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Mood and creativity research: The view from a conceptual organizing perspective
... These creative interventions aided in infusing play into the design thinking process and situationally turning on playfulness as a state in individuals and teams with heightened sense of imagination and co-creation. In addition, since engaging in non-work related creative activities elevates positive affect, intrinsic motivation, trust and psychological safety (Amabile et al., 2005;Edmondson, 1999, p. 199;Vosburg and Kaufmann, 1999) for emergent co-creation, organizations should perhaps consider conducting such activities as a starting point for challenges that are directly linked to business innovation. This provides for a more holistic nourishing and rewarding transformative experience, as observed in cases A, B, C and D. Table 4 below summarizes the play activities with key skills and factors discussed in the findings. ...
... Type of play enabled (Brown, 2009;Sennett, 2008) Constructive (Amabile et al., 2005;Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;Vosburg and Kaufmann, 1999) 1990; Edmondson, 1999;Hennessey and Amabile, 1998b) Creative processes applied (Russ and American Psychological Association, 2014;Vygotsky, 1976) ...
To navigate the increasingly uncertain business environment, human-centric design and innovation is becoming a necessity. The ability to think creatively and come up with new solutions is needed to thrive in the future. This requires a shift of mindset from scalable
efficiency of the industrial age to sustainable creativity of the digital age for corporate India. While change is hard, it need not be painful.
What if there was a more intrinsically motivating and nourishing way to deal with change? This thesis explores the potential of play as a catalyst of co-creation for design-led innovation in organizations struggling to accelerate transformation. First, through the qualitative, interpretative research method, the practical implications of infusing play into work for serious organizational outcomes are discussed using four single case studies that cover empathy, vulnerability, divergent thinking, and creative agility – four integral skills for managers and leaders to rehumanize business, build creative confidence and accelerate change using the human-centric design process. Second, through the cross-case content analysis, this paper
quantitatively identifies key micro-behavioral patterns discovered in the co-creation of play-enabled, design-led innovative solutions from six case studies, that result in building design thinking mindsets. Lastly, the within-case and cross-case analysis are compiled
and structured to build a conceptual model of skills, behaviors and mindsets resulting from play-infused co-creation, and key implications are provided for organizations struggling to shift mindset and accelerate innovation in the post-pandemic world.
Keywords: play, serious play, creativity, creative thinking, co-creation, design thinking, design, innovation, innovation management, transformation, leadership, psychology, empathy, vulnerability, divergent thinking, agility, organization development, organization culture, organization change, organization behavior, learning and
development.
... Affectpositive and negative (Vosburg and Kaufmann, 1999); Psychological Safety (Edmondson, 1999); Creative empathy (Yaniv, 2012) Intrinsic Motivation, Affect, Psychological Safety, Flow (Amabile et al., 2005;Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;Vosburg and Kaufmann, 1999) Psychological Safety, Intrinsic Motivation, Flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;Edmondson, 1999;Hennessey and Amabile, 1998) Creative processes applied ( Table 2. Summary of play activities with key concepts and factors. ...
... Affectpositive and negative (Vosburg and Kaufmann, 1999); Psychological Safety (Edmondson, 1999); Creative empathy (Yaniv, 2012) Intrinsic Motivation, Affect, Psychological Safety, Flow (Amabile et al., 2005;Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;Vosburg and Kaufmann, 1999) Psychological Safety, Intrinsic Motivation, Flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990;Edmondson, 1999;Hennessey and Amabile, 1998) Creative processes applied ( Table 2. Summary of play activities with key concepts and factors. ...
To navigate the increasingly uncertain business environment, human-centric design and innovation is becoming a necessity. The ability to think creatively and come up with new solutions is needed to thrive in the future. This requires a shift of mindset from scalable efficiency of the industrial age to sustainable creativity of the digital age for corporate India. While change is hard, it need not be painful. What if there was a more intrinsically motivating and nourishing way to deal with change? This research paper explores the potential of play as a catalyst of creativity for design-led innovation in organizations struggling to accelerate transformation. The practical implications of infusing play into work for serious organizational outcomes are discussed using three case studies that cover creative empathy, divergent thinking and creative agility-three integral concepts of the human-centric design process.
... Traditional definitions of creativity have referred to social or eminent contributions that lead to the production of novel ideas or products that solve a problem, fit a situation, or accomplish a goal with significance in a broader social context (Amabile, 1983;MacKinnon, 1962;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999). The problem-solving nature of creative behavior is particularly relevant to this study given the focus on inventors. ...
... Affect, also less contextually bound, is considered the superordinate category (Feldman Barrett & Russell, 1999;Gross, 1998). Because emotions and moods are components of affect, this latter term can be best thought of as a predisposition toward specific moods and emotions (Feldman Barrett & Russell, 1999;Gross, 1998;Isen, 1999;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999). As an illustration, someone might feel intense annoyance over a momentary encounter while still profoundly enjoying a weekend and have a generally positive outlook on life. ...
