From growth and fixed creative mindsets to creative thinking: an investigation of the mediating role of creativity motivation.

Studies documenting and seeking to understand the mindset effect have yielded mixed and inconclusive findings. The present study sought to address the research question pertaining to the mindset effect on creative thinking and its underlying mechanism from the perspectives of social cognitive theory and mindset theory, which postulate a motivational mechanism underlying the mindset-creativity link. Specifically, this study aimed to examine the mediating role of creativity motivation in the effects of growth and fixed creative mindsets on creative thinking. A convenience sample of 948 college students from three universities in Hong Kong participated in the study. Creative mindset, creativity motivation, and creative thinking were assessed using the Chinese version of the Creative Mindset Scale, the Creativity Motivation Scale, and the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP), respectively. Lending support to the perspectives of social cognitive and mindset theories, the results of mediation analyses conducted using Preacher and Hayes's bootstrapping approach indicated that creativity motivation had partial mediating effects on the positive and negative roles of growth and fixed mindsets, respectively, in creative thinking. Enriching the research on the motivation mechanism underlying the impacts of creative mindsets on creative thinking, the results further illustrated that creativity motivation has a stronger mediating effect on the impact of growth creative mindset on creative thinking than on that of fixed creative mindset. The possible theoretical and educational implications of the findings of this research are discussed.

The role of alpha oscillations in free- and goal-directed semantic associations.

Alpha oscillations are known to play a central role in several higher-order cognitive functions, especially selective attention, working memory, semantic memory, and creative thinking. Nonetheless, we still know very little about the role of alpha in the generation of more remote semantic associations, which is key to creative and semantic cognition. Furthermore, it remains unclear how these oscillations are shaped by the intention to "be creative," which is the case in most creativity tasks. We aimed to address these gaps in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we compared alpha oscillatory activity (using a method which distinguishes genuine oscillatory activity from transient events) during the generation of free associations which were more vs. less distant from a given concept. In Experiment 2, we replicated these findings and also compared alpha oscillatory activity when people were generating free associations versus associations with the instruction to be creative (i.e. goal-directed). We found that alpha was consistently higher during the generation of more distant semantic associations, in both experiments. This effect was widespread, involving areas in both left and right hemispheres. Importantly, the instruction to be creative seems to increase alpha phase synchronisation from left to right temporal brain areas, suggesting that intention to be creative changed the flux of information in the brain, likely reflecting an increase in top-down control of semantic search processes. We conclude that goal-directed generation of remote associations relies on top-down mechanisms compared to when associations are freely generated.

N1 and LNC Reveal the Differential Electrophysiological Signatures of Functional and Hedonic Images Processing.

In the process of creative sentence or phrase utilization, novel and appropriate evaluations cause the different brain responses observed in event-related potentials: the N400 reflects the novelty evaluation, whereas a late negative component marks appropriate processing. Do we have similar brain reactions in image perception when we rapidly browse pictures of objects with different novelty, functional/appropriate, and hedonic value? To explore this question, participants were presented with four novel object images with high or low functional and hedonic properties, as well as the ordinary product images, with the instruction to attentively observe and understand each image. We found a clear dissociation between processing of novelty and functional value: novelty objects produced negative deflections in the N2-N400 time window relative to the ordinary object images, whereas images with high functional value elicited a larger N2 and late negative waves (LNC) resembling the late component found for the appropriate phrases. Object images with high hedonic value, however, were associated with earlier aesthetic preference reflected in smaller N1 amplitudes, but failed to elicit a LNC effect. We therefore conclude that the processing of novelty, functional, and hedonic value are dissociation, and the perception of hedonic value is earlier (N1) than the novelty processing (N400) and the verification of functional value (LNC).

Sparking creativity: Encouraging creative idea generation through automatically generated word recommendations.

Creative block is a familiar foe to any who attempt to create and is especially related to "writers block". While significant effort has been focused on developing methods to break such blocks, it remains an active challenge. Here, we focus on the role of semantic memory structure in driving creative block, by having people get "stuck" in a certain part of their semantic memory network. We directly examine whether we can "pull out" a participant from where they got "stuck" in their semantic memory, breaking their creative impasse. Our Associative Creativity Sparker (ACS) is a cognitive network science-based online tool that aims to spark creative ideas and break creative impasse: Once a participant runs out of ideas in a creative idea generation task, word recommendations are suggested to prime new ideas. These word recommendations are either towards or away from previous ideas, as well as close or far from the target object, based on a conceptual space extracted from the participants responses using online text analysis. In Study 1, 121 participants use the ACS to generate creative alternative uses for five different objects and completed creativity and Gf tasks. In Study 2, we repeat the design of Study 1, but further examine the impact of writing experience on the ACS, by examining 120 novice and 120 experienced writers. Across both studies, our results indicate that the location of word recommendations affects the fluency and originality of one's ideas, and that novice and experienced writers differently benefit from these word recommendations.

