Psychological research has shown that emotions and emotional arousal affect problem solving and other aspects of cognition. This article investigates the relationship between emotional states and the process of creation. High school students working on a major term paper reported their emotional states at four points in time. Analyses consider the relationship between these self-reported emotional states and qualities of the final paper as judged by the teacher and an independent rater. Boredom during work on the paper was found to be negatively correlated with the quality of the final product; enjoyment was positively correlated with the final outcome; and no relationship was found for anxiety. Regression analysis indicated that boredom but not enjoyment predicted the quality of students' work independently of other variables such as students' GPA's. These results indicate that emotional states are interrelated with creativity in this kind of task, but suggest that only boredom has a causal relationship with the quality of the final outcome.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CollingwoodR., The Principles of Art, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1938.
2.
MacKinnonD., IPAR's Contribution to the Conceptualization and Study of Creativity, in Perspectives in Creativity, TaylorJ.GetzelsJ. (eds.), Aldine, Chicago, 1975.
3.
KrisE., Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art, International Universities Press, New York, 1952.
4.
KubieL., Neurotic Distortion of the Creative Process, University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, Kansas, 1958.
5.
BarronF., The Disposition toward Originality, Journal of Social Psychology, 51, pp. 478–485, 1955.
6.
PineF., Thematic Drive Content and Creativity, Journal of Personality, 27, pp. 136–151, 1959.
7.
GetzelsJ.CsikszentmihalyiM., The Creative Vision, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1976.
8.
SolomanR., The Passions, University of Notre Dame Press, Indiana, 1976.
9.
CattellR., The Personality and Motivation of the Researcher from Measurements of Contemporaries and Biography, in Scientific Creativity: Its Recognition and Development, TaylorC.BarronF. (eds.), John Wiley, New York, 1963.
10.
SulerJ., Primary Process Thinking and Creativity, Psychological Bulletin, 88, pp. 144–165, 1980.
11.
FreudS., Leonardo da Vinci, BrillA. (trans.), Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1910.
12.
ArietiS., Creativity: The Magic Synthesis, Basic Books, New York, 1976.
13.
EysenckM., Attention and Arousal: Cognition and Performance, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1982.
14.
McLeodD. B.AdamsV. M., Affect and Mathematical Problem Solving: A New Perspective, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1989.
15.
CsikszentmihalyiM., Motivation and Creativity: Towards a Synthesis of Structural and Energistic Approaches to Cognition, New Ideas in Psychology, 6, pp. 159–176, 1988.
16.
SimonH., Motivational and Emotional Controls of Cognition, Psychological Review, 74, pp. 29–39, 1967.
17.
MandlerG., Affect and Learning: Causes and Consequences of Emotional Interaction, in Affect and Mathematical Problem Solving: A New Perspective, McLeodD. B.AdamsV.M. (eds.), Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 3–19, 1989.
18.
RussellJ. A., Affective Space is Bipolar, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, pp. 345–356, 1979.
19.
RussellJ. A.WeissA.MendelsohnG. A., Affect Grid: A Single-Item Scale of Pleasure and Arousal, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, pp. 493–502, 1989.
20.
RothenbergA., The Emerging Goddess: The Creative Process in Art, Science, and Other Fields, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1979.
21.
IzardC., Human Emotions, Plenum, New York, 1977.
22.
YerkesR.DodsonJ., The Relation of Strength of Stimulus to Rapidity of Habit Formation, Journal of Comparative Neurological Psychology, 18, pp. 459–482, 1908.
23.
BroadhurstP., The Interaction of Task Difficulty and Motivation: The Yerkes-Dodson Law Revisited, Acta Psychologica, 26, pp. 321–338, 1959.
24.
EasterbrookJ., The Effect of Emotion on Cue Utilization and the Organization of Behavior, Psychological Review, 66, pp. 183–201, 1959.
25.
HasherL.ZacksR., Automatic and Effortful Processes in Memory, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108, pp. 356–388, 1979.