Four product inventors and 2 control participants were interviewed intensively about their creative process and given a series of personality assessments. The inventors expressed a profound level of emotional experience as part of their creative process. Though many emotions were mentioned, the inventors spoke repeatedly and consistently about their enjoyment of innovation work. Personality assessments indicated, however, that personality alone could not explain this high level of career happiness. The inventor discussions of their emotional experience were analyzed using the Russ (1993, 1999) model of affect and creativity. Every dimension of the Russ model was found evident in the inventors' innovation experiences. The inventor discussions encouraged an elaboration and expansion of the model. One category, cognitive integration and modulation of affect, was expanded to include the role of intuition. Four new categories were added: affective pleasure in technical perspective-taking, in focus, in creating, and in self-expression. The resulting expanded model of affect and creativity offers myriad opportunities for future researchers interested in scale development and in qualitative inquiry with other creative professions. Educators, counselors, and managers seeking to understand how to best foster innovation and career happiness may also benefit.
... Traditional definitions of creativity have referred to social or eminent contributions that lead to the production of novel ideas or products that solve a problem, fit a situation, or accomplish a goal with significance in a broader social context (Amabile, 1983; MacKinnon, 1962; Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999 ). The problem-solving nature of creative behavior is particularly relevant to this study given the focus on inventors. ...
... Affect, also less contextually bound, is considered the superordinate category (Feldman Barrett & Russell, 1999; Gross, 1998). Because emotions and moods are components of affect, this latter term can be best thought of as a predisposition toward specific moods and emotions (Feldman Barrett & Russell, 1999; Gross, 1998; Isen, 1999; Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999). As an illustration, someone might feel intense annoyance over a momentary encounter while still profoundly enjoying a weekend and have a generally positive outlook on life. ...
Four product inventors and 2 control participants were interviewed intensively about their creative process and given a series of personality assessments. The inventors expressed a profound level of emotional experience as part of their creative process. Though many emotions were mentioned, the inventors spoke repeatedly and consistently about their enjoyment of innovation work. Personality assessments indicated, however, that personality alone could not explain this high level of career happiness. The inventor discussions of their emotional experience were analyzed using the Russ (1993, 1999) model of affect and creativity. Every dimension of the Russ model was found evident in the inventors' innovation experiences. The inventor discussions encouraged an elaboration and expansion of the model. One category, cognitive integration and modulation of affect, was expanded to include the role of intuition. Four new categories were added: affective pleasure in technical perspective-taking, in focus, in creating, and in self-expression. The resulting expanded model of affect and creativity offers myriad opportunities for future researchers interested in scale development and in qualitative inquiry with other creative professions. Educators, counselors, and managers seeking to understand how to best foster innovation and career happiness may also benefit.
... According to the study on different neural regions and processes which are involved in metaphorical comprehension, Subramaniam et al. have suggested "that positively valenced stimuli facilitate creative metaphoric processes (specifically novel metaphoric processes) by mediating attention and cognitive control processes required for the access, integration, and selection of semantic associations" (2013, p. 211). On the other hand, results from a series of studies suggest the existence of stimulating effects of moderately negative moods on creativity (Feist, 1999;Forgas, 2000;George & Zhou, 2002;Russ, Robins, & Christiano, 1999;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999). ...
Relations between creativity, dimensions of emotional experience (valence and arousal), and familiarity of content were examined in an experiment with 92 students, grouped into two sub-samples: art and non-art students. For stimulation, 40 photos were selected from the Nencki Affective Picture System, so that the values of the dimensions were systematically varied. Students were exposed to the photos and asked to rate the familiarity of their content, and then to generate a creative title for each of them. Measuring creativity was based on the coefficients, specially constructed and derived from the assessment of titles’ originality. The analysis shows that valence, arousal, and familiarity might be the predictors of creativity and that unpleasant and novel content induces more creative answers. Generative processes of art-students show certain peculiarities: they are more sensitive to the external clues, especially novel and disturbing, which might be explained by the action model of creativity.
