Creators and Presses: The Person–Situation Interaction in Negative Creativity

Given the recent emphasis on exploring valence in creative behavior, this study examines negative creativity via a person–situation interactionist perspective. By manipulating goal valence (uses or misuses) and object valence (positive or negative), four conditions of an adapted Divergent Thinking task were used to predict positive and negative creativity. Participants (N = 178, 103 females, M_age = 23.82, SD = 4.03, range: 18–38) responded to a single condition along with the Big Five and Dark Triad personality scales in a between-groups design. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that goal and object valence significantly explained variance in valences of creative responses, beyond individual differences of personality. Furthermore, the congruence between goal and object valence predicted valenced creativity; that is, the positive objects and goals condition yielded more positive-original ideas, and the negative objects and goals condition yielded more negative-original ones. Object valence alone (material presses) did not contribute significantly to explaining valenced creativity. Negative-original responses were inversely related to conscientiousness, and directly to intellect/imagination and secondary psychopathy. Thus, negative creativity was attributed relatively more to person as compared to situation variables. Results are discussed from a valence-based and interactionist perspective.     

The Creative Side of the Dark Triad

This study associates the subclinical dark triad (DT) of personality—narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, and their composite—with negative creativity. An instrument developed by the author assessed the likelihood of engaging in creativity, where negative creativity was defined as an act that is original and useful to the individual. The strength of association between creativity, positivity, and negativity was assessed via an Implicit Association Test. The DT scales, Creativity measure, and the IAT were administered to 51 Indian adults (M _age = 22.3 years, 27 women). Multiple regression analyses revealed positive associations between narcissism and positive creativity, and between psychopathy and negative creativity. Further, the composite DT score predicted engagement in negative creativity. The associative strength between negativity and creativity on the IAT was not significant, though corollaries were drawn. Limitations and contributions of this study are outlined, and suggestions for future research are summarized.     

The Measurement of Negative Creativity: Metrics and Relationships

Although the dark side of creativity and negative creativity are shaping into legitimate subconstructs, measures to assess the same remain to be validated. To meet this goal, two studies assessed the convergent, predictive, and criterion-related validities of two valence-inclusive creativity measures. One measure assessed the self-report endorsement of social creativity, and the other was an Alternate Uses Test (AUT) assessing generation of nonsocial creativity. Participants (N = 129, 88 women, M_age = 25.09 years, SD = 10.03) completed the two creativity measures and three Dark Triad personality scales (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) through an online form. Correlations and multiple regressions were employed in the studies. Study 1 assessed the convergent and predictive validities between the two measures. Results indicated a strong convergence on the measurement of positive creativity, but not on negative creativity. Study 2 used the Dark Triad of personality as an external criterion to evaluate the criterion-related validity of the measurement of negative creativity. Although the Dark Triad predicted the self-reported endorsement of negative creativity, there was no discernable relationship with the generation of negative-creative responses on the AUT. Implications of current results, and suggestions for future metrics of valence-inclusive creativity are discussed.     

Sex role identity,marital power,and marital satisfaction among middle-class couples in India

The study attempted to ascertain the circumstances or conditions under which power structure in families may vary from husband domination to egalitarianism and to wife domination. Power was inferred on the basis of decision-making outcome. Among the antecedents were included two variables of wives' employment and androgyny. Consequences of power were explored with reference to marital satisfaction. Data were collected through in-home interviews conducted with husbands and wives in 101 families. The results indicated wives' employment and androgyny to be significantly and positively related to their decision-making authority in the family. Also, as compared to those in autonomic or wife-dominated families, respondents in syncratic and husband-dominated families reported higher levels of marital satisfaction. Results are explained in the light of theoretical formulations relating to resources and norms. The need for taking an unconventional approach to the conceptualization of resources is stressed.     

