Abstract
Increasing numbers of scientific problems are solved in teams; however, considerable empirical work remains primarily a solitary activity. Therefore, the interplay between a scientist's personality and team climate is now crucial. Using a survey of science majors, this study investigated the effects of social climate and particular personality traits (openness and neuroticism) on student imagination. This study also examined how social climate moderated the influence of openness and neuroticism on imagination. A survey was administered in 6 universities across Taiwan. The participants in this study consisted of 607 science majors. Structural equation modeling was used to test all the proposed hypotheses. The results showed that openness was significantly predictive of 3 types of imaginative capability (initiating, conceiving, and transforming imagination), whereas neuroticism was negatively predictive of conceiving imagination and positively predictive of transforming imagination. Our data also showed that social climate exerted a slight but significant effect on transforming imagination, and moderated the effect of openness on the 3 types of imagination. The influence of social climate on neuroticism was only observed in initiating and transforming imagination.
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