... Recimo, ako se prati samo uticaj raspoloženja koja neposredno prethode kreativnoj produkciji, pokazano je da negativna raspoloženja mogu inhibirati kreativni proces, dok pozitivna mogu biti optimalna za razvoj novih ideja (Baas et al., 2008;Benjafield, 1996;Hirt et al., 1996;Hofman, 2013;Isen, 1998;Jamison, 1993;Shapiro & Weisberg, 1999;Vosburg, 1998a;1998b). Ako, pak, posmatramo dinamiku samog generativnog postupka, rezultati su posve drugačiji: upravo neprijatni doživljaji mogu biti stimulativni za kreativnost (George & Zhou, 2002;Feist, 1999;Ristić i Milošević, 2017a;Russ, 1998;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1998). U jednom od eksperimenata izlagane su fotografije koje evociraju emocije različitih kvalitetata, i studenti su bili kreativniji smišljajući naslove za slike patnje, nepravde i raspadanja (koje izazivaju tugu, ljutnju i gađenje), no kada su posmatrali ljubavne, radosne i idilične prizore (Ristić i Milošević, 2017b), što je naizgled u suprotnosti sa rezultatima o dejstvu pozitivnih raspoloženja na kreativnost. ...
Savremeni autori produbljuju uvide o kreativnom procesu ispitujući homospacijalno mišljenje zasnovano na ukrštanju udaljenih asocijacija koje su suprotstavljene u razvoju novih ideja. Upitno je da li se ukrštanje zasniva isključivo na pretpostavkama semiotičke raznorodnosti, ili pak emocije imaju izvesnu ulogu u povezivanju različitih asocijacija. Cilj ovog istraživanja je ispitati razlike između sadržaja koji izazivaju kongruentne i nekongruentne emocionalne doživljaje u pogledu njihovog delovanja na kreativnu produkciju. Stepen kongruentnosti emocionalnog doživljaja kontrolisan je na dimenzijama valence i pobuđenosti. U eksperimentu su učestvovali studenti dramskih umetnosti (N = 32), a za vizuelnu stimulaciju korišćena je IAPS baza (International Affective Picture System): Ukrštanjem 32 fotografije napravljeno je 56 superponiranih vizuelnih kompozicija u kojima su vrednosti valence i pobuđenosti sistematski varirane, tako da se uzorak sastojao od kompozicija izrazitog, umerenog i odsutnog kontrasta kako na dimenziji valence tako i pobuđenosti, kao i kompozicija koje su u potpunosti neutralne jer imaju srednje vrednosti na obe dimenzije. Nakon izlaganja od studenata je traženo da za svaku kompoziciju smisle kreativan naslov, dok je kreativnost merena pomoću koeficijenata zasnovanih na proceni originalnosti i intencionalnosti odgovora. Analizom varijanse potvrđen je efekat kontrasta na dimenziji valence, ali ne i pobuđenosti. Kontrast valence pozitivno je koreliran sa kreativnošću i može biti njen prediktor. Rezultati proširuju uvide o homospacijalnom mišljenja i delimično mogu biti objašnjeni psihodinamskim konceptom reparacije, potvrđujući pritom značajnu ulogu ambivalencije u generativnim procesima.
... Frekventnost suicidalnih misli, kao snažan indikator negativnih raspoloženja, u pozitivnoj je korelaciji sa sposobnošću potrage za problemom (Mraz i Runco, 1994;Runco, 1998). Kreativnost ispitanika može se povećati pod utjecajem negativnih afektivnih stanja umjerenog intenziteta (George i Zhou, 2002;Feist, 1999;Forgas, 2002;Russ, Robins i Christiano, 1999;Vosburg i Kaufmann, 1998). Različiti nalazi o efektima pozitivnih i negativnih raspoloženja mogu se objasniti djelovanjem kontekstualnih faktora, posebno kada raspoloženje sudionika uvjetuje procjenu vlastite kreativnosti (Martin i Stoner, 1996). ...
Psychodynamic assumptions that unpleasant and new content can stimulate creativity have been partially confirmed by empirical research. However, it is questionable, in which way the familiarity of content, the particular dimensions of the emotional experience and the qualities of emotions affect the production of highly creative individuals such as art students, and whether their creative process shows a certain level of peculiarity. In this research, the degree and type of correlations between the creativity of the response, and the qualities of emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust), the dimensions of the emotional experience (valence and arousal) and the familiarity of content were examined with different student populations. The experiment was performed with 59 students, and 40 photos were selected for visual stimulation, so that the values of the dimensions and qualities of the emotional experience were systematically varied. Students were exposed to the photos and were asked to rate the familiarity of their content, and subsequently to make the most creative title for each of them. The creativity of the titles was measured by coefficients of creativity and uniqueness, based on the originality assessment. The results confirm the statistical significance of moderate negative correlations between creativity and familiarity of content, valence, and happiness; moderate positive correlations between creativity and arousal, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust, as well as process specificities of the art students, for whom novelty and surprise take the lead over other qualities and dimensions of emotional experience.
... 239). Similarly, Vosburg and Kaufmann (1999) indicated that "the research findings . . . are highly discrepant and do not seem to lead to any kind of straightforward link between mood and creativity" (p. ...
