Mind wandering in creative problem-solving: Relationships with divergent thinking and mental health.

Previous research has shown that mind wandering has both positive and negative effects. Mind wandering may improve creative problem solving; however, it could also lead to negative moods and poor mental health. It has also been shown that some forms of mental illness are positively related to creativity. However, the three factors of mind wandering, divergent thinking, and mental health have not been examined simultaneously, so it is possible that these relationships are manifested by spurious correlations. Therefore, we examined the relations among the three factors while controlling for each of their confounding effects. We asked 865 participants (458 men, 390 women, 17 unknown; Mage = 18.99 years, SD = 1.16) to complete a questionnaire measuring mind wandering traits, divergent thinking, and mental health measures including depressive symptoms and schizotypal personality. Multiple regression analysis showed that people who reported more depressive symptoms, schizotypal personality, and divergent thinking, were more likely to engage in mind-wandering. Our results indicated that frequency of mind wandering was linked to a risk of poorer mental health as well as to higher divergent thinking ability. In future research, we will examine the features of mind wandering related to divergent thinking and mental health by considering the contents of wandering thoughts and whether they are ruminative or not. We also need to examine whether the same results will be found when studying professionals in creative occupations, and when using different scoring methods in divergent thinking tests.

Does Mind Wandering During the Thought Incubation Period Improve Creativity and Worsen Mood?

Enhancing creative problem-solving is increasingly important in a modern globalized society. Previous research has shown that creative problem-solving can be improved if the mind is allowed to wander during time set aside from solving a problem, known as the incubation period. However, some research also suggests that mind wandering leads to negative affect. Our study aims to clarify the effect of mind wandering during the incubation stage on both creative problem-solving and mood while controlling for the effect of working memory capacity. Fifty-two students (both undergraduate and graduates) completed a working memory task and repeated a creative problem-solving task at intervals before and after an incubation period. At the end of the incubation period, we measured participants' frequency of mind wandering and their moods. Results showed that the group with the higher frequency of mind wandering showed the most improvement in one indicator of creativity, flexibility, although this finding was not significant after adjusting for the other four facets. Moreover, our findings indicate that as creativity improved, more negative affect was generated. Our results suggest that mind wandering during the incubation stage could be used to generate more diverse ideas but also suggest that there is a risk attached. Further research should explore how specific features of mind wandering might improve creativity without generating negative affect.

The Role of Rumination and Negative Affect in Meaning Making Following Stressful Experiences in a Japanese Sample.

Stressful experiences can lead to meaning making that is seen as central in adjustment. Although rumination and negative affect are important factors of meaning making, little is known about the mechanisms involved. This study aimed to examine the meaning making process, focusing on the role of intrusive and deliberate rumination and negative affect. The principal hypotheses were as follows: negative affect is positively related to threat evaluation and intrusive rumination, while regret and guilt are positively related to deliberate rumination; intrusive rumination is negatively related to finding meaning, whereas deliberate rumination is positively related to finding meaning. A total of 383 undergraduate students were asked to remember their most stressful life event and complete a questionnaire containing the Event Related Rumination Inventory and items about negative affect, threat evaluation, and finding meaning about the stressful life event. For 342 of the final sample, structural equation modeling based on the study hypotheses showed that both deliberate and intrusive rumination immediately after the event were positively associated with finding meaning. Intrusive rumination at present, however, was negatively related to finding meaning. This study also revealed the effects of negative affect: helplessness, sadness, and fear induced intrusive rumination; moreover, regret was positively associated with deliberate rumination.

[The role of intrusive and deliberate ruminations for meaning making in stressful events].

This study examined the relationship between meaning making and rumination regarding stressful events. We focused on two facets of rumination: intrusive and deliberate. Participants (N = 121) completed a questionnaire about a stressful event in their life that assessed the possibility of preventing the event, probability of the event occurring, perceived threat of the event, and meaning making. They also completed scales that assessed intrusive and deliberate ruminations about the event, posttraumatic growth after the event, as well as dispositions of self-rumination and self-reflection, and executive function. The results revealed that disposition of self-reflection was positively correlated with deliberate rumination about the event. Furthermore, deliberate rumination at the time of the experience was positively correlated with current positive meaning making, which was associated with current posttraumatic growth. Additionally, current intrusive rumination promoted current negative meaning making, but intrusive rumination at the time of the experience did not. Thus, this study suggests the important role of both intrusive and deliberate ruminations in the process of meaning making and several issues for future research.

[Mind-wandering enhances creative problem solving].

