Conscious Motivations of Adolescent Visual Artists and Creative Writers: Similarities and Differences

This exploratory study was designed to expand the field’s understanding of talented adolescent visual artists and creative writers and their conscious motivations for engaging in these creative activities. Accordingly, 233 talented high school visual arts (n = 151) and creative writing (n = 82) students were asked to rate the degree to which they believed their creative activities were motivated by each of a wide range of possible motivations. The students in both fields reported being very strongly motivated by the opportunities their activities provided them to use their imaginations, feel free, sense that they were being their “true” selves, regulate their emotions, capture moments in time, deepen their self-understanding, express themselves, improve their skills, and enhance their self-esteem. Some of these motivations correspond closely to those highlighted by theories of intrinsic motivation, competence motivation, and self-actualization, several are similar to those which have been reported by professional artists and writers, and some suggest that the students may have derived important psychological benefits from their creative activities. Theoretically plausible differences between the motivational profiles of the visual and creative writing students were identified and discussed.     

Teachers’ Perceptions of Creativity in the Classroom

Teachers’ implicit understandings of creativity may not align with current research-based understanding of creativity and characteristics associated with creative students. Even teachers who say they value creativity may actually find creative characteristics undesirable. Participating teachers (n = 371) rated student characteristics on a scale of very undesirable to very desirable. Participants also completed a brief self-assessment of personal creativity and rank-ordered a set of educational objectives based on what they perceived as most important. Results indicated that teachers found student characteristics associated with creativity less desirable than those characteristics contraindicative to creativity (d = 2.70). No effects were found based on the grade level (d = 0.07) and small effects were found for subjects taught (η² = 0.023). Similarly, no effects were found for the teachers’ level of experience (η² = 0.004) or age (η² = 0.002). Teachers’ level of personal creativity was related (r = .248) to how desirable they rated student characteristics associated with creativity, but the importance with which teachers ranked creative thinking had small effects (η² = 0.04) on how desirable they found characteristics associated with creativity. These results generally confirm previous studies and suggest that teachers’ grade level, subject, experience, and age have no effect on their perception of creative characteristics. However, some evidence suggests that teachers who are more creative find student characteristics associated with creativity more desirable in class.     

The Creative Personality: A Synthesis and Development of the Creative Person Profile

Several constructs from the research literature on the creative personality were reoperationalized to gain further understanding of the structure of the creative personality and to develop a broad measure of relevant traits (CPP—the Creative Person Profile). From an initial pool of 38 creativity relevant personality constructs, 7 factors were identified and labeled (emotional instability, ambition, associative orientation, motivation, need for originality, agreeableness, and flexibility) in a sample of 481 participants with a mean age of 31.6 years. In a subsample, there were theoretically meaningful correlations between the 5-factor model of personality and 5 of the CPP factors. Moreover, most of the 7 components correlated with at least 1 ability test or self-report criterion of creativity (creative problem solving, remote associates test, ideational fluency, items from a creative activities checklist). Finally, in a discriminant validity study, scores on the 7 factors clearly differentiated between a group of professional artists (n = 69) and the remainder of the sample, and between a group of marketing students (n = 40) and the remainder of the sample.     

The Interplay of Creative Behavior,Divergent Thinking,and Knowledge Base in Students' Creative Expression During Learning Activity

The purpose of this study was to research the relations between knowledge, students’ self-assessed creative performance, and divergent thinking (DT), objectively and subjectively scored. Fourth-grade students (N = 115) participated in an instructional project integrated to actual curriculum and then completed 2 DT tasks, a test of knowledge base, and a self-assessment. Teachers’ ratings of student achievement were also collected. DT tasks were scored (a) for fluency, flexibility, and originality, and (b) using the consensual assessment technique (CAT). Results indicated that different DT tasks scoring methods, having moderate intercorrelations, predicted different aspects of creative behavior, and that knowledge has its own predictive role.     