Using a mood-as-input model, the authors identified conditions under which negative moods are positively related, and positive moods are negatively related, to creative performance. Among a sample of workers in an organizational unit charged with developing creative designs and manufacturing techniques, the authors hypothesized and found that negative moods were positively related to creative performance when perceived recognition and rewards for creative performance and clarity of feelings (a metamood process) were high. The authors also hypothesized and found that positive moods were negatively related to creative performance when perceived recognition and rewards for creativity and clarity of feelings were high.
... Pritom, jednostrano potenciranje stimulativnog efekta dobrih raspoloženja na kreativnost simplifikuje ulogu emocija u kreativnom procesu, jer se zanemaruje delovanje konfliktnih, eventualno potisnutih iskustava. U nizu istraživanja potvrđeno je da negativna emocionalna stanja umerenog intenziteta osnažuju kreativnost ispitanika (Feist, 1998;Forgas, 2002;George & Zhou, 2002;Russ, 1993;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1998). Autori psihodinamske orijentacije ističu da je intrapsihički konflikt stožer kreativnog postupka (Freud, 1908;Kim, Zeppenfeld, & Cohen, 2013), i da izviranje sadržaja iz nesvesnog, posredstvom primarnih procesa, može biti teško i zahtevno iskustvo za kreatora, praćeno anksioznošću i negativnim emocionalnim stanjima (Rotenberg, 2010). ...
U istraživanju se ispituje stepen i vrsta povezanosti između kreativnosti odgovora, različitih dimenzija emocionalnog doživljaja (valence i pobuđenosti), bliskosti sadržaja i vremena reakcije. Eksperiment je izveden uz učešće 38 studenata Fakulteta dramskih umetnosti iz Beograda, a za vizuelnu stimulaciju korišćena je IAPS baza (International Affective Picture System) iz koje je izabrano deset fotografija tako da je vrednost valence i pobuđenosti sistematski varirana. Ispitanicima su najpre izlagane izabrane fotografije i od njih je traženo da ocene koliko im je blizak njihov sadržaj. Nakon toga je preklapanjem deset izabranih fotografija napravljeno 25 superponiranih vizuelnih stimulusa koji su izlagani u drugoj sesiji kada je od ispitanika traženo da smisle najbolji naslov za svaki od njih, uz merenje vremena reakcije. Mera kreativnosti odgovora dobijena je izračunavanjem koeficijenta kreativnosti koji je namenski konstruisan za potrebe istraživanja. Rezultati regresione analize su pokazali da su valenca i vreme reakcije statistički značajni i vrlo dobri prediktori kreativnosti odgovora. Veza valence i kreativnosti je negativna, a vremena i kreativnosti je pozitivna. Analizom glavnih komponenti koja je uključivala pet varijabli (valencu, pobuđenost, bliskost sadržaja, kreativnost odgovora i vreme reakcije) dobijena su tri faktora, koji objašnjavaju ukupno 94.51% varijanse, od toga je dva visoko zasićena kreativnošću. Rezultati proširuju uvide o odnosu emocionalnog doživljaja i kreativne produkcije sugerišuću da se varijablama valence i vremena može objasniti njihova povezanost kao i da one leže u osnovi dva procesa koji čine kreativno mišljenje.
... However, not all of the literature supports the position that positive mood broadens one's ability to think (Harmon-Jones, Gable, & Price, 2013). Kaufmann andVosburg (1997, 2002;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999) found that negative affect facilitated divergent thinking late in the idea generation process. Kaufmann (2003) later concluded that the positive mood-creativity link is not guaranteed. ...
The goal of this study was to examine the role of positive mood on generative and evaluative thinking in creative problem solving. Participants included 89 middle school students who watched either a positive or neutral mood video program. After students watched the video, they completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) scale to determine their current mood. Participants were then divided into three groups and given a divergent thinking task to complete. Group A was asked to generate potential solutions to a problem (generative thinking). Group B was given one solution to the problem that had been offered by participants’ peers in a previous pilot study and then asked to generate possible advantages to this particular solution (evaluative thinking). Group C was given the potential solution but asked to generate potential disadvantages (also evaluative thinking). Students in the positive mood condition were significantly more fluent than those who watched the neutral video. Students in the neutral mood condition generated more disadvantages than advantages, but this difference was significant only at p < .10. Implications and limitations of these results were discussed.
... Although the relationship between emotions and creativity has been extensively theorized and researched (e.g., Forgas & George, 2001), it is still unclear which emotional state would benefit individual creativity most (Amabile, 1996a;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999). Whereas some studies showed that positive versus neutral moods facilitate cognitive complexity and creative problem solving across a broad range of settings (see Ashby, Isen, & Turken, 1999 for a review), others showed that negative moods (vs. ...