Exploring the effects of negative supervisory feedback on creativity among research and development personnel: challenge or threat?

Supervisory feedback to stimulate research and development (R&D) employee creativity is a management issue that concerns scholars and practitioners. However, there are divergences and contradictions regarding whether negative feedback promotes or hinders employee creativity. Integrating the feedback intervention and cognitive appraisal theories, we developed a double-edged sword model for negative supervisory feedback's influence on creativity. We tested the proposed model using a field sample of 513 R&D employees from seven science and technology enterprises. The results indicated that R&D employee challenge and threat appraisal moderated negative supervisory feedback's effect on prevention focus and the distal consequences for creativity. Individuals with high (low) levels of challenge (threat) appraisal have decreased prevention focus, thereby increasing their creativity when receiving negative supervisory feedback. In contrast, individuals with low (high) challenge (threat) appraisal have increased prevention focus, thereby decreasing their creativity when receiving negative supervisory feedback. These findings offer interesting implications for research on negative feedback and stimulation of science and technology R&D employee creativity in organizations.

Learning professionalism using creativity and diversity concepts.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Professionalism is a multidimensional sociocultural construct that is abstract, evolving and context-dependent in nature. This has made the teaching and assessment of professionalism in healthcare complex and challenging. A lack of professionalism can increase patient risk and litigation. BACKGROUND: This article examines group creativity and diversity across healthcare and non-healthcare disciplines and how they can assist students in constructing their own understandings and knowledge of professionalism. It is proposed that linking professionalism to creativity will improve understanding on how to help students studying healthcare learn about professionalism better. METHODS: A total of 30 students from different tertiary levels and across disciplines participated in the study. They explored either a gallery or museum and examined an artefact relating to professionalism. Learning experiences were evaluated via survey results and thematic analyses of their reflective essays and semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: Participants reported increased understanding of professionalism and appreciation of perspectives and skills of others. The creative aspect of the task was fun and engaging, and group diversity enabled different opinions and perspectives to be heard and shared. This is analogous to a professional working environment. Themes generated from the essays were: (a) intrinsic motivation, (b) diversity, (c) learnings of professionalism, and (d) challenge encountered. CONCLUSION: The results of this research make a meaningful contribution to existing literature by empirically demonstrating that students from different disciplines could better construct their own understandings of professionalism when their learning activities were performed in an authentically creative and diverse setting. This educational concept is underpinned by diverse types of creativities that are not mutually exclusive. It is hoped that this first piece of evidence will stimulate more studies on utilising group creativity and diversity in healthcare education.

The impact of parenting style on malevolent creativity based on Chinese university students: a latent profile analysis.

Introduction: This study investigated the association between parenting styles and malevolent creativity. Methods: It used latent profile analysis to compare the differences in malevolent creativity between different combinations of parenting styles with an online sample (N = 620). Results: The results of the study suggest that a three-profile solution best fits the data, and the three profiles were labelled positive open parenting, undifferentiated parenting and negative limited parenting. Subsequent analyses revealed that there were significant differences in malevolent creativity performance among the three parenting styles, with participants in the positive open parenting having more malevolent creativity. Those with undifferentiated parenting had the lowest scores. Discussion: The findings provide theoretical guidance for parenting strategies. Future intervention studies on malevolent creativity should also consider the potential impact of parenting style to obtain better results.

Team interaction behaviors correlates with team creativity among nursing students: Canonical correlation and moderation analyses.

BACKGROUND: Prior studies have indicated team members' interaction behaviors may predict creativity among nursing students. METHODS: This study investigated the correlation between interaction behaviors and creativity, both individual- and team-level, among nursing students. In this cross-sectional quantitative study, data were obtained from self-reported questionnaires. Individual creativity was assessed using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking scale; the perceived team interaction behavior and team creativity were assessed using validated instruments. Canonical correlation analysis was conducted to determine the overall correlation between interaction behaviors, and creativity, and the moderating effect of female proportion dominance was also examined. RESULTS: A total of 164 nursing students (84.1% female) arranged into 14 teams were included in this study. Canonical correlation analysis showed a positive correlation between interaction behaviors and creativity (correlation = 0.88). All dimensions of interactive behaviors were positively related to creativity dimensions. A stronger correlation to team creativity (correlation = 1) was found compared to individual creativity (correlation = 0.07). This study demonstrated that individual interactive behaviors including spontaneous communication and helping behavior predicted high team creativity. CONCLUSIONS: This insight may be valuable for nursing education programs seeking to foster creativity and effective teamwork. The potential moderating effect of female proportions on team interaction behaviors and creativity should be investigated further.

