reinterpreted in terms of Taoistic cognition, Taoistic objectivity, and Taoistic creativity. All of these three domains are interrelated and are characterized by the attitude of let-be. Taoistic cognition is mainly a kind of intuition or personal knowledge. Taoistic objectivity is interpreted by will-free motivation which allow others to be and to obtain insight. Taoistic creativity involves incubation, syntectic thinking, and the unification through the opposites. Lao Tzu's Taoism is mainly related to artistic creativity, but its influence on mental health and scientific creativity is also discussed.     

青少年创造性发展及其脑机制研究进展

青少年时期是创造性发展的关键阶段,探明青少年创造性发展规律及其神经机制对于培养和激发个体的创新潜能具有重要意义。本文综述了青少年创造性发展及其脑机制的研究进展,分别对青少年创造性思维发展趋势、影响因素及其相应的脑机制展开综述,并在此基础上进行了展望。总体而言,青少年时期创造性思维发展呈现出两个波峰(11~13岁,15~16岁)的发展趋势;青少年创造性发展受外部原生家庭教养方式和学校教师激励以及内部情绪动机和自我管理能力的影响较大;前额叶对青少年创造性发展具有重要作用,这可能与该脑区涉及执行控制功能有关。针对青少年创造性发展的教育干预以及大脑可塑性可能成为该领域的研究热点;而大样本纵向跟踪多模态脑影像数据库的建立可为相关研究提供重要支持。     

Knowledge Discovery as an Aid to Organizational Creativity

Computers can play an important role in the creative process. With the abundance of data and increasing speed of computers, creativity can now be stimulated and enhanced with knowledge mined from available data. The process is known as knowledge discovery or data mining. Knowledge discovery is the process of discovering interesting associations among data in the database. Users in the creativity process can feed on the discovered associations to generate creative solutions. The objective of this paper is to present knowledge discovery as an aid to creativity. The paper first presents the concept of knowledge discovery and then discusses the various techniques in knowledge discovery. Mednick's associative theory of creative thought serves as the theoretical foundation for this research.