Based on the instrumental account of emotion regulation, the current research seeks to offer a novel perspective to the emotions-creativity debate by investigating the instrumental value of trait-consistent emotions in creativity. We hypothesize that emotions such as worry (vs. happy) are some trait-consistent experiences for neurotic individuals and experiencing these emotions can facilitate performance in a creativity task. In two studies, we found support for our hypothesis. First, individuals higher in neuroticism had a greater preference for recalling worrisome (vs. happy) events in anticipation of performing a creativity task (Study 1). Moreover, when induced to recall a worrisome (vs. happy) event, individuals higher in neuroticism had better performance in a creativity task (Study 2). These findings offer a new perspective to the controversy concerning the emotions-creativity relationship and further demonstrate the role of instrumental emotion regulation in the domain of creative performance.
... Although the relationship between emotions and creativity has been extensively theorized and researched (e.g., Forgas & George, 2001), it is still unclear which emotional state would benefit individual creativity most (Amabile, 1996a;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999). Whereas some studies showed that positive versus neutral moods facilitate cognitive complexity and creative problem solving across a broad range of settings (see Ashby, Isen, & Turken, 1999 for a review), others showed that negative moods (vs. ...
Based on the instrumental account of emotion regulation (Tamir, 2005), the current research seeks to offer a novel perspective to the emotions-creativity debate by investigating the instrumental value of trait-consistent emotions in creativity. We hypothesize that emotions such as worry (vs. happy) are trait-consistent experiences for individuals higher on trait neuroticism and experiencing these emotions can facilitate performance in a creativity task. In 3 studies, we found support for our hypothesis. First, individuals higher in neuroticism had a greater preference for recalling worrisome (vs. happy) events in anticipation of performing a creativity task (Study 1). Moreover, when induced to recall a worrisome (vs. happy) event, individuals higher in neuroticism came up with more creative design (Study 2) and more flexible uses of a brick (Study 3) when the task was a cognitively demanding one. Further, Study 3 offers preliminary support that increased intrinsic task enjoyment and motivation mediates the relationship between trait-consistent emotion regulation and creative performance. These findings offer a new perspective to the controversy concerning the emotions-creativity relationship and further demonstrate the role of instrumental emotion regulation in the domain of creative performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
... Negative affect and creativity do not seem to be related in a direct, simple and consistent fashion (Amabile, 1996;James, Clark & Cropanzano, 1999). On the other hand, some research suggests that positive affect enhances creative problem solving (Isen, 1999;Isen & Baron, 1991), though others have called even this association into question (e.g., Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999). Affect seems to matter, but older models might be insufficiently rich to account for all of these effects. ...
During the past decade organizational scientists have devoted considerable research attention to the topic of workplace affect. Despite important advances, continued progress depends on a better understanding of the structure of affective experience. The goal of this paper is to review progress to date. In particular, we review evidence pertaining to four constructs that have been widely used to organize research on affect: positive affectivity, negative affectivity, hedonic tone, and affect intensity. We review various structural models pertaining to these four constructs, devoting special attention to integrative frameworks and future research needs.
... Kaufmann and Vosburg (1997) proposed a model to summarize the impact of emotion on creativity (see Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1998 ). According to this model, optimizing versus satisficing criteria for solutions must be distinguished. ...
To examine the impact of emotion on creative potential, experimental studies have typically focused on the impact of induced or spontaneous mood states on creative performance. In this report the relationship between the perceived pleasantness of tasks (using divergent thinking and story writing tasks) and creative performance was examined. Overall perceived pleasantness did not differ between tasks. However, results indicate that the perceived pleasantness of the story writing task increased during task completion whereas the perceived pleasantness of divergent thinking tasks remained stable during task performance. The number of generated ideas in a divergent thinking task (fluency) was significantly related to overall perceived pleasantness of the task.
... Openness to affective states has been found to facilitate artistic (Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi, 1976), scientific (Feist, 1999a), architectural (Dudek, 1999), medical (Estrada, Young, & Isen, 1994), and managerial creativity (Amabile et al., 2005). The empirical literature suggests that positive affect fosters divergent thinking and mental transformations, while mild negative affect in the form of tension can motivate problem-finding (Feist, 1999b;Isen, 1999;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999). Creativity entails a wide range of emotions -joy, passion, excitement, anxiety, frustration, and disappointment (Amabile et al., 2005;Shaw, 1999). ...