Creative ideas generation and personality: evidence from process communication model.

The present study investigated the relation between personality and ideas generation abilities. Ideas generation was assessed by the "egg task" in which participants had to generate as many solutions as possible to design ways to drop a hen's egg from a height of 10 m so that it does not break. The 102 participants were also presented with the standard Process Communication Model (PCM) questionnaire. Results suggest that idea generation varied according to PCM Base Type of participants. Even if five out of six Base Types (Thinker, Persister, Harmonizer, Promoter and Rebel) presented similar fluency and categorical flexibility, Imaginer Base presented higher scores than other Base Types. These results, discussed according to cognitive control abilities, reinforce the view that PCM can highlight an individual's creative performance considering interindividual differences.

Standing out: an atypical salience account of creativity.

Creativity often entails gaining a novel perspective, yet it remains uncertain how this is accomplished. Atypical salience processing may foster creative thinking by prioritizing putatively irrelevant information, thereby broadening the material accessible for idea generation and inhibiting attentional fixedness; in essence, motivating creative individuals to incorporate information that others overlook.

Default mode network electrophysiological dynamics and causal role in creative thinking.

The default mode network (DMN) is a widely distributed, intrinsic brain network thought to play a crucial role in internally-directed cognition. The present study employs stereo-electroencephalography in 13 human patients, obtaining high resolution neural recordings across multiple canonical DMN regions during two processes that have been associated with creative thinking: spontaneous and divergent thought. We probe these two DMN-associated higher cognitive functions through mind wandering and alternate uses tasks, respectively. Our results reveal DMN recruitment during both tasks, as well as a task-specific dissociation in spatiotemporal response dynamics. When compared to the fronto-parietal network, DMN activity was characterized by a stronger increase in gamma band power (30-70 Hz) coupled with lower theta band power (4-8 Hz). The difference in activity between the two networks was especially strong during the mind wandering task. Within the DMN, we found that the tasks showed different dynamics, with the alternate uses task engaging the DMN more during the initial stage of the task, and mind wandering in the later stage. Gamma power changes were mainly driven by lateral DMN sites, while theta power displayed task-specific effects. During alternate uses task, theta changes did not show spatial differences within the DMN, while mind wandering was associated to an early lateral and late dorsomedial DMN engagement. Furthermore, causal manipulations of DMN regions using direct cortical stimulation preferentially decreased the originality of responses in the alternative uses task, without affecting fluency or mind wandering. Our results suggest that DMN activity is flexibly modulated as a function of specific cognitive processes and supports its causal role in divergent thinking. These findings shed light on the neural constructs supporting different forms of cognition and provide causal evidence for the role of DMN in the generation of original connections among concepts.

Why creatives don't find the oddball odd: Neural and psychological evidence for atypical salience processing.

Creativity has previously been linked with various attentional phenomena, including unfocused or broad attention. Although this has typically been interpreted through an executive functioning framework, such phenomena may also arise from atypical incentive salience processing. Across two studies, we examine this hypothesis both neurally and psychologically. First we examine the relationship between figural creativity and event-related potentials during an audio-visual oddball task, finding that rater creativity of drawings is associated with a diminished P300 response at midline electrodes, while abstractness and elaborateness of the drawings is associated with an altered distribution of the P300 over posterior electrodes. These findings support the notion that creativity may involve an atypical attribution of salience to prominent information. We further explore the incentive salience hypothesis by examining relationships between creativity and a psychological indicator of incentive salience captured by participants' ratings of enjoyment (liking) and their motivation to pursue (wanting) diverse real world rewards, as well as their positive spontaneous thoughts about those rewards. Here we find enhanced motivation to pursue activities as well as a reduced relationship between the overall tendency to enjoy rewards and the tendency to pursue them. Collectively, these findings indicate that creativity may be associated with atypical allocation of attentional and motivational resources to novel and rewarding information, potentially allowing more types of information access to attentional resources and motivating more diverse behaviors. We discuss the possibility that salience attribution in creatives may be less dependent on task-relevance or hedonic pleasure, and suggest that atypical salience attribution may represent a trait-like feature of creativity.