An "incubation period" refers to an individual's temporary shift away from an unsolved problem, which ultimately facilitates better problem solving. In this study, we experimentally examined whether creative problem solving was facilitated in accordance with the frequency of mind-wandering during an incubation period. Fifty-nine Japanese undergraduate participants (23 men and 36 women) were asked to complete the Unusual Uses Test (UUT) twice; the UUT is a traditional measurement of the various aspects of divergent thinking (including fluency, flexibility, and originality). They were also asked to rate the frequency in which they engaged in mind-wandering during the interval between UUTs, which was considered as the incubation period. The results indicated that participants who reported a higher frequency of mind-wandering during incubation exhibited more creative solutions on the UUT, especially in terms of flexibility and originality, than did those reporting a lower frequency of mind-wandering.

[Examination of rumination and meaning making in stressful events: the influence of subjective evaluation of events and personal characteristics].

This study examined the factors that influence meaning making and rumination related to stressful events. Six hypothetical scenarios were used, all of which were contextualized stressful events. Participants (N = 779) completed a questionnaire about one of the six scenarios, which assessed the possibility of preventing the event, the probability of the event occurring, the perceived threat of the event, the frequency of rumination, and meaning making. They completed a scale that assessed self-rumination and self-reflection as a way of thinking, and a scale that assessed executive function. Executive function and self-rumination were negatively correlated. Furthermore, self-rumination positively correlated with the frequency of rumination on the event. The perceived threat was high when the probability of the event occurring was low and the possibility of preventing the event was high. Although the perceived threat of the event inhibited meaning making, this was promoted by mediating the frequency of rumination. Self-reflection also directly promoted meaning making. Therefore, this study highlighted a number of factors that affect rumination and meaning making.

[The impact of mindfulness meditation on anger].

This study explores the impact of mindfulness meditation on anger. A meditation group (N = 37) attended 5-10 minutes of mindfulness meditation daily for a week. They were assessed with self-report scales measuring three aspects of anger (rumination, arousal, and lengthiness) before, just after, and four weeks after their one-week participation. Their scores were compared to a control group (N = 27), which was assessed at the same intervals as the meditation group. The meditation group was also asked to evaluate their current mood using the Affect Grid before and after each meditation. The results indicated that participants in the meditation group who continued meditation voluntarily after the week of their participation had decreased anger rumination scores just after and four weeks after their participation. Additionally, the pleasant score on the Affect Grid increased after meditation for almost all the participation days. These findings suggest the efficacy of mindfulness meditation on improving the tendency to ruminate about anger episodes in the medium-term to long-term, and also on improving mood in the short-term.

[Effects of the recipient's response on the emotions and cognitions of female undergraduates disclosing negative emotional experiences in interpersonal relationships].

The relationship between a recipient's response to a disclosure of negative emotional experiences, and the resulting negative emotions, hesitation in self-disclosure (interpersonal and intra-personal hesitation), and negatively-confused thoughts of the person making the disclosure were investigated. Female undergraduates (N=271) were asked to write about angry or sad events in their interpersonal relationships that they had disclosed to someone. Then they completed a questionnaire assessing the recipient's responses, negative emotions such as anger and depression caused by the recipient's responses, hesitation in self-disclosure about the events, and negatively-confused thoughts about the events. The results of covariance structure analysis indicated that a recipient's rejection in response to the disclosure of negative emotional experiences resulted in negative thoughts caused by an increase of negative emotions and hesitation in self-disclosure. The results also showed that a recipient's acceptance also increased depression in the person making the self-disclosure, which intensified the intra-personal hesitation, and increased negatively-confused thoughts.

[Factors influencing the sense of unintegration of thoughts in maintaining anger].

Endo and Yukawa (2012) investigated the process of maintaining anger and demonstrated that a sense of unintegration of thoughts maintained anger by promoting recurrent thinking and avoidance behavior. Our present study examined how personality characteristics and situational factors affected the process of maintaining anger. Undergraduates (N=713) wrote about an anger episode, and completed questionnaires assessing their sense of unintegration of thoughts, recurrent thinking, avoidance behaviors, and maintaining anger. The questionnaires also assessed personality characteristics such as difficulty in identifying feelings, and situational factors such as the need for maintaining relationships, anger arousability, and meaning-making for the anger episode. The results of covariance structure analysis indicated that difficulties in identifying feelings and anger arousability contributed to maintaining anger by increasing the sense of unintegration of thoughts just after the episode. However, the need for maintaining relationships directly reduced the sense of unintegration of thoughts just after the episode, and indirectly decreased the present sense of unintegration of thoughts by meaning-making. Moreover, although recurrent thinking promoted the current sense of unintegration of thoughts, it also provided meaning.