How Creativity Was Affected by Environmental Factors and Individual Characteristics: A Cross-cultural Comparison Perspective

The purpose of this study was to explore how environmental factors (family environment and school education) and individual characteristics (personality, creative attitudes, and divergent thinking) collectively affect creative achievement of American and Chinese college students. Data were collected from 378 college students in the United States (N = 193) and China (N = 185). Results showed that the US sample had significantly higher means in home resources, high-school education, Conscientiousness, creative achievement, and all four dimensions of the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) than the China sample. In contrast, the China sample scored significantly higher in understanding the importance of creativity. Results indicated creative attitudes and divergent thinking sequentially mediated the effects of parental values on creative achievement for the US sample, whereas Openness mediated the effect of high-school education on creative achievement for the China sample. For both samples, creative attitudes mediated the effect of Openness on divergent thinking. The results suggested cultural differences in the effects of environmental factors on creativity, yet more similar findings in the effects of individual characteristics on creativity between the two samples. The results and implications are discussed.     

Perception of Creativity and Game Intelligence in Soccer

A questionnaire was used to investigate the perception of creativity and game intelligence of coaches (n = 34, mean age 28.6 with an average of 14.3 years of experience) and players (n = 118, belonging to the ranks U-15 and U-19). Analyses indicated that there were statistically significant differences in most creative concepts inherent in the perception of creativity on the part of coaches. The results for the perception of the players showed that there were statistically significant differences in the importance attached to creativity and game intelligence. Apparently coaches mostly associate the creativity in soccer to a kind of magical thinking, adding also the game intelligence to the ability of rationality, problem solving, and decision. There was a strong correlation between creativity and game intelligence for the players.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Relation between Creative Self-Efficacy and Different Creativity Measurements

This meta-analysis investigated the relations between creative self-efficacy (CSE) and creativity measures and hypothesized that self-assessed questionnaires would have a different relation to self-efficacy beliefs compared to other creativity tests. The meta-analysis synthesized 60 effect sizes from 41 papers (overall N = 17226). Taken as a whole, the relation between CSE and creativity measures was of medium size (r = .39). Subgroup analyses revealed that self-rated creativity correlated higher with self-efficacy (r = .53). The relation with divergent thinking (DT) tests was weak (r = .23). Creativity scales had a medium size relation (r = .43), and was stronger than the relation to verbal performance tasks (r = .27) and figural performance tasks (r = .19). In a comparison between measures focusing on the creative person (r = .47), the creative product (r = .32), and the creative process (r = .27), the person aspect was most strongly linked to CSE. Thus, the relation between self-efficacy and creativity measures is dependent on the type of measurement used, emphasizing the need for researchers to distinguish between different instruments—not the least between self-report scales and more objective test procedures. Conceptual implications are discussed and critique concerning the creativity concept is brought up.     

Early motor development and cognitive abilities among Mexican preschoolers

Psychomotricity plays a very important role in children’s development, especially for learning involving reading–writing and mathematical calculations. Evaluate motor development in children 3 years old and its relationship with their cognitive abilities at the age of 5 years. Based on a cohort study, we analyzed the information about motor performance evaluated at 3 years old by Peabody Motor Scale and cognitive abilities at 5 years old. The association was estimated using linear regression models adjusted by mother’s intelligence quotient, sex, Bayley mental development index at 18 months, and quality of the environment at home (HOME scale). 148 children whose motor performance was determined at age 3 and was evaluated later at age 5 to determine their cognitive abilities. Cognitive abilities (verbal, quantitative, and memory) measured by McCarthy Scales. Significant positive associations were observed between stationary balance at age 3 with verbal abilities (β = 0.67, p = .04) and memory (β = 0.81, p = .02) at 5 years. Grasping and visual-motor integration were significant and positively associated with quantitative abilities (β = 0.74, p = .005; β = 0.61, p = .01) and memory (β = 2.11, p = .001; β = 1.74, p = .004). The results suggest that early motor performance contributes to the establishment of cognitive abilities at 5 years. Evaluation and early motor stimulation before the child is faced with formal learning likely helps to create neuronal networks that facilitate the acquisition of academic knowledge.     

