Abstract
In a social environment that requires young people to adapt to increasingly demanding situations, emotional education and creativity training may be key for both personal development and academic performance. Given that there are currently no known interventions that develop emotional and creative skills simultaneously in a youth population, the main objective of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate the Emotional Divergent–Convergent Thinking Program (EDICOP). The study design was quasi-experimental with a non-equivalent control group and pretest–posttest measures. The participants included 196 students between 16 and 24 years of age belonging to two centers of higher education. Our results showed that the EDICOP contributed to the improvement of the participants’ divergent-proactive style, positive affectivity, emotional predisposition, and attention, as well as to their preference for cognition. Overall, the EDICOP is, therefore, both relevant and useful, and further research on the mood–creativity link is merited to generate new contexts in higher education for the promotion of both the emotional and creativity dispositions and self-awareness, by combining three basic psychological processes (emotion, cognition, and motivation).
Highlights
The mood–creativity relationship is becoming increasingly recognized in a wide range of domains, especially due to its link to innovation in higher education students
Emotions are central to the creative process, from the emotion-filled decision whether to be creative, to positive emotions broadening thinking, and to inevitable frustrations on the way to creative achievement [4,5,6].On the one hand, studies included in the latest edition of the Handbook of Vocational Education and Training [7] consider creativity training to be the basis for integrating young people into the working world
Despite the relevance of creativity training and emotional education among higher education students, we have found no intervention programs that combine both aspects in the same initiative
Summary
The mood–creativity relationship is becoming increasingly recognized in a wide range of domains, especially due to its link to innovation in higher education students. The key to improving the efficiency of students and employees in education and work could rely on cultivating their emotional awareness, optimism, creative self-efficacy, critical thinking, social creativity, and emotional creativity [1,2,3]. Emotions are central to the creative process, from the emotion-filled decision whether to be creative, to positive emotions broadening thinking, and to inevitable frustrations on the way to creative achievement [4,5,6].On the one hand, studies included in the latest edition of the Handbook of Vocational Education and Training [7] consider creativity training to be the basis for integrating young people into the working world.
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