Emotional experience and creative thought.

Abstract

The present study explores the relationship between affect and creativity. In the first part of the study, theory and research regarding the psychology of creativity are introduced. This introduction includes an analysis of the constructs 'creativity', and 'divergent thinking', as well as reviews of theoretical models for creativity. Literature about the application of the cognitive approach to the study of creativity is reviewed, as is literature about the psychometric testing of creativity. In the second chapter of the introduction, literature about the role of emotion in creativity is reviewed. It is concluded from this review that emotion and personality are important factors in creative functioning. In the third and final chapter of the introduction, the relationship between emotion and attention is presented, and the implications of this relationship for models of creativity are discussed. It is argued in this third chapter that attention is a significant mechanism through which emotion influences creative performance. It is concluded, from this introduction to the study of creativity, that knowledge about creativity may be improved by the development of a model of the relationship between emotion and creativity.

In the second part of the present study, the methodology for studying naturally occurring emotion during self-motivated creative activity is presented. The aim of the method is to characterise the role of emotion in creativity. This is achieved through a diary method of data collection, in which participants give structured reports about their emotional experiences during a long term creative project. These reports are compared to independent ratings of creative performance. Through a series of comparisons, patterns are observed between emotional experience and creative performance, from which hypotheses about the nature of the relationship between emotion and creativity are developed.

In the third part of the study, findings about the role of emotion in creativity are presented. Tabular depictions of participants' s creative performance and emotional expetience during the study are given, along with summaries of participant emotional experience in performance groups. Concluding this part of the study is the development of several hypotheses about the nature of the relationship between emotion and creativity.

In the fourth and final part of the present study, explanations are discussed for the hypotheses generated about the role of emotion in creativity. The hypotheses are then integrated into a model depicting the nature of the relationship between emotion and creativity. This model describes emotional variables as altering cognitive activation patterns in specific ways, which differentially affect an individual's ability to process information creatively. This model depicts attention as mediating the effect of emotion on creativity. Concluding the present study are some recommendations concerning the psychometric testing and the teaching of creativity, which are implied by the model.