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.

Positive and negative affect facilitate creativity motivation: Findings on the effects of habitual mood and experimentally induced emotion.

This research involved two investigations that examined the effects of two types of affect (i.e., mood and emotion) on creativity motivation. Study 1 examined the degree to which noninduced habitual mood impacted creativity motivation in the context of a group of junior secondary school students in Hong Kong (n = 588), while Study 2 examined the effect of the experimental manipulation of emotion induction on creativity motivation in the context of a group of undergraduate students in Hong Kong (n = 653). The Chinese version of the Creativity Motivation Scale, the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Short Form, and the Affect Grid were employed to assess creativity motivation, mood, and emotional states, respectively. Interesting findings were obtained. First, both studies consistently demonstrated a facilitating role of positive and negative affect in creativity motivation. Second, both studies consistently showed that the impact of positive affect on creativity motivation was stronger than that of negative affect. While previous affect-creativity research has focused predominantly on the role of affect in the cognitive components of creativity and yielded mixed results, this research adds to the literature by showing that students' motivation to engage in creativity-related behaviors can be influenced by a broad spectrum of affective experiences (i.e., positive and negative affect, stable and enduring moods, and momentary and mutable emotions). The theoretical and educational implications of the findings are highlighted.

Gender Differences in the Distribution of Creativity Scores: Domain-Specific Patterns in Divergent Thinking and Creative Problem Solving.

The present study examined gender differences in the distribution of creative abilities through the lens of the greater male variability hypothesis, which postulated that men showed greater interindividual variability than women in both physical and psychological attributes (Ellis, 1894/1934). Two hundred and six (51.9% female) undergraduate students in Hong Kong completed two creativity measures that evaluated different aspects of creativity, including: (a) a divergent thinking test that aimed to assess idea generation and (b) a creative problem-solving test that aimed to assess restructuring ability. The present findings extended the research of greater male variability in creativity by showing that men generally exhibited greater variance than women in the overall distribution of the creativity scores in both divergent thinking and creative problem solving, despite trivial gender differences in mean scores. The findings further enriched the discourse of the greater male variability hypothesis by showing interesting domain-specific gendered patterns: (1) greater male variability was more likely to occur in figural forms of creativity, with larger effect sizes, when compared to the variability in verbal forms of creativity; and (2) mixed gendered patterns were found in the upper tails of the creativity score distribution with respect to the verbal domain but not the figural one, despite greater male representation being consistently observed in the lower tail of the distribution. Possible underlying mechanisms and implications were discussed.

Middle School Students From China's Rice Area Show More Adaptive Creativity but Less Innovative and Boundary-Breaking Creativity.

The present study aimed to conduct a cross-cultural comparison of creative thinking among Chinese middle school students from the rice- and wheat-growing areas in China through the lens of the rice theory, which postulates that there are major psychological differences among the individuals in these agricultural regions. Differences in cultural mindsets and creativity between the rice group (n = 336) and the wheat group (n = 347) were identified using the Chinese version of (1) the Auckland Individualism and Collectivism Scale (AICS) and (2) the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP), respectively. Interesting findings were obtained. The results of latent mean analyses indicate that the rice group showed significantly more collectivism and adaptive creativity than the wheat group but less individualism and innovative and boundary-breaking creativity. However, the two groups showed no significant differences in their overall creative performance, as reflected in the TCT-DP composite score. Moreover, results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that collectivism was positively related to adaptive creativity but negatively related to innovative and boundary-breaking creativity; however, a reverse pattern was found for individualism. These findings enrich the discourse regarding the rice theory and shed important light on the effect of culture on creativity.

A 4-Year Longitudinal Study of the Sex-Creativity Relationship in Childhood, Adolescence, and Emerging Adulthood: Findings of Mean and Variability Analyses.

The relationship between sex and creativity remains an unresolved research question. The present study aimed to approach this question through the lens of the developmental theory of sex differences in intelligence, which posits a dynamic pattern of sex differences in intellectual abilities from female superiority in childhood and early adolescence to male superiority starting at 16 years of age. A total of 775 participants from three age groups (i.e., children, adolescents, and emerging adults) completed a 4-year longitudinal study comprising four assessments of creative thinking at 1-year intervals. Creative thinking was assessed with the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production. While the results revealed female superiority in childhood and early adolescence, male superiority was not found in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Rather, greater sex similarities and greater male variability were found based on mean and variability analyses, respectively. This study elucidated the link between sex and creativity by (1) taking a developmental perspective, (2) employing a 4-year longitudinal design in three age groups (i.e., children, adolescents, and emerging adults), and (3) analyzing sex differences based on both mean and variability analyses.

Emotional Reactions Mediate the Effect of Music Listening on Creative Thinking: Perspective of the Arousal-and-Mood Hypothesis.

This study examined the effect of music listening on creative thinking through the lens of the arousal-and-mood hypothesis, which posits that emotional reactions (i.e., arousal and valence) mediate the effect of music listening on cognitive functioning. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: a positive music group (n = 198), a negative music group (n = 195), and a control group (n = 191). Creative thinking and emotional reactions were assessed with the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production and the Affect Grid, respectively. The results showed that both positively and negatively arousing music enhanced creative thinking. The results further revealed that arousal, regardless of valence, significantly mediated the music-creativity relationship. This study enriches the research on the arousal-and-mood hypothesis by (1) providing direct empirical testing on the mediating roles of emotional reactions; (2) including both positively and negatively arousing music in the study design; and (3) identifying that only arousal, and not valence, was a significant mediator in the music-creativity link.