Connotative meaning of abortion and attitude towards M.T.P

Acceptance of India's Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill, enacted in 1972 to liberalize abortion, has been affected by cultural and psychological factors. To clarify the affective meaning accorded the term "abortion," the Osgood Semantic Differential technique was used with 354 subjects from South Delhi. Attitudes toward abortion were more favorable among men than women, unmarried women than married women, women with at least 2 living children, and those with at least a high school education as opposed to less educated men and women. The 6 abortion-related factors with the highest loadings were: volition, safety, morality, evaluation, legality, and potency. Analysis of mean composite attitude scores revealed a polarity profile of concepts, with rape, infanticide, promiscuity, and premarital abortion eliciting negative association and physician, baby, small family, and marital relationship eliciting positive associations. Of the 20 concepts that emerged from factor analysis, 2 clusters were identified: 1) goal-oriented concepts baby, doctor, small family, fertility, pregnancy, marital relationship, delivery, population control, birth control, and child as gift of God; and 2) means-oriented concepts Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, sterilization, abortion, infertility, morbidity, premarital abortion, promiscuity, quacks, infanticide, and rape. These findings suggest that minimal use of the term "abortion" should be made when referring to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, since this term provokes a negative affective meaning. Moreover, given the positive affective connation awarded doctors, more emphasis should be placed on their role in imparting health education material.     

Why so curious? Validation and cross‐cultural investigation of the Hindi Epistemic Curiosity Scale

Epistemic curiosity (EC) is the motive and need to seek knowledge. The present work entails validation of the English EC Scale translated into the Hindi language. Study 1 comprised confirmatory factor analysis of the Hindi scale using a sample of 223 bilingual Indians (143 females). The 10‐item two‐factor structure with Interest and Deprivation subscales was validated for the Hindi EC Scale. Convergent and discriminant validity was established, and model fits were assessed separately for males and females, along with measurement invariance testing. In Study 2, linguistic invariance testing and cross‐cultural comparisons were undertaken for a sample of 151 Indians (93 females) and 219 Americans (179 females) for the EC scales, to assess similarities in the underlying factor structure. Indians did not differ from Americans in their responses to the English EC Scale, but slight differences were observed for the Hindi EC Scale, suggesting an interplay of language and culture. Further, independent t tests compared the two samples on measures of curiosity, gossip, personality, and affect. Americans had a higher tendency toward interpersonal curiosity and agreeableness whereas Indians scored higher on intellect. Cross‐cultural and linguistic differences as well as future work are presented. In sum, the Hindi EC Scale is a valid and reliable instrument that can facilitate further translations into other Indian languages.     

Personal and socio-economic variables in relation with attitudes towards planned family

The study purpose was to examine the relationships between various personal, demographic and socioeconomic variables and attitude towards family planning on a large sample. The sample included 300 cases, representing urban and rural and male and female compositions of the population of Agra District. The Attitude Towards Family Planning (ATFP) Scale by Kapoor (1973) was used to assess the attitudes toward family planning. Age had no relationship with attitude towards family planning but education and income had substantial positive relationships (r=.56 and .40, respectively, significant at .01 level), followed by occupation showing the higher the socioeconomic status of the respondent the more favorable the attitude. Family size was found to be inversely related with attitude, indicating respondents having more children may not have favorable attitudes. This was more the case with the female sex of the child.     

Exploring the relationship between students’ values and the values of postsecondary institutions

Little is known of how institutional and individual value systems are related among university undergraduates. With three different measures and samples of college students, perceptions of university mission and values (i.e., institutional values, creating pro-social climates, and developing a life-long commitment to values) loaded independently of their personal values systems, and often negatively with social desirability. Perceptions of institutional values were generally independent of personal value systems, using either a rank-order (Sample 1, n = 199) or rating scale method (Sample 2, n = 107), or by focusing on moral behavior structures (Sample 3, n = 208). Together, these results indicate that higher education assessment may reflect institutional values that are independent of student personal value systems.Portions of this paper were presented at the 2004 Institute for College Student Values, Tallahassee, FL     

Impact of Depression and Anxiety on the Quality of Life of Constipated Patients

Constipation negatively affects quality of life (QOL), however, the specific mechanisms through which this relationship occurs are unclear. The present study examined anxiety and depression as potential mediators of the relationship between constipation severity and QOL in a sample of 142 constipated patients. Results indicated that depression symptom severity mediated the relationship between constipation severity and mental health-related QOL. For patients meeting diagnostic criteria for Major Depressive Disorder, indirect effects were observed in the relationship between constipation severity and both physical and mental health-related QOL. Anxiety did not contribute to this model. Treating depression may be useful in improving QOL in severely constipated patients, which highlights the importance of psychological screening and treatment referrals in primary care settings.