A Comparison of Assessment Methods and Raters in Product Creativity

Although previous studies have attempted to use different experiences of raters to rate product creativity by adopting the Consensus Assessment Method (CAT) approach, the validity of replacing CAT with another measurement tool has not been adequately tested. This study aimed to compare raters with different levels of experience (expert ves. nonexpert raters) using both CAT and the product creativity measurement instrument (PCMI) to assess the product creativity of 56 design works based on a design competition. The results showed that nonexpert raters who used either CAT or PCMI had higher interreliability than expert raters. Using PCMI was found to result in higher correlation than using CAT for the expert and nonexpert raters, although the correlation between the CAT and PCMI methods was statistically insignificantly different. After regression analysis, the results showed that all PCMI items had higher explanatory power for the creativity scores using CAT and, moreover, the nonexpert raters were found to have higher explanatory power than the expert raters. Based on these results, it is recommended that the use of both nonexpert raters and PCMI is an alternative way of enhancing the flexibility of product creativity assessment.     

Organizational Conflict and Individual Creativity

A theory of the interaction of perceptions of conflict and dispositional tendencies on individual creativity is presented and tested. It is argued that there are two broad classes of people: those who are primarily socially oriented and those who are primarily instrumentally oriented. Further, on tasks that match their orientation, individuals are proposed to generally adhere to patterns and strategies that experience has taught them are most likely to work. This should mitigate against creativity. On tasks outside of their area of specialization, however, individuals are typically expected to be more random in their thinking, which should promote creativity. Perceived conflict is argued to lead to a reversal of this pattern, however. That is, perceptions of conflict were expected to promote creativity on tasks within, and reduce it on tasks outside of, individuals area of primary interest. These ideas were tested in two studies, one with university employees and one with minority students. The results of both studies generally supported the theory.     

Individual Learning Styles and Creativity

Business schools are in need of developing creative graduates. This article explores how creativity among business students can be stimulated. Because a considerable amount of knowledge is required for creative ideas to emerge, the learning process has a significant impact on creativity. This, in turn, indicates that learning style is important for creative performance. In addition to exploring the relationship between learning styles and creativity, the research reported here tested self-efficacy and enjoyment as mediators. One hundred and fifty students participated in this study. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that independent and collaborative learning styles were associated with higher creativity. Although the independent learning style-creativity relationship was mediated by self-efficacy, the collaborative learning style-creativity relationship was partially mediated by enjoyment of the learning process. Implications for business education are discussed.     

Approaching Emptiness: Subjective,Objective and Existential Dimensions

Clinicians have lacked a coherent approach to emptiness, which is both a pervasive metaphor for loss, deficiency, or alienation and a frequently cited spiritual goal. We suggest a framework for approaching emptiness that distinguishes among its subjective, objective, and existential dimensions. Clinicians can use psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral approaches to clarify schemas that distort patients’ perceptions of others and of themselves, behavioral and relational approaches to help them deal with real deficiency and loss, and spiritually oriented approaches to put these into a larger context.     

Boundless Creativity: Evidence for the Domain Generality of Individual Differences in Creativity

This study investigated correlates of domain‐general and domain‐specific components of creativity. 158 college students completed a questionnaire that assessed their motivational and personality traits (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, creative personality, and originality in word association) as well as intellectual abilities (SAT verbal and quantitative scores). Under two different instruction conditions (standard instruction or explicit “be creative” instruction), students also took a battery of multi‐item, product‐based tests of creativity in three domains (artistic, verbal, and mathematical creativity). Factor analyses showed evidence of domain‐generality of creativity. Furthermore, results from structural equation models showed that motivational and personality traits and intellectual abilities were associated with the domain‐general component of creativity. Only one variable (SAT quantitative score) was found to be associated with the domain‐specific component of mathematical creativity under the explicit “be creative” instruction condition. These results affirm the domain‐generality of creativity and challenge researchers to identify correlates of domain‐specific components of creativity.     

Individual Differences and Beliefs Concerning Preference for University Assessment Methods

This paper explores the relationship between personality, IQ, gender, beliefs about intelligence, and preference for assessment methods at university in 3 separate studies. Study 1 ( N = 367) examined attitudes toward examinations (ATE) and attitudes toward continuous assessment (ATCA) using specific assignments with regard to subjectively assessed intelligence (SAI), entity and incremental beliefs about intelligence (BAI), just-world beliefs, and gender. Studies 2 ( N = 120) and 3 ( N = 93) found significant and negative associations between neuroticism and preference for both essay-type and oral exams. IQ was positively and significantly related to preference for multiple-choice exams. Study 3 tested the relationship of preference for assessment methods with academic performance. Results indicated that preferences are associated with individual differences, rather than academic performance. Findings are discussed in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of introducing alternative methods of student assessment at the university level.     

Subjective Rightness and Minimizing Expected Objective Wrongness

It has become increasingly common for philosophers to distinguish between objective and subjective rightness, and there has been much discussion recently about what an adequate theory of subjective rightness looks like. In this article, I propose a new theory of subjective rightness. According to it, an action is subjectively right if and only if it minimizes expected objective wrongness. I explain this theory in detail and argue that it avoids many of the problems that other theories of subjective rightness face. I end by responding to some objections.     

