Facilitation of Performance on a Divergent Measure of Creativity: A Closer Look at Instructions to "Be Creative"

Abstract

Research has suggested that instructing subjects to "be creative" enhances performance on alternate uses creativity tasks. However, previous research has con founded the effect of instructions to "be creative" with the effects of guidelines defining response quality criteria. These factors were separated by providing one of four instructions to 132 college students: creativity (C/NG), creativity plus guidelines (C/G), guidelines only (S/G), or standard alternate uses instructions (S/NG) that do not mention creativity or provide guidelines. Results indicated that males performed best in the C/G condition and females did so in the C/NG condition; standard instructions were least beneficial in eliciting maximal creative performance. The role of instructions in improving valid assessment of creativity is discussed. Suggestions for further research on the observed sex differences in response to instructions are presented.