Critical Thinking Disposition and Scientific Creativity: The Mediating Role of Creative Self-Efficacy

This study explores the relationship between critical thinking disposition and scientific creativity and examines the hypothesized mediating role played by creative self-concept (trait-like creative self-efficacy). A large sample (N = 1,153) of Chinese high school students filled the Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory and revised trait-like creative self-efficacy scale, and then solved Scientific Creativity Test for Adolescent. Structural equation modeling has demonstrated that students’ critical thinking disposition was positively related to their creative self-concept and scientific creativity, and creative self-concept fully mediated the link between critical thinking disposition and scientific creativity. We discuss these findings in terms of the hypothetical role played by creative self-concept for creative functioning.     

Creativity Development of High-Achieving Students

Few studies on creativity have focused on creativity development in various grade levels for high-achieving students. The purpose of this study was to explore the developmental trajectories of creative ability for high-achieving students. The participants constituted a national representative sample of 982 male (N = 506) and female (484) students from grades 1 to 10 in five governorates in Oman (Muscat, South-Al Batinah, South- Al Sharqia, Dhofar, and Al Dhakilia). The students completed two subtests of the Profile of Creative Abilities (PCA), a measure of creative potential, namely drawings and categories. There was an evidence of a developmental trend of creativity across grade levels. The Multi-variate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that the main effect of grade was statistically significant for the drawings subtest. Also, the main effect of gender was also statistically significant for the drawings subtest. The main effect of interaction (gender X grade) was not significant. Overall, females’ creative performance was significantly better than males’ in the Creativity Index score. The results of the study are discussed in the light of existing literature about developmental trends and gender differences in creative thinking.     

Fluency or Similarities? Cognitive Abilities that Contribute to Creative Metaphor Generation

This study focused on the cognitive abilities that contribute to creative metaphor generation. A concept explanation task was used to test conventional and novel (creative) metaphor generation. Conceptual fluency and similarities were measured using the Tel-Aviv Creativity Test (TACT). The main goal was to investigate how fluency of ideas and similarities contribute to creative metaphor generation. Fifty-four children (M = 12.59, SD = 2.05) participated in the study. The findings demonstrated that fluency of ideas contributed to the prediction of creative potential, but not conventional metaphor generation, beyond similarities, cognitive abilities, executive functions, verbal abilities, and age. The results thus show that novel metaphor generation is unique and separate estimate of creative potential, which is reciprocally related to conceptual fluency.     

Creative thinking abilities and hemispheric asymmetry in schizotypal college students

Two groups of college students that scored high (N=25) and low (N=60) on a schizotypal personality index based on the Perceptual Aberration, Magical Thinking, and Schizotypal Personality Scales, were tested for hemisphericity using a dichotic listening task and completed the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. The schizotypy scales correlated with high scores on the nonverbal portion of the creativity tests and with a left ear preference to dichotically presented verbal stimuli. The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking did not correlate, however, with hemispheric asymmetry. These results clarify the relationship between schizotypy and creating thinking abilities but fail in establishing the role of hemispheric asymmetry in the production of creative thinking ideas. This article is based on a portion of the first author’s dissertation at Wayne State University.     

The development of creative cognition across adolescence: distinct trajectories for insight and divergent thinking

We examined developmental trajectories of creative cognition across adolescence. Participants (N = 98), divided into four age groups (12/13 yrs, 15/16 yrs, 18/19 yrs, and 25–30 yrs), were subjected to a battery of tasks gauging creative insight (visual; verbal) and divergent thinking (verbal; visuo‐spatial). The two older age groups outperformed the two younger age groups on insight tasks. The 25–30‐year‐olds outperformed the two youngest age groups on the originality measure of verbal divergent thinking. No age‐group differences were observed for verbal divergent thinking fluency and flexibility. On divergent thinking in the visuo‐spatial domain, however, only 15/16‐year‐olds outperformed 12/13‐year‐olds; a model with peak performance for 15/16‐years‐old showed the best fit. The results for the different creativity processes are discussed in relation to cognitive and related neurobiological models. We conclude that mid‐adolescence is a period of not only immaturities but also of creative potentials in the visuo‐spatial domain, possibly related to developing control functions and explorative behavior.     

