Beliefs About Creativity Influence Creative Performance: The Mediation Effects of Flexibility and Positive Affect.

Nujaree Intasao,Ning Hao

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01810

Abstract

This research explores potential factors that may influence the relationship between beliefs about creativity and creative performance. In Study 1, participants (N = 248) recruited from upper secondary schools in Thailand were asked to solve the Alternative Uses Task (a typical divergent thinking task) and complete a series of questionnaires concerning individual beliefs about creativity and potential factors of interest. The results of structural equation modeling reveal a mediation effect of flexibility on the relationship between self-efficacy and originality. The path from self-efficacy to flexibility was also partially mediated by positive affect. Self-efficacy was also positively correlated with task enjoyment and effort. Additionally, the growth mindset was positively associated with positive affect, while the fixed mindset was positively related to negative affect. In Study 2, participants (N = 214) were asked to solve the Insight Problems Task (a typical convergent thinking task). The results indicate that the growth mindset was positively related to task enjoyment, effort, and positive affect. The fixed mindset was negatively related to task enjoyment, effort, and creative performance. A positive relationship between the fixed mindset and negative affect was also observed. Taken together, these findings unveil some potential factors that mediate the relationships between beliefs about creativity and creative performance, which may be specific to divergent thinking tasks.

Highlights

Creativity and Beliefs About CreativityPsychologists agree upon the definition of creativity as the ability to produce work that is novel and useful (Stein, 1953; Sternberg and Lubart, 1993; Runco and Jaeger, 2012)
We focuses on creative self-efficacy which is one of the key self-beliefs, and beliefs about the malleable nature of creativity which have attracted more researchers recently
A significant indirect effect of creative self-efficacy on originality via flexibility was detected (β = 0.21, p = 0.001). These results demonstrate that the effect of self-efficacy on originality was fully mediated through flexibility, indicating that people produce creative ideas by engaging in flexible processing when they are self-efficacious in their creativity

Summary

Introduction

Creativity and Beliefs About CreativityPsychologists agree upon the definition of creativity as the ability to produce work that is novel (original and unique) and useful (Stein, 1953; Sternberg and Lubart, 1993; Runco and Jaeger, 2012). Creativity is concerned with two types of thinking, namely divergent thinking and convergent thinking, both of which lead to creative production (Cropley, 2006). Despite the growing number of studies done on creativity, there is still much to be learned (Runco and Albert, 2010). Throughout the years, researchers have studied creativity from various. Beliefs Influence Creative Performance perspectives, including how individuals’ beliefs influence creativity. The topic of beliefs about creativity has been approached from different angles such as how people view themselves (i.e., creative self-beliefs) and how people perceive the nature of creativity. We focuses on creative self-efficacy which is one of the key self-beliefs, and beliefs about the malleable nature of creativity (i.e., creative mindsets) which have attracted more researchers recently

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion