Affective Expression in Children's Fantasy Play,Primary Process Thinking on the Rorschach,and Divergent Thinking

The relationships among expression of primary process thinking on the Rorschach, affective expression in fantasy play, and divergent thinking were investigated in first and second grade children. Sixty children received the Rorschach (Holt's scoring system), a play task (Affect in Play Scale), and the Alternate Uses Test. Major hypotheses were supported because the amount of primary process thinking on the Rorschach (frequency and percent) was significantly, positively related to amount of affective expression and primary process expression in play. Also, expression of affect in play (frequency, variety, integration, and comfort) was significantly, positively related to divergent thinking, independent of IQ for both boys and girls. On the Rorschach, percent of primary process was significantly related to divergent thinking for boys. The results suggest that the ability to think imaginatively in a free-association style and the ability to have access to affect-laden material are related processes.     

Developmental Trends in the Evaluative and Divergent Thinking of Children

The purpose of this study was to investigate divergent thinking and evaluative skill as important processes in the development of creative thinking in elementary schoolchildren. Children from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades (N = 117) received divergent thinking tasks and measures of evaluative accuracy. The latter indicated how well they liked various ideas (i.e., their preferences) and the degree to which the children believed those ideas to be original. Results indicated that the accuracy of their originality judgments increased significantly with age, as did the preference for appropriate ideas. Unlike previous research, evaluative scores were not related to divergent thinking test scores. Also somewhat surprising, given earlier research, was the lack of a "4th-grade slump." In fact, there was a significant peak, rather than slump, in the divergent thinking of 4th-grade children, at least in the raw fluency scores. When fluency ratio scores were compared, there were still some incidents of a 4th-grade peak, but there was also a significant decline with grade in the proportions of 1 index of highly appropriate ideas. Although a relation was not found between evaluative skill and divergent thinking raw fluency scores, an increasing preference for appropriate square ideas was found to contribute significantly to the prediction of decreases in the proportion of high-quality round ideas given. Possible explanations are given to account for this unexpected finding, including differences in interpersonal and intrapersonal evaluative skills, and the distinction between the ability to accurately identify original or appropriate ideas and choosing to selectively express such ideas.     

Primary Process Thinking in the Same Children at Two Developmental Levels

Analysis of primary process thinking of the same children at kindergarten level and at grade four revealed that amount of primary process thinking was relatively constant with development, contrary to predictions based on psychoanalytic theory. However, the two facets of primary process thinking, i.e., drive related ideation and formal deviations of thought follow different lines of development with the former increasing and the latter decreasing in quality and type with age.     

Flexibility and Originality in Children's Divergent Thinking

Previous research on the ideational process indicates that original ideas increase in frequency as an examinee works through an open-ended task. In the present investigation, ideational flexibility was evaluated to determine if ideas also become more varied and diverse. Additionally, the relationship of intelligence (IQ) with order effects of both originality and flexibility was investigated. Tests of verbal and figural divergent thinking were administered to 80 intermediate school children. The midpoint of each individual's ideational set was found, and the flexibility and originality scores of each half of the set were compared. Results indicated that flexibility and originality scores were higher in the second half than the first half of the ideational set, but there were significant differences between high- and low-originality subjects and differences between the verbal and the figural tests. The order effect was unrelated to the IQ scores of the subjects. Suggestions are made to integrate ideational flexibility into existing theories of divergent ideation.     

Information,Experience, and Divergent Thinking: An Empirical Test

ABSTRACT: Divergent thinking tests are often used to estimate the potential for creative problem solving. Scores on these tests may, however, reflect a kind of experiential bias. Similar biases once plagued IQ tests, the idea being that scores reflect the individual's background and information in long-term memory as much as ability per se. The investigation reported here attempted to assess the role of experience, knowledge, and memory in divergent thinking by comparing 2 kinds of tasks. One was a standard divergent thinking task (e.g., "list uses for a shoe," "uses for a brick," "uses for a newspaper"). The other allowed a number of responses but required that the examinee produce factual, knowledge- based responses. A second objective here was to compare standard- and knowledge-based ideation with tasks that shared 1 domain (e.g., transportation) with tasks that did not share a domain. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant correlation between the 2 types of tasks but only when they shared 1 domain. This was confirmed with product–moment correlations (r = .37, p = .025) and a canonical correlation (Rc = .69, p = 008). The correlations were not significant when the tasks represented different domains. It is interesting to note that both the knowledge-based and the standard divergent thinking tasks were unrelated to grade point average, which supports their discriminant validity. Limitations and directions for future research are suggested.     