The Self-Serving Bias and the Use of Objective and Subjective Methods for Measuring Success and Failure

Abstract

Students (N = 45) were asked to judge their recent exam performance on a success versus failure rating scale. They were also asked to make causal attributions for their test performance on an internal versus external scale. The students' scores were divided into success and failure groups by using both subjective (self-reported outcome) and objective (actual exam scores) definitions of outcome. For both methods, the success group had higher internal attributions for their performance than did the failure group. The effect size for the subjective methods of defining outcome, however, produced a stronger self-serving bias that did the objective definition.     

Subjective and Objective Aspects of Free Time: The Italian Case

This study investigates two distinct but interrelated phenomena—that of experienced leisure and that of perceived leisure—in order to determine empirically whether and how the perception and use of free time affects an individual’s level of satisfaction. The analysis was conducted on a sample of approximately 50,000 individuals, representative of the Italian population. It focused on the person-centred sphere of leisure: both the objective aspect—that is, participation in leisure activities—and the subjective aspects—that is, the different meanings of leisure and levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction expressed by the subjects—were investigated. By applying multivariate analytical techniques (Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis), synthetic indices were calculated and subject typologies were developed. Logistic regression models were also used to investigate the relationship between perception, activity and satisfaction. The results confirmed that the objective and subjective aspects are interrelated: there are specific activities related to the type of perception of leisure activities which contribute significantly to making a person happy. There are other aspects, however, such as relational activities and sports, which are important for the satisfaction of those whose conception of leisure seems discordant with respect to such activities.     

Memory Outcome After Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery: Objective and Subjective Perspectives

Memory was investigated in 27 children and adolescents in a longitudinal study before and at one and two years after epilepsy surgery. A comparison group with intractable epilepsy (n = 15), matched in age, sex, age of seizure onset, and IQ, was studied at comparable points in time. Methods included administration of standardized measures of story recall and face recognition, and qualitative interviews to probe the participants’ perceptions of their memory function over time. There was no significant change over time in either group on the standardized measures. Site and laterality of excision, age at surgery, and seizure outcome were not predictive of change within the surgical group. The narratives revealed facets of memory that were problematic in daily life. The objective and subjective results showed low concordance regarding change, possibly due to limitations in the objective measures for capturing semantic and autobiographical memory.     

Analysing Gaze in Terms of Subjective and Objective Interpretation: Sartre and Lacan

Considering the Hegelian master–slave dichotomy over the exchange of the gaze, the paper focuses on the issue of vision and visibility, reinterpreted in Sartre’s phenomenological discussions in different ways. The Hegelian emphasis on recognition finds reflection in the treatment of vision as force expressed through visibility in Sartre and as an issue of self recognition in Lacan. Drawing the Hegelian tag with a comparative argument between Sartre and Lacan, the paper focuses on the different perspectives over the concept of gaze or look. It argues that even sharing the same Hegelian legacy regarding the notion of gaze and recognition Sartre and Lacan differs to a considerable extent in their treatment of the impact of gaze. While emphasising more on the phenomenological-existential analysis of the issue of individual recognition Sartre presents gaze as a strong alienating force released from another powerful subject affecting the intersubjective power relation, Lacan, stands on a non-reciprocal relation between seeing and seen by making a difference between the eyes of the subject that looks at and the gaze which is on the side of the object without having any capacity to become a subject. The paper concentrates on these issues over a broader argument on Sartre’s concept of intersubjective gaze.     

Individual Social Capital and Subjective Wellbeing: The Relational Goods

In this paper we analyze the non-instrumental dimension of social capital and its effects on subjective well-being. In the first part, we define the characteristics of production and consumption of relational goods. The second section analyses the influence of the different expressions of relational goods and social capital on individual subjective well-being. In the third, we test the explanatory power of this variable on the Easterlin’s paradox using the results of a survey on individual social capital in Spain. The main findings from the empirical analysis for Spanish society allow us to strengthen the hypothesis. We found a weak explanatory capacity of income or educational level or instrumental dimensions of social capital (expert mobilization) while a strong link between expressions of relational goods (domestic mobilization, household stability, partnership, trust and security in the environment) was found.     

Individual and Environmental Influences on Chinese Student Creativity

Primarily using self-report questionnaires and psychometric tests in a sample of 357 Chinese high school students, this study examines how both individual and environmental factors can independently predict student creativity as measured by three different methods, including two product-orientated measures (story completion and collage making), two divergent thinking measures (circle task and picture completion), and one self-report inventory on divergent thinking attitudes. Two different types of theoretical models — the cognitive approach and confluence approach — are compared and contrasted. Based on previous research, this study uses the confluence approach to investigate the influences of individual (i.e. intelligence, personality, motivation, thinking styles, and knowledge) and environmental (i.e., school and family environment) factors on creativity. The results have confirmed the major hypothesis that both individual and environmental factors play decisive roles in Chinese student creativity. Implications of these findings are discussed. This paper also calls for a serious consideration of research on environmental influence on creativity and various mechanisms of this influence.     

Individual Differences in Cognitive Emotion Regulation: Implications for Subjective and Psychological Well-Being

Although research has extensively examined the link between cognitive emotion regulation and psychopathological symptoms, scant attention has been given to the relationship between dispositional use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies and individuals’ positive functioning. In a cross-sectional study on 470 adults, we examined whether individual differences in the use of nine cognitive strategies were associated with subjective and psychological well-being. Results show that positive reappraisal and refocus on planning are positively related to both subjective and psychological well-being. Rumination, catastrophizing and self-blame are linked to poorer well-being, while positive refocusing, putting into perspective, and acceptance show few significant associations. These results suggest that cognitive emotion regulation strategies may be differently effective in promoting individual’s well-being.