Play is manifested in organizational behavior as a form of engagement with work tasks and as a form of diversion from them. In this paper we examine both manifestations of play as sources of creativity. We argue that when play is a form of engagement with an individual's organizational tasks it facilitates the cognitive, affective, and motivational dimensions of the creative process, while when play is a form of diversion from an individual's organizational tasks it fosters the peripheral social-relational dynamics that encourage creativity in the first place. We explore the personal and contextual conditions that influence the two manifestations of play and the relative balance between them in a work context. Drawing on our analysis and the extant creativity literature, we conceptualize play as the cradle of creativity in organizations. We suggest that by temporarily suspending ordinary conventions, structural obligations, and functional pressures, and by encouraging behaviors whose value may not be immediately evident, play stimulates, facilitates, and even rehearses creativity. We discuss the practical relevance of play for the nature of work in creative industries and its larger intellectual importance for the study of human behavior in social systems.
... Kaufmann and Vosburg propose that task description or conditions of problem solving tasks have this kind of moderating role (Kaufmann & Vosburg, 1997;Vosburg, 1998;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999;Kaufmann & Vosburg, 2002). Divergent-thinking and insight tasks require different solution requirements. ...
... For instance, compared to people in happier moods, those in sad moods are more likely to pay attention to the details (Bless et al., 1996;Gasper & Clore, 2002), to engage in "tight" processing rather than "loose" processing (Fielder, 1988), to use a conservative rather than generative approach (Fielder & Bless, 2000), and to question their performance (Gasper, 2003;Hirt et al., 1997;Martin & Stoner, 1996;Martin, Ward, Achee, & Wyer, 1993). They are also less likely than those in happy moods to use a satisficing approach, in which individuals accept the first solution that seems to satisfy the objective (Kaufman & Vosburg, 1997;Vosburg & Kaufman, 1999). Together, these findings suggest that sad moods reduce generative thought because they result in individuals' questioning ideas, being cautious of them, and exercising restraint in responding. ...
Three experiments investigated why and when sad moods might inhibit generative thought relative to happier moods. Specifically, sad moods might inhibit generative thought compared to happier moods, because they result in individuals' (a) being less likely to use accessible, old ideas; (b) being less likely to use novel ideas; or (c) having less material available in memory. These three possibilities were investigated by having participants in happy or sad moods completed a task that familiarized them with a set of solutions to an upcoming generative task. In contrast to the hypothesis that participants in sad moods were less likely to use accessible ideas than those in happy moods, mood did not influence the use of old solutions on the generative task. Instead, mood affected how many new responses participants generated, with those in sad moods generating fewer new responses than did those in happy moods. This effect of mood was eliminated when participants were told that all responses were acceptable. Because these instructions affect how individuals use information from memory but could not affect what was in memory, these results suggest that mood alters the use of novel information rather than altering the use of accessible responses or the type of material in memory.
... There is growing evidence for the role of moods/emotions in creativity (Baas, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2008), although it is still unclear which mood/emotional state benefits creativity the most (Amabile, 1996;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999). Some research shows that positive versus neutral moods facilitate creative problem solving across a broad range of settings (see Ashby, Isen, & Turken, 1999). ...
This research examines the mediating role of emotions implicated in the multicultural experience—creativity link. We propose that when individuals are dealing with apparent cultural contradictions upon encountering two cultures simultaneously, mentally juxtaposing dissonant cultural stimuli could lower positive affect or increase negative affect, which could in turn induce a deeper level of cognitive processing of cultural discrepancies and inspire creativity. Two studies compared dual cultural exposure versus single cultural exposure among bicultural Singaporeans (Study 1) and compared self-relevant (jointly presenting local and foreign cultures) versus self-irrelevant (jointly presenting foreign cultures only) dual cultural exposure among monocultural Taiwanese (Study 2). As in past research, dual cultural exposure promotes creativity, particularly if one presented culture is self-relevant. Further, this effect was mediated by a less positive or a more negative emotional state. These findings illuminate the underlying influence of emotions activated by simultaneous exposure to diverse cultures.
... Inducing positive affect increases creativity (Russ, 1999). It also has several favorable effects on the ability to problem solve (Isen, 1999;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1999): ...
The following is a report of a qualitative inquiry regarding a team of novices and their journey in developing shared expertise and social creativity in the domain of group facilitation and process consultation. Using the format of public reflection, the participants engaged in an intensive collaborative process of meaning making, along with the university instructor as expert, while being teaching assistants in a course about group dynamics. Using the framework of evolving systems, the methodology employed an instrumental case study approach, with the case defined as the group. Data sets included videotaped debriefing and planning sessions, individual and group interviews, and written reflection diaries, covering the entire lifespan of the team. These sets were transcribed and subjected to an examination of the unfolding cognitive and metacognitive, creative, value, and social processes embedded within the team interactions. The process patterns do demonstrate that under the conditions created within this context, novices can pool together expert thinking skills that can collectively compare favorably to those of an expert. Social creativity also emerged as a property of the system, and these processes seemed to piggyback onto the socially shared expert thinking skills. Values acted as tacit rules governing and shaping the social interactions. Ones that showed a strong association to the development of shared expertise were: supportiveness, care, listening/questioning for clarity, helpfulness, openness to disagreement/feedback, and plurality. Values that showed a strong association to the development of social creativity were: supportiveness, listening/questioning for clarity, helpfulness, and openness to disagreement/feedback. Humor was an ever present element to the system and acted as a lubricant producing social ease. The patterns that emanated from this inquiry were placed into two larger theoretical frameworks, socially shared cognition and a collective zone of proximal development. Implications for practice include using a conditional style of inquiry to promote expertise and social creativity, and seeing reflective practice as a rehearsal for creative improvisation in a process-oriented domain.