The Impact of Exercise and Health Management on Workplace Creativity.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate Japan's service sector employees to determine whether employee creativity is associated with the provision of a fitness program (that encourages employees to perform physical exercise) or a health and productivity management (H&PM) program at the workplace. Design: This was a cross-sectional study. Methods: A nationwide online survey was conducted using stratified sampling. Data were obtained for respondents' demographic characteristics, subjective health, exercise frequency, and organizational wellness support. Workplace creativity, psychological safety, and leadership were evaluated using standardized scales. A binary logistic regression was performed to examine the relationship between organizational wellness support programs and workplace creativity. Results: Respondents were 1,955 full-time employees in private-sector organizations (979 men and 976 women; mean age 40.30 ± 10.85). Workplace creativity was significantly more likely respondents whose employers provided a fitness program (adjusted OR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.39-2.48, p<.001) or an H&PM program (adjusted OR = 2.07, 95% CI = 1.53-2.80, p<.001). Furthermore, workplace creativity was significantly more likely in employees who perceived themselves as rather healthy or healthy. Employees who exercised frequently over the past year were more likely to display creativity than those never exercised. Conclusions: Workplace creativity was associated with good subjective health, high exercise frequency, and organizational wellness support programs offered by employers. Human resource management for employees' fitness and health is crucial for cultivating the productivity and innovation necessary for business success.

Self-perceived relations between artistic creativity and mental illness: a study into lived experiences.

Aim: To explore the self-perceived relationships between experiences of creativity and mental illness and to understand the meanings behind these relationships. Background: The idea that mental illness and artistic creativity are somehow related dates back to ancient times. There is some evidence for an actual correlation, but many questions remain unanswered on the nature and direction of the relationship. Qualitative contributions to the debate are scarce, and mainly focus on the potential benefits of participation in the arts for people with mental illness. Design: An explorative, interpretive study. Methods: Twenty-four professional and semi-professional artists with self-reported experience with mental illness, were recruited purposively. Unstructured in-depth interviews were conducted and transcripts were subjected to interpretive analysis, guided by a hermeneutic phenomenological frame. Results: Participants experience a range of interactions between artistic creativity and mental illness. Three constitutive patterns describe what these interactions look like: "flow as a powerful force"; "ambiguous self-manifestation"; and "narrating experiences of suffering." Conclusion: The findings show that both the concept of creativity and the concept of mental illness, as well as their interrelationships, are layered and complex phenomena that can take on different meanings in people's lives. The findings provide starting points for further research that goes beyond the polarized academic debate. Understanding the experiences of artists with mental illness can help shape the role of art in public mental health and mental health care.

Characterizing features of creative writing in older adults.

OBJECTIVES: How does creative expression change across the lifespan? While creativity is generally preserved well into adulthood, certain cognitive functions, such as episodic detail and ideational fluency, have been shown to decline with age. The present study employs computational linguistic analyses to investigate the salient features of creative writing in older adults. METHODS: We collected short stories from a sample of 50 older adults (age 65≤) which were subsequently rated for creativity by an independent set of participants. Mixed-effects linear regression models were used to describe semantic diversity and perceptual details as predictors of creativity. Semantic diversity reflects the extent to which a narrative connects divergent ideas and is closely associated with creativity. Perceptual details, characterized by sensorial descriptions, have been previously associated with creative writing and may serve to transport readers to alternative times and places. Additionally, we compare these measures to a previously collected sample of stories from younger adults. RESULTS: Results indicate that the presence of perceptual details and semantic diversity were significant positive predictors of creativity (p<.05). Moreover, we find that stories written by older adults contain fewer perceptual details compared with stories written by younger adults. DISCUSSION: These results advance our understanding of age-related changes in creativity and highlight the potential role of episodic simulation in the writing of creative short stories.

[Imagination at the source of creation, in healthcare as elsewhere]. / L'imagination aux sources de la création, dans le soin comme ailleurs.

This article proposes to show not only how imagination unfolds in the various fields of our human experience, but above all to account for the emergence of significant novelties. Or how the creative imagination gives birth to novel agentivities (be they works, beings, new ways of doing, acting and becoming) and engages us in a poetics of caring for the world.

Differential effects of digital mindfulness-based interventions on creative potential and responsibility among middle school students.

