Creativity Under Fire: Effects of Exaggerated Time Restrictions and High Standards of Criteria on Creative Production
Author
Birdwhistell, Daniel Moffett
Subject
Washington and Lee University -- Honors in Psychology
Creative ability -- Psychological aspects
Creative thinking
Metadata
Show full item recordDescription
Investigates how two psychological stressors -- exaggerated time restrictions and high standards of criteria -- affect the creative performance of 44 8th and 48 11th grade students and alludes to the relation between stressful environments and creative production in classroom settings. The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, Figural Form A: Parallel Lines Task was used to test creative performance. Creative behaviors were measured by Fluency, Originality, and Elaboration scores. A Fluency/Originality ratio and Fluency/Elaboration ratio was also considered. There was an interaction between grade, standard, and time restriction as measured by Elaboration in that 8th grade students scored lowest in the presence of a standard without time restriction while 11th grade students scored best in the same condition. Further, 11th grade students scored lowest in the presence of a standard with a time restriction, while 8th grade students scored very high in the same condition. There was also a significant effect of standard as measured by the Fluency/Elaboration ratio and an interaction between grade and standard and grade, time, and standard for the same measure. A main effect of grade existed with Fluency, Originiality, and the Fluency/Elaboration ratio in that 8th graders performed significantly better than 11th grade students. The findings support the Behaviorist camp in that external motivators can be used to enhance or hinder specific aspects of creative production.