Minority Influence, Divergent Thinking and Detection of Correct Solutions

In many applied settings involving influence processes in small groups, the interest is in how such processes aid or hinder effective decision making and problem solving. In a recent formulation, Nemeth (1986) argued that exposure to opposing views emanating from a minority leads to divergent thinking, a process that involves a consideration of the problem from varying viewpoints. On balance, such influence would aid performance. Exposure to opposing majority viewpoints leads to convergent thought where S s presumably concentrate on the proposed viewpoint to the exclusion of other considerations. On balance, this form of influence tends not to aid performance and may prove to be an impediment. In the present study, these hypotheses were tested in the context of anagram solutions. Results showed that subjects exposed to the minority viewpoint found more correct words and they achieved this superior performance by a usage of all possible strategies. Subjects exposed to the majority viewpoint initially used the strategy suggested by the majority to the detriment of other strategies and, in general, performed at the level of control subjects. These results are discussed in terms of potential contributions made by exposure to dissenting minority viewpoints in small group decision-making settings such as trial by jury and in society at large.     

Changes in Primary Process Thinking of a Prepsychotic Adolescent in Psychotherapy

The main goal of this study was to measure longitudinally change in thought processes and reality testing of a prepsychotic adolescent undergoing psychotherapy. The Holt scoring system for measuring primary process from Rorschach responses was the main measuring instrument. Four Rorschachs were administered over a period of three years. The results of the latter were compared with the clinical ratings of two psychiatrists. While clinical change in response to treatment was slight, there did appear to be a shift from primary to more secondary forms of formal thought processes as determined by the Rorschach.     

Effects of Marijuana Use on Divergent Thinking

This research sought to evaluate the effect of marijuana use on creativity as defined by the term divergent thinking. Another objective was to verify if there was a difference in the creativity of regular users (60 participants) and that of novice users of marijuana (60 participants) under 3 experimental conditions: without marijuana, with placebo, and with marijuana. The 4 divergent thinking factors (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration) were measured by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Form A, Figural scale). The results showed that the use of marijuana had no positive effects on divergent thinking (creativity) in novice users and reduced it in regular users.     

Improving The Measurement of Divergent Thinking Attitudes in Organizations

Three new improved scales measuring three independent divergent thinking attitudes were developed in field research with managers and were labeled “Valuing New Ideas,” “Belief that Creativity is Not for Only a Select Few,” and “Not Feeling Too Busy for New Ideas.” These three scales represent an improvement over three scales initially identified by Basadur and Hausdorf (1996). Two studies were done. The first was a reliability study in which higher internal consistencies and improved understanding and labeling were achieved. The second was a field experiment in which preliminary evidence of external validity of the three scales was established. The scales effectively measured the changes in these attitudes that were expected after training. Opportunities for future research are identified.     

Future Thinking in Young Children

ABSTRACT— The study of future thinking is gaining momentum across various domains of psychology. Mentally projecting the self forward in time (i.e., mental time travel) is argued to be uniquely human and of vital importance to the evolution of human culture. Yet it is only recently that developmentalists have begun to study when, and how, this capacity emerges. I begin by outlining the concept of mental time travel, along with newly developed methodologies to test children's ability to mentally project the self into the future. Data suggest that this ability is in place by ages 4 or 5 but also reveal conditions under which children may experience difficulty accurately predicting their future desires. I conclude by discussing how the research on children's mental time travel can be used to further our understanding of the development of future-oriented behaviors, including planning and delaying gratification.     

Anxiety in Swedish School Children: Situational Specificity,Informant Variability and Coping Strategies

In a school sample, 463 Swedish children aged between 8 and 12 years reported their experience of anxiety during 11 "typical" home and school setting activities. In addition to rating the frequency and type of anxiety experienced, the children reported whether they used coping strategies to reduce their anxiety. Parents and teachers also rated the anxiety levels in the same children. Nine percent of the children reported that they experienced anxiety "often" during at least 1 of the 11 home and school activities and 1.5% reported an anxiety level of "often" averaged across all of the 11 activities. The parents reported that 9% of the children experienced "moderate" to "very much" anxiety levels averaged across the home-related activities, whereas the teachers reported that 38.5% of the children had such anxiety levels at school. Overall, the children's ratings of their frequency levels of anxiety were found to depend more on age than on gender. The children and their parents both regarded anxiety to be most common during "leaving home for school" and "going to bed at night" activities. The correspondence between child, parent and teacher reports of overall anxiety in the children was low; similar findings were obtained for anxiety among children in the various setting activities. The 8-year-old children reported a higher use of various coping strategies than did the 12-year-olds. The results are discussed in view of the current literature on anxiety and fears in children.     

言语、图形任务条件下青少年发散性思维的差异研究

知识与发散思维之间存在密切的关系.研究抽取小学四年级到高三397名学生,采用言语和图形任务探讨知识经验对发散思维的影响.以及两类任务条件下发散思维的年级和性别差异.结果显示:学生的知识水平对两类任务条件下发散思维产生不同的影响作用,知识经验与发散思维呈现倒U型变化关系;研究只在言语任务条件下发现小学四年级创造力低谷;两类任务条件下发散思维警现出不同的发展趋势,言语任务条件下,发散思维随着年级的升高呈现出曲线上升的趋势,而在图形任务条件下,发散思维呈现随年级升高先上升后下降的趋势;两类任务条件下都发现发散思维存在性别差异,但是不同任务条件下性别差异存在维度上差异性;女生在发散思维某些方面好于男生.