BACKGROUND: Creativity and responsibility are enhanced by meditation among adults, but such effects have not been studied in adolescents. Moreover, the determinants of the ethical effect (such as responsibility) of meditation are unclear. AIMS: To address this gap by investigating the impact of digital in-class meditation programmes in middle school, focusing on intentions (self-centred vs. responsibility-centred), on adolescents' creative potential and sense of responsibility. These intentions are operationalized by different purpose-based meditations. METHODS: We conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial involving 107 year 7 adolescents from six classes, assigning them to two experimental groups and an active control group. Pre- and post-intervention assessments were conducted over an 11-week period, including a creativity (EPoC) test comprising four exercises (graphic and verbal, divergent and convergent thinking), a responsibility and a mindfulness scale. RESULTS: Our findings revealed no discernible effects on divergent thinking or self-reported mindfulness. However, we observed significant differences in graphic and verbal convergent creative thinking, as well as impacting responsibility scores, between a responsibility-centred meditation group and a self-centred meditation group. Moreover, distinctions were noted between control and self-centred meditation groups and between some classes. Effect sizes indicated that the interventions had a moderate but significant impact on the variables measured. CONCLUSION: Our study reveals the effectiveness of digital meditation interventions in enhancing convergent creative thinking and responsibility among middle-school students. Notably, it shed new light on the importance of meditation intentions, which may be as significant as the form of meditation itself.

Fostering green transformational leadership: the influence of green educational intervention on nurse managers' green behavior and creativity.

AIM: This study aimed to investigate the influence of green transformational leadership educational intervention on nurse managers' green behavior and creativity. BACKGROUND: Organizational creativity is greatly influenced by leaders and their personality attributes. Additionally, innovative employee behavior is crucial for organizational performance and survival, which in turn promotes long-term organizational growth. METHOD: A quasi-experimental design was conducted by using pre-test, post-test, and follow-up for a group that included 116 nurse managers who completed the intervention. Data were collected through the green transformational leadership knowledge questionnaire, green transformational leadership scale, green behavior questionnaire, and green creativity scale. RESULTS: Following the implementation of the Green Transformational Leadership educational intervention, there was an improvement in responses connected to the nurse manager's use of green behavior and creativity. Three months after the intervention ended, the improvement was still present. CONCLUSION: Nurse managers who had good knowledge about green transformational leadership showed increased green behavior and green creativity, which enhanced the organization's success. This study showed the significance of developing and improving the skills of managerial creativity for the nurse supervisor of a hospital through training in transformational leadership. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The concept of "green transformational leadership" refers to leadership behaviors and strategies aimed at promoting environmental sustainability and responsibility within an organization or a specific context. In the case we mentioned, it involves implementing educational interventions targeted at nurse managers to enhance their understanding and adoption of green practices, as well as fostering green behavior and creativity among them.

On the connection between creativity and aesthetics.

Within cognitive psychology, there are separate experimental fields devoted to the study of creativity, on the one hand, and aesthetics, on the other, with virtually no cross-talk between them. In this article, I propose a means of uniting creativity and aesthetics via a consideration of the mechanisms of cultural evolution. I call this the creativity/aesthetics cycle. The basic tenet of the model is that creativity and aesthetics mediate, respectively, the processes of variation (production) and selection (perception or consumption) in evolutionary models of culture. By means of this cycle, creators produce works that they hope will be evaluated positively by consumers, where such appraisals ultimately feed back to influence the subsequent decision-making processes of creators. I discuss the implications of this model for the fields of creativity and aesthetics.

From Struggle to Strength: Coping with Abusive Supervision in Project Teams through Proactive Behavior and Team Building.

While considerable attention has been devoted to positive leadership patterns in the realm of project management, the dark side of leadership has rarely been studied within project teams. To address this gap, we focus on abusive supervision in project teams and develop a team-level moderated mediation model to examine whether, how, and when abusive supervision influences project outcomes by drawing from the Proactive Motivation Theory. Survey data were collected from 132 project teams containing 132 project managers and 392 project members using a multi-source time-lagged survey design. Our findings reveal significant negative relationships between abusive supervision and both project performance and project team creativity. Furthermore, we found that a team's proactive behavior plays a mediating role in these relationships. More importantly, our study identifies that team building mitigates the direct negative impact of abusive supervision on proactive behavior and the indirect effects of abusive supervision on project performance and project team creativity. These findings provide valuable theoretical and managerial implications for abusive supervision and project management scholars and practitioners.