[The mediating roles of cognition and behavior in the process of maintaining anger].

Relationships were investigated between the sense of unintegration of thoughts, recurrent thinking, and avoidance behavior, which are considered to be factors in maintaining anger. Undergraduate students (N = 990) were asked to write about anger episodes that they had experienced a week or more ago. Then, they completed a questionnaire assessing their sense of unintegration of thoughts at the present time and just after the episode, their present recurrent thinking, their avoidance behavior after the episode, and their present degree of anger. The results of covariance structure analysis indicated that the sense of unintegration of thoughts just after the episode maintained anger through recurrent thinking. Recurrent thinking also intensified their present sense of unintegration of thoughts, which directly maintained anger. Moreover, the sense of unintegration of thoughts just after the episode led to an increase in avoidance behavior, which was related to recurrent thinking.

[Writing about emotional dissonance in client experiences benefits human service professionals].

The present study examined whether burnout and negative ruminations of helping professional were reduced by writing about their dissonant emotional experiences. Twenty helping professionals were randomly assigned to either the experimental condition (writing about emotionally dissonant experiences for three weeks) or the control condition (without writing). The results revealed that participants in the experimental condition had significantly lower scores for emotional dissonance than the control group immediately and three weeks after the experimental intervention. Qualitative analyses of the content written by the participants showed that individuals who had more beneficial change on the score for emotional dissonance wrote more cognitive words. This correlation suggests that writing about emotional dissonance may facilitate cognitive restructuring of emotional experiences, which results in decreasing emotional dissonance.

The effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behaviors: international evidence from correlational, longitudinal, and experimental studies.

Although dozens of studies have documented a relationship between violent video games and aggressive behaviors, very little attention has been paid to potential effects of prosocial games. Theoretically, games in which game characters help and support each other in nonviolent ways should increase both short-term and long-term prosocial behaviors. We report three studies conducted in three countries with three age groups to test this hypothesis. In the correlational study, Singaporean middle-school students who played more prosocial games behaved more prosocially. In the two longitudinal samples of Japanese children and adolescents, prosocial game play predicted later increases in prosocial behavior. In the experimental study, U.S. undergraduates randomly assigned to play prosocial games behaved more prosocially toward another student. These similar results across different methodologies, ages, and cultures provide robust evidence of a prosocial game content effect, and they provide support for the General Learning Model.

Longitudinal effects of violent video games on aggression in Japan and the United States.

CONTEXT: Youth worldwide play violent video games many hours per week. Previous research suggests that such exposure can increase physical aggression. OBJECTIVE: We tested whether high exposure to violent video games increases physical aggression over time in both high- (United States) and low- (Japan) violence cultures. We hypothesized that the amount of exposure to violent video games early in a school year would predict changes in physical aggressiveness assessed later in the school year, even after statistically controlling for gender and previous physical aggressiveness. DESIGN: In 3 independent samples, participants' video game habits and physically aggressive behavior tendencies were assessed at 2 points in time, separated by 3 to 6 months. PARTICIPANTS: One sample consisted of 181 Japanese junior high students ranging in age from 12 to 15 years. A second Japanese sample consisted of 1050 students ranging in age from 13 to 18 years. The third sample consisted of 364 United States 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-graders ranging in age from 9 to 12 years. RESULTS. Habitual violent video game play early in the school year predicted later aggression, even after controlling for gender and previous aggressiveness in each sample. Those who played a lot of violent video games became relatively more physically aggressive. Multisample structure equation modeling revealed that this longitudinal effect was of a similar magnitude in the United States and Japan for similar-aged youth and was smaller (but still significant) in the sample that included older youth. CONCLUSIONS: These longitudinal results confirm earlier experimental and cross-sectional studies that had suggested that playing violent video games is a significant risk factor for later physically aggressive behavior and that this violent video game effect on youth generalizes across very different cultures. As a whole, the research strongly suggests reducing the exposure of youth to this risk factor.

Relationship between diary-keeping and tendencies toward alexithymia and rumination.

Relationships between diary-keeping and tendencies toward alexithymia and rumination were studied in 118 Japanese participants. Participants completed a questionnaire that assessed diary-keeping habits (both regular and Web diaries), alexithymia, and rumination. Individuals who wrote about their daily events epically (i.e., focusing on actions and events) in a regular diary considered both identifying and describing their feelings and controlling negative rumination to be less difficult than those who wrote lyrically (i.e., focusing on emotions). Those people who sometimes kept a diary on the Internet reported it was more difficult to both identify and describe their feelings and control negative rumination than those who did not write at all.

Attachment style, self-concealment, and interpersonal distance among Japanese undergraduates.