... Finally, in 1997,Kaufmann proposed a model which integrates his data with Isen's results (see Kaufmann, 1997;Vosburg & Kaufmann, 1998).According to this model, optimizing versus satisficing criteria for solutions must be distinguished. Optimizing refers to an ideal method, examining all the alternative solutions of a problem and persevering in this work until finding the most effective solution. ...
Experimental studies of the effects of emotion on creativity have yielded
conflicting results. We present a study in which mood was induced through recall of
life events and performance on creativity-related tasks was measured. The results
show that the effects of emotions on creativity depend on numerous conditions. In
general, a positive mood promoted creative performance. However, the nature of the
creative task, the kind of performance score, and the nature of the induced emotion
modulated this trend. A post-experimental questionnaire suggested, moreover, that
people differ on their conceptions of how emotion may influence task performance.
... William Hazlitt once wrote that " We weep at what thwarts or exceeds our desires in serious matters: we laugh at what only disappoints our expectations in trifles " (1819[1967], p642). Or take empirical studies that have found negative mood to produce more narrow and constricted processing, but processing that is deeper and more determined (Vosburg and Kaufmann, 1999). Or other studies finding positive affect to promote cognitive flexibility and improved creative problem solving, but where processing is more superficial and shallow (Clore, Schwarz, and Conway, 1994). ...
Working with multi-species allometric relations and drawing on mammalian theorist Denenberg’s works, I provide an explanatory theory of the mammalian dual-brain as no prior account has.
Flexibility is the ability to change. Innovation involves different types of change. In this chapter we will examine the importance of fiexibility for different aspects of innovation. Different types of fiexibility will be considered throughout the chapter, such as adaptive fiexibility (the ability to change as a function of task requirements) and spontaneous fiexibility (the tendency to change for intrinsic reasons, to try out a variety of methods). Finally, we will discuss how different types of fiexibility can be important at different stages in the innovation process.
The meeting of affect and cognition Arguably, one of the most significant new developments in psychological research during the last 30 years is the exploration of the interface between affect and cognition (see De Houwer and Hermans, 2010; Lewis et al., 2008; Power and Dalgleish, 2008). A new perspective on the interface between emotion and cognition is emerging, in which the emphasis is on the interwoven and internal rather than the conceptually external relations between the two (e.g., Damasio, 1994). Another major emphasis has been on the constructive roles that affect can play in cognitive functions as opposed to previous conceptions, where affect was rather one-sidedly seen as detrimental to rational and effective thought (Forgas, 1995, 2008). The meeting of affect and creativity In the same period we have also witnessed a significant rise in research on creativity, seen as a scientifically respectable and empirically tractable phenomenon (e.g., Hennessey and Amabile, 2010; Kaufman and Sternberg, 2010). It is to be expected that these two new streams of research on affect and creativity, respectively, would interface. This has indeed happened, and we can now look back on a 25-year-long roster of research on the relationship between mood and creativity (Baas et al., 2008; Rank and Frese, 2008).
The schizophrenia spectrum and the bipolar disorder spectrum involve different types of psychotic disorders. Both disorders have been linked to creativity. Primary-process thinking is evident in all psychotic disorders. Primary-process thinking has also been found to relate to creativity in normal populations. One possibility is that different dimensions of primary-process thought are dominant in different disorders. The cognitive dimension may be more dominant in the schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, and the affective dimension may be more dominant in bipolar disorders. Future research should investigate how primary-process thinking differs in these disorders and the implications for creative functioning.
Theoretically, pretend play facilitates cognitive and affective processes important in creativity. Expression of affect states and affect-laden fantasy are affective processes common to both play and creativity. This study investigated the effect of instructing children to engage in happy or angry play on affect in play and on divergent thinking. Eighty 1st- and 2nd-grade children were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups. It was hypothesized that children in the happy and angry puppet play groups would have more affect in their play and that their mood would be congruent with the play instruction. It was also hypothesized that children in the happy and angry groups would have higher divergent thinking scores than children in the free-play and puzzle conditions. One major finding was that children in the angry play group had more expression of negative affect in their play and more self-reported negative mood than children in the other groups. There were no differences among the experimental groups in divergent thinking. However, self-reported mood during the play and puzzle tasks was significantly associated with originality of the divergent thinking responses. Children who experienced more affect as opposed to feeling neutral gave more original responses. The major conclusion of the study is that the play paradigm can be used to study affective processes in children.