Mathematics ability and related skills in preschoolers born very preterm

Children born very preterm (VPT) are at risk for academic, behavioral, and/or emotional problems. Mathematics is a particular weakness and better understanding of the relationship between preterm birth and early mathematics ability is needed, particularly as early as possible to aid in early intervention. Preschoolers born VPT (n = 58) and those born full term (FT; n = 29) were administered a large battery of measures within 6 months of beginning kindergarten. A multiple-mediation model was utilized to characterize the difference in skills underlying mathematics ability between groups. Children born VPT performed significantly worse than FT-born children on a measure of mathematics ability as well as full-scale IQ, verbal skills, visual–motor integration, phonological awareness, phonological working memory, motor skills, and executive functioning. Mathematics was significantly correlated with verbal skills, visual–motor integration, phonological processing, and motor skills across both groups. When entered into the mediation model, verbal skills, visual–motor integration, and phonological awareness were significant mediators of the group differences. This analysis provides insights into the pre-academic skills that are weak in preschoolers born VPT and their relationship to mathematics. It is important to identify children who will have difficulties as early as possible, particularly for VPT children who are at higher risk for academic difficulties. Therefore, this model may be used in evaluating VPT children for emerging difficulties as well as an indicator that if other weaknesses are found, an assessment of mathematics should be conducted.     

The impact of empathy on burnout in medical students: new findings

Introduction: Research on medical students has shown they are at a higher risk for burnout and that this burnout may become more prevalent as they advance in medical school. The literature, thus far, has not explored the construct of ,emotional empathy and whether this can impact burnout in medical students. Objective: To understand the relationship between empathy (Empathic Concern [EC] and Personal Distress [PD]) and burnout in medical students. Method: Five successive classes of medical students enrolled at a new medical school were given the Maslach Burnout Inventory and Davis’ Interpersonal Reactivity Index over the course of three successive years (n = 353). Two dimensions of empathy were evaluated to determine if they have an impact on three dimensions of burnout (Emotional Exhaustion/EE, Depersonalization/DP, Personal Accomplishment/PA). Results: data was analyzed using a linear mixed model for each of the three components of burnout based on gender, age, year in medical school, and two types of empathy: EC, and PD. Conclusion: It was discovered that students with high levels of EC had statistically lower scores of burnout over time while students with high levels of PD empathy showed statistically higher scores of burnout over three years. Implications for these findings are discussed.     

Metacognition as a Moderator of Creative Ideation and Creative Production

Recent theoretical work has called for exploration of the moderating effects of cognitive factors on the relationship between creative ideation and creative production. The Cognitive-Creative Sifting model suggests skills in processing and transforming information influence the association. This study used the Runco Ideational Behavior Scale, Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, and Creative Behavior Inventory to test the moderating effect. Medium to large moderator effects (f² = .015 to f² = .041) were observed across previous theoretically proposed aspects of metacognition. A large, statistically significant moderator effect was observed for overall metacognition (f² = .031). Observed differences across subcomponents of metacognition paralleled theoretical connections between metacognition and creativity. Further studies are suggested using more diverse creativity measures, as well as tests for other cognitive sifters. Implications for educational practice, particularly regarding the creatively gifted, are offered.     

“Dear Employer,Let Me Introduce Myself” – Flow,Satisfaction with Work–Life Balance and Millennials’ Creativity

With creativity being recognised as a key driver of organizational success, organizations emphasize the need for their employees to be creative and to work long hours. This article takes a step toward understanding the factors contributing to the creativity of millennials, a generation pursuing meaningful work and cherishing a work–life balance. In Study 1 (n = 238), the relationships between creativity, flow, satisfaction with work–life balance and job crafting were explored; in Study 2 (n = 120) the focus was on examining flow as the mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with work–life balance and creativity. In experimental Study 3 (n = 90), the findings from Study 2 were replicated. Overall, the results of the three studies established flow as the mediating variable and demonstrated the beneficial role of satisfaction with the work–life balance and job crafting in the process leading to creativity.     

