Looking inside the fishbowl of creativity: Verbal and behavioral predictors of creative performance

Author(s): Whitney, D. M., Amabile, T. M.

Journal/Book: Creativity Res J. 1998; 11: 10 Industrial Ave, Mahwah, NJ 07430-2262. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc Inc. 243-263.

Abstract: This study set out to identify specific task behaviors that predict observable product creativity in three domains and to identify which of those behaviors mediate the well-established link between intrinsic motivation and creativity. One-hundred fifty-one undergraduate students completed a motivational measure and were later videotaped while engaging in tasks in three different domains: problem solving (a structure-building activity), art (collage making), and writing (an American Haiku poem). Behavioral coding and think-aloud protocol analysis yielded reliable measures that, when empirically combined to form task process indicators, strongly predicted judge-rated product creativity in each domain. One of the indicators, involvement in the task, sewed as a mediator of intrinsic motivation's positive influence on creativity. Other indicators reflect domain-relevant skills and creativity-relevant processes, lending support to the componential model of creativity. Theoretical and methodological implications for future creativity research are discussed.

Note: Article Ruscio J, Brandeis Univ, Dept Psychol, Waltham,MA 02254 USA

Keyword(s): CHILDRENS ARTISTIC CREATIVITY; INTRINSIC MOTIVATION; SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGY; REWARD

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