Educating Counselors to Practice Interprofessionally Through Creative Classroom Experiences

Interprofessional education is a creative endeavor that seeks to prepare health professionals to collaborate within and outside of their profession to better serve clients. This article reports on the experiences and attitudes of counselors-in-training toward this approach before and after a semester-long interprofessional course. Results from quantitative and qualitative assessments show changes in attitudes and readiness for interprofessional education and practice.     

Effects of Verbal Processing on Psychiatric Patients’ Proactive Coping Skills Using Recreational Music Therapy

Psychiatric patients who are able to cope with life stressors and appropriately use leisure time are less likely to be rehospitalized. The purpose of this study was to examine how verbal processing of recreational music therapy affected psychiatric patients’ knowledge and use of coping and leisure skills. The researchers utilized a quasirandomized controlled design and collected data at pretest, immediately before discharge, and at one month postdischarge. The researchers isolated verbal processing within recreational music therapy sessions to determine if the verbal-processing component affected proactive coping and patients’ use of coping and leisure skills. Using the Proactive Coping Scale, the researchers measured patients’ proactive coping before and after attending recreational music therapy sessions. Results indicated no significant between-group differences in patients’ proactive coping scores. Difficulties conducting research in psychiatric settings, clinical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Utilizing Creative Expressive Techniques and Group Counseling to Improve Adolescents of Divorce Social-Relational Capabilities

Adolescents of divorce present challenges for mental health counselors unfamiliar with issues this population encounters. Problems such as negative societal perceptions and low behavioral self-efficacy can combine, causing long-lasting problems. Specifically, adolescents of divorce appear to be at risk for developing inadequate social/relational capabilities. To improve adolescents’ relational and social competencies, the authors advocate for a creative combination of expressive techniques and group counseling. This brief, six-week intervention may be a viable, creative tool for counselors working with this distinct client population.     

Linear and Nonlinear Thinking: A Multidimensional Model and Measure

Building upon previously developed and more general dual‐process models, this paper provides empirical support for a multidimensional thinking style construct comprised of linear thinking and multiple dimensions of nonlinear thinking. A self‐report assessment instrument (Linear/Nonlinear Thinking Style Profile; LNTSP) is presented and preliminarily tested across three studies with an overall sample of 778 respondents comprised of business students and managers. The results indicate that nonlinear thinking style consists of seven distinct, yet interrelated dimensions: intuition, creativity, values, imagination, flexibility, insights, and emotions. Convergent and discriminant validity estimates vis‐à‐vis a multidimensional creative thinking index and an emotional intelligence measure provide support for further development of the instrument. The implications of these results for future managerial cognition research are discussed, as well as potential practical applications of the LNTSP for management education and business practice.     

Regressive Imagery in Creative Problem‐Solving: Comparing Verbal Protocols of Expert and Novice Visual Artists and Computer Programmers

We applied computer‐based text analyses of regressive imagery to verbal protocols of individuals engaged in creative problem‐solving in two domains: visual art (23 experts, 23 novices) and computer programming (14 experts, 14 novices). Percentages of words involving primary process and secondary process thought, plus emotion‐related words, were tabulated. Visual art protocols were higher in primary process thought and emotion‐related words; those from programming were higher in secondary process thought. Almost no main effects of expertise or interactions were found. Correlations between the measures (particularly those involving emotion‐related words) also varied as a function of task. This pattern suggests cognitive processes vary considerably across different creative problem‐solving tasks or domains, and that a more domain‐specific approach to creative cognition may be advisable. Further implications for integrating and consolidating some extant lines of creativity research are discussed.     

Are synesthetes exceptional beyond their synesthetic associations? A systematic comparison of creativity,personality, cognition,and mental imagery in synesthetes and controls

Synesthesia has historically been linked with enhanced creativity, but this had never been demonstrated in a systematically recruited sample. The current study offers a broad examination of creativity, personality, cognition, and mental imagery in a small sample of systematically recruited synesthetes and controls (n = 65). Synesthetes scored higher on some measures of creativity, personality traits of absorption and openness, and cognitive abilities of verbal comprehension and mental imagery. The differences were smaller than those reported in the literature, indicating that previous studies may have overestimated group differences, perhaps due to biased recruitment procedures. Nonetheless, most of our results replicated literature findings, yielding two possibilities: (1) our study was influenced by similar biases, or (2) differences between synesthetes and controls, though modest, are robust across recruitment methods. The covariance among our measures warrants interpretation of these differences as a pattern of associations with synesthesia, leaving open the possibility that this pattern could be explained by differences on a single measured trait, or even a hidden, untested trait. More generally, this study highlights the difficulty of comparing groups of people in psychology, not to mention neuropsychology and neuroimaging studies. The requirements discussed here – systematic recruitment procedures, large battery of tests, and large cohorts – are best fulfilled through collaborative efforts and cumulative science.     

Leaders' achievement goals and their integrative management of creative ideas voiced by subordinates or superiors

The purpose of this research was to examine the joint impact of leader achievement goals and hierarchical position of the voicer of creative ideas (subordinate vs. superior) on the extent to which leaders (intent to) integrate these voiced creative ideas with their own ideas (integrative idea management). In a scenario‐based survey (study 1; N = 189), in which we measured participants' achievement goals, we found that the relationship between leaders' performance goals and their intention to integrate voiced creative ideas is contingent on the hierarchical position of the idea voicer. Similarly, in an experimental study (study 2; N = 94), in which we experimentally induced achievement goals, we found that leaders display lower integrative intentions when ideas are voiced by a subordinate rather than a superior, but this was only true for leaders pursuing performance goals. Furthermore, the results of an additional, exploratory analysis suggest that the hierarchical position of the voicer of creative ideas had an indirect effect on integrative behavior through integrative intentions for performance goal leaders and no effect for mastery goal leaders. Together, these findings advance our understanding of how middle management leaders are influenced by their own achievement goals when managing the creative ideas voiced by subordinates and superiors.