The role of race and teachers’ cultural awareness in predicting low-income,Black and Hispanic students’ perceptions of educational attainment

Demographic shifts in the United States have resulted in similar demographic shifts between K-12 teachers and their students, resulting in important implications for the educational outcomes of traditionally marginalized students and educators’ cultural awareness required in teaching diverse classrooms. Using data from the Three-City Teacher Study, this study examined students’ (N = 207; 55 % female; 52 % non-Hispanic Black, 48 % non-White Hispanic; mean age = 16.70 years, SD = 1.67) and teachers’ (N = 202; 71.5 % female; 64.3 % white; mean years of experience = 13.80 years, SD = 10.83) agreement on the potential educational attainment of the student. Specifically, we explored the probability that teachers had lower, matched, or higher perceptions of educational attainment compared to their low-income Black and Hispanic students’ perceptions of attainment while accounting for teachers’ and students’ reports of school connectedness, teachers’ cultural awareness, and moderating effects of students’ race. Results from multinomial logistic regressions found that teachers were more likely to have lower perceptions of educational attainment for Hispanic students compared to Black students. Teachers were also more likely to have lower perceptions when they perceived students to have low school connectedness. For Black students, teachers’ cultural awareness attenuated this association; that is, teachers were more likely to have higher perceptions of educational attainment for Black students when they reported higher cultural awareness. The reverse was true for Hispanic students. These results enhance our understanding of how teacher and student perceptions shape expectations of educational attainment with implications for teacher education and professional development domestically and internationally.     

How to get radical creative ideas into a leader’s mind? Leader’s achievement goals and subordinates’ voice of creative ideas

In the present research we investigated when and why leaders tend to oppose or adopt radical creative ideas voiced by their subordinates. In a field study (Study 1, N = 127) we showed that leaders’ performance goals were positively related to their tendency to oppose radical creative ideas, whereas leaders’ mastery goals were positively related to their tendency to adopt them. We replicated these findings in an experimental study (Study 2, N = 90), in which we showed that performance goal leaders were more likely to oppose radical creative ideas voiced by their subordinates than mastery goal leaders, whereas mastery goal leaders were more likely to adopt those ideas than performance goal leaders. In Study 2, we further showed that the effects of leaders’ achievement goals on their oppose and adopt responses were mediated by the leaders’ interest in exploration. Finally, in Study 3 (N = 91), we experimentally demonstrated that oppose and adopt responses of performance goal leaders, rather than mastery goal leaders, were sensitive to the behavioural mode by which subordinates voiced their radical creative ideas. That is, performance goal leaders were less likely to oppose and more likely to adopt radical creative ideas when subordinates voiced them in a considerate mode rather than an aggressive mode.     

Social support and verbal interaction are differentially associated with cognitive function in midlife and older age

Social engagement is associated with healthy aging and preserved cognition. Two dimensions of engagement, verbal interactions and perceived support, likely impact cognition via distinct mechanistic pathways. We explored the cognitive benefit of each construct among enrollees (N = 1,052, mean age = 60.2 years) in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention study, who provide neuropsychological and sociobehavioral data at two-year intervals. Outcomes included six cognitive factor scores representing key domains of executive function and memory. Key predictors included self-reported perceived social support and weekly verbal interaction. Results indicated that after adjusting for lifestyle covariates, social support was positively associated with Speed and Flexibility and that verbal interactions were associated with Verbal Learning and Memory. These findings suggest that support, which may buffer stress, and verbal interaction, an accessible, aging-friendly form of environmental enrichment, are uniquely beneficial. Both are integral in the design of clinical and community interventions and programs that promote successful aging.