The relationships among attachment style, self-concealment, and interpersonal distance were studied with 71 Japanese undergraduates (33 men and 38 women, ages 18 to 20 years, M = 18.7, SD= .6). Participants completed a questionnaire about Self-concealment and Attachment Styles (Secure, Anxious, and Avoidant). One week later, Interpersonal Distance, which individuals maintain between themselves and others, was measured by the stop-distance paradigm. Analysis showed that scores for more Anxious and Avoidant Attachment Styles were positively correlated with those for greater Self-concealment. Scores for greater Self-concealment and more Anxious Attachment Style were also correlated with longer Interpersonal Distance.

Sex differences in relationships among anger, depression, and coping strategies of Japanese students.

This study investigated sex differences in the relationships among an ger, depression, and coping strategies. Undergraduate students, 77 men and 130 women, 3 not identified by sex, voluntarily participated. Participants made ratings on a self-report about anger, depression, coping strategies, and mental health. Analyses showed that women who reported themselves as angry tended to cope with stress by optimistic and active strategies, while women who reported themselves as depressed tended to cope with stress by withdrawn and passive strategies. Men who reported being depressed tended to select emotion-focused cognitive coping, while men who reported being angry selected no specific coping. Adoption of engaged emotion focused coping strategies were related to mental health only for women.

[Anger expressive behaviors and its inhibitory factors in Japanese junior high school students: from the aspect to narcissism and norms].

This study investigated inhibitory factors in anger expressive behaviors among Japanese junior high school students. It also examined the relations between anger experiences and personality traits: verbal expression and narcissism. The result indicated that the factors of "friend relationships" and "cost-reward consciousness" were selected as those which inhibited anger expressive behaviors. Results of a covariance structure analysis were as follows. First, narcissistic personality elicited feelings of anger and depression and cognitions of inflating and calming, which all facilitated aggressive behavior, social sharing, and object-displacement as anger expressive behaviors. Second, verbal expression elicited cognitions of objectifying and self-reproaching, and the former inhibited anger expressive behaviors, though the latter facilitated them. Finally, "cost-reward consciousness" inhibited anger expressive behaviors for boys, while "normative consciousness" inhibited them for girls.

[The calming process of anger experience: time series changes of affects, cognitions, and behaviors].

This study investigated time series changes and relationships of affects, cognitions, and behaviors immediately, a few days, and a week after anger episodes. Two hundred undergraduates (96 men, and 104 women) completed a questionnaire. The results were as follows. Anger intensely aroused immediately after anger episodes, and was rapidly calmed as time passed. Anger and depression correlated in each period, so depression was accompanied with anger experiences. The results of covariance structure analysis showed that aggressive behavior was evoked only by affects (especially anger) immediately, and was evoked only by cognitions (especially inflating) a few days after the episode. One week after the episode, aggressive behavior decreased, and was not influenced by affects and cognitions. Anger elicited all anger-expressive behaviors such as aggressive behavior, social sharing, and object-displacement, while depression accompanied with anger episodes elicited only object-displacement.

[Anger experience and the process of calming down].

This study investigated the affects and behaviors that accompany and follow anger episodes, and examined the relationship among them, in hope of developing self-regulated and effective methods of controlling anger. With an open-ended questionnaire, 42 anger episodes were collected and categorized. Results suggested that typical anger episodes were instigated by selfishness, insult, coercion, and trouble and a close person such as friends was often the cause and target of anger. Surprise and depression frequently accompanied it, and eight forms of response followed: rationalization, cause searching, aggression, social sharing, displacement to object, mood change, forgetfulness, and rumination. Another questionnaire examined the relationship among these variables, as well as trait anger, perception of malice, and sense of injury, with a sample of 118 undergraduates. Results indicated, first, that sense of injury was heightened by trait anger and malice perception. Second, anger and depression were evoked only by a sense of injury. Finally, while anger without depression evoked aggression, anger with depression led to mood change and forgetfulness.

Diminished sense of self-existence and self-reported aggression among Japanese students.

This study examined the relationship between a diminished sense of self-existence and self-reported aggression among Japanese undergraduate students. Based on the previous scales, 81 items were developed to measure the diminished sense of self-existence and were assumed to represent three dimensions: self, others, and time. 286 undergraduate students rated themselves on the Diminished Sense of Self-existence Scale and the 1992 Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Analysis indicated that men and women had low scores on Verbal Aggression and high scores on Hostility with the diminished sense of self-existence. The diminished sense of self-existence was not generally related to Anger or Physical Aggression in men, whereas in women, Anger and Physical Aggression were found particularly when the sense of self-existence in relations with others was diminished.