Contemporary Studies on the Concept of Creativity: the East and the West

This article reviews contemporary studies on the concept of creativity across two cultures—Eastern (Asian) cultures and Western (American and European) cultures — by examining two bodies of literature. One is on people's implicit theories of creativity across different cultures and the other is on cross‐cultural studies of creativity. Studies on implicit theories of creativity in the East suggest that many Asians have similar but not identical conceptions of creativity to many people in the West. Cross‐cultural studies of creativity reveal that Easterners and Westerners differ, on average, in their divergent‐thinking performance and creative expressions. A view of creativity as relatively culture‐specific is presented and the appropriateness of using divergent‐thinking tests to measure creativity is discussed.     

The impact of social constraints on adjustment following a romantic breakup

Following a romantic breakup, people often seek opportunities to talk with close others. Although talking with others may prove helpful for some, the social‐cognitive processing (SCP) model posits that interpersonal interactions can hinder adjustment if disclosers perceive social constraints. The current research marked the first time the SCP model was explored with regard to the dissolution of romantic relationships (N = 217). Consistent with the SCP model, social constraints were associated with greater psychological distress, and avoidance of dissolution‐related thoughts and discussion partially mediated the relation between social constraints and psychological distress as levels of social support decreased. Social support may provide a buffer against engaging in avoidance behaviors in response to feeling socially constrained.     

A Mutual-Help Project for Families of Handicapped Children

The authors describe a program for families of handicapped children that features educational programs and parent and sibling support groups.     

Love stories

This article presents a view of love as a story. The basic idea is that through the interaction of our personal attributes with the environment, the latter of which we in part create, we develop stories about love that we then seek to fulfill in our lives. Various potential partners fit these stories to greater and lesser degrees, and we are more likely to be attracted to and then to become intimate with partners who better fulfill the roles we have created in our stories. Each story has two complementary roles, and people tend to be satisfied in relationships when they can match persons to ideal stories and roles within those stones. A tentative taxonomy of some kinds of stories is presented, and the characteristics of the stones are described. The view is also related to contemporary theories of love, and it is argued that the current view is complementary with these theories, in that it answers different questions about the nature of love than do the other theories.     

Cognitive Mechanisms in Human Creativity: Is Variation Blind or Sighted?

It is argued that the cognitive mechanisms in human creativity are, for the most part, sighted rather than blind. The article opens with a review of attempts to apply evolutionary ideas to psychology. It continues with an argument that blind-variation ideas seem to apply well in some areas of psychology, but that the psychology of human creativity is not one of these areas. An alternative sighted-variation framework is then proposed. It is argued, nevertheless, that the blind-variation system of biological evolution itself shows emergent creative properties, even though this system does not serve as an appropriate model for human creativity.     

Construct validation of a triangular love scale

This article presents a construct validation of a love scale based upon a triangular theory of love. The article opens with a review of some of the major theories of love, and with a discussion of some of the major issues in love research. Next it briefly reviews selected elements of the triangular theory of love, according to which love can be understood as comprising three components—intimacy, passion, and decision/commitment. Then the article presents two studies constituting the construct validation of the love scale. The construct validation comprises aspects of internal validation—determination of whether the internal structure of the data is consistent with the theory—and external validation—determination of whether the scale based on the theory shows sensible patterns of correlations with external measures. The data are generally, but not completely supportive of the utility of the triangular love scale. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Propulsion Model of Creative Contributions Applied to the Arts and Letters

This article applies a propulsion model of creative contributions to the arts and letters. The basic notion is that creative contributions differ not only in the amounts of creativity they display but also in the types of creative contributions they make. The article opens with a general discussion of creative contributions and next considers some existing models of creative contributions. It then describes the propulsion model for understanding creative contributions and suggests eight types of contributions that follow from the propulsion model. Next the article describes some contributions in the arts and letters and shows how the propulsion model can be applied to understanding them. Finally the article discusses why such a model can be useful in evaluating the status of creative work, of individuals, and of a domain.