Theory and research support the involvement of emotion in the creative process. Access to emotion in cognition and memories should broaden the associative process, which is important in divergent thinking and creativity. This study tested the hypothesis that affect in fantasy play in children would be related to divergent thinking and to emotion in memories. Emotion in memories was also expected to relate to divergent thinking. Forty-six first- and second-grade children received a 5-min puppet play task (Affect in Play Scale), an alternate uses task, and an emotional memories questionnaire. Major findings were that affect in play was significantly and positively related to the number of uses generated and originality of the use. In particular, negative affect in play was significantly related to all criteria. In addition, affect in play was significantly related to amount of affect in memory descriptions. Expression of affect appears to be cross-situational. Although amount of affect in memories also related to divergent thinking, it did not function as a mediator between negative affect and divergent thinking. Implications for the importance of affect and negative affect in children's play and emotion in memories are discussed.
Two positions concerning positive mood and its relation to creative problem solving have been taken. The general position (GP) postulates that there is a consistent positive relation between positive mood and creative problem solving. The qualified position (QP) states that the relation is a contingent one. This study explores one possible limitation to the GP, by testing Weisberg's (1994) suggestion that positive mood facilitates productivity but not quality of ideas. Self-reported mood was measured by positive, negative, and arousal scales. Divergent thinking tasks scored for fluency, flexibility, originality, and usefulness were used as criterion variables. A perfect, theoretically predicted rank order between positive mood and degree of solution constraint measured by the divergent thinking indices emerged. Positive mood was significantly related to an idea quantity factor but not to an idea quality factor. Although this evidence is not conclusive, it supports the QP and indicates that the GP should be modified to include task type and degree of solution constraint.
This article discusses the 5 previous articles (Fowler, this issue; Handler, this issue; King and Pope, this issue; Potash, this issue; Strassle, McKee, and Plant, this issue) in reference to creativity assessment, emphasizing the need to study children's play. There is a need for validity studies in the optimism paradigm described for the Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1938). I also question the wisdom of omitting hostile responses in the paradigm used to assess playfulness in the Rorschach.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether a video-induced positive and negative mood has a differential effect on subsequent problem-solving activities in a web-based environment. The study also examined whether task conditions (task demands) moderated the mood effect. As in traditional experimental mood-effect studies, the affective video materials were not related to the tasks. The results show that affective video clips did impact performance on an insight task but not on a divergent-thinking task. This provides evidence that in some cases affective video has an effect on the performance of unrelated tasks in a web-based environment.
Research heuristics—implicit rules used to guide work on a scientific problem—are explored for their role in guiding psychological research. Work on the psychology of creativity is used to illustrate how heuristics have guided research. We examine the influence of three heuristics: the trilogy-of-mind heuristic, the emotions-as-moods heuristic, and the analysis-of-variance heuristic. This analysis of multiple heuristics provides a new way to understand the state of research on creativity. In the discussion, the analysis is extended to other heuristics and to how heuristics may help as well as hinder innovative research.
Discussed the importance of play in creative problem solving and its implications for play interventions. Theory and research in the areas of play and creative cognitive processes and play and creative affective processes are reviewed. Play has been associated with the development of creative problem solving. Creative problem solving is thought to be a resource for everyday coping and adjustment. Play intervention studies that investigate the effects of specific aspects of play on specific criteria would be appropriate for the creative problem-solving and coping area. A systematic program integrating laboratory research on play and creativity, research on play techniques, and play intervention with specific populations is needed.
The Affect in Play Scale (APS; Russ, 1987, 2004) is one of few reliable, standardized measures of pretend play, yet the fact that it requires videotaping and extensive training to score compromises its clinical utility. In this study, we developed and validated a brief rating version (APS-BR) that does not require videotaping. Construct validity was established by comparing scores from the original APS and the APS-BR using an existing data set of videotaped play (n = 46). We examined associations between scores on the APS-BR and theoretically relevant measures of divergent thinking and emotional memories. Scores on the APS-BR related strongly to those on the APS, and the pattern of correlations for each scale and relevant criterion measures was similar in strength and direction, supporting the APS-BR as an alternate form of the APS. In addition, we completed a pilot study to examine the efficacy of using the APS-BR in its intended in vivo format (n = 28). Results from both studies suggest that the APS-BR is a promising brief measure of children's pretend play that can be substituted for the APS in clinical and research settings.
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