26.
O'HanlonJ., Boredom: Practical Consequences and a Theory, Acta Psychologica, 49, pp. 53–82, 1981.
27.
SmithR., Boredom: A Review, Human Factors, 23, pp. 329–340, 1981.
28.
ThackrayR., The Stress of Boredom and Monotony: A Consideration of the Evidence, Psychosomatic Medicine, 43, pp. 165–176, 1981.
29.
KahnemanD., Attention and Effort, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1973.
30.
CondryJ.ChambersJ., Intrinsic Motivation and the Process of Learning, in The Hidden Costs of Reward, LepperM.GreeneD. (eds.), Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey, pp. 61–84, 1978.
31.
AnastasiA.SchaeferC., Biographical Correlates of Artistic and Literary Creativity in Adolescent Girls, Journal of Applied Psychology, 53, pp. 267–273, 1969.
32.
GetzelsJ., Creative Thinking, Problem-Solving, and Instruction, in Theories of Learning and Instruction, HilgardE. (ed.), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 240–269, 1964.
33.
MaddiS., Motivational Aspects of Creativity, Journal of Personality, 33, pp. 330–347, 1965.
34.
SchaeferC.AnastasiA., A Biographical Inventory for Identifying Creativity in Adolescent Boys, Journal of Applied Psychology, 52, pp. 42–48, 1968.
35.
TorranceE. P., The Importance of Falling in Love with “Something,”The Creative Child and Adult Quarterly, 8, pp. 72–78, 1983.
36.
CsikszentmihalyiM., Beyond Boredom and Anxiety, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1975.
37.
AmabileT., Social Psychology of Creativity: A Consensual Assessment Technique, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, pp. 997–1013, 1982.
38.
BarronF.HarringtonD., Creativity, Intelligence, and Personality, Annual Review of Psychology, 32, pp. 439–476, 1981.
39.
RoeA., The Personality of Artists, Educational and Psychological Measurement, 6, pp. 401–406, 1946.
40.
FrommE., The Creative Attitude, in Creativity and Its Cultivation, AndersonH. (ed.), Harper, New York, 1959.
41.
MaddiS., The Strenuousness of the Creative Life, in Perspectives in Creativity, TaylorI.GetzelsJ. (eds.), Aldine, Chicago, 1975.
42.
ElbowP., Writing without Teachers, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1973.
43.
RuddickS.DanielsP. (eds.), Working It Out: 23 Women Writers, Artists, Scientists, and Scholars Talk about Their Lives and Work, Pantheon, New York, 1977.
44.
MillerH., To Paint Is To Love Again, City Cambria Books, Alhambra, California, 1960.
45.
MendelsohnG., Associative and Attentional Processes in Creative Performance, Journal of Personality, 44, pp. 341–369, 1976.
46.
MaddiS.BerneN., Novelty of Productions and Desire for Novelty as Active and Passive Forms of Need for Variety, Journal of Personality, 32, pp. 270–277, 1964.
47.
KoestlerA., The Act of Creation, Macmillan, New York, 1964.
48.
LarsonR., Emotional Scenarios in the Writing Process: An Examination of Young Writers' Affective Experiences, in When a Writer Can't Write, RoseM. (ed.), Gilford, New York, pp. 19–42, 1985.
49.
LarsonR.HeckerB.NoremJ., Students' Experience with Research Projects: Pains, Enjoyment, and Success, The High School Journal, 68, pp. 61–69, 1985.
50.
SkinnerB. F., About Behaviorism, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1974.
51.
LarsonR., The High School Junior Theme: An Adolescent Rite of Passage, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 17, pp. 269–285, 1988.
52.
AmabileT., The Social Psychology of Creativity: A Componential Conceptualization, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, pp. 357–376, 1983.
53.
ParloffM.DattaL.KlemanM.HandlonJ., Personality Characteristics which Differentiate Creative Male Adolescents and Adults, Journal of Personality, 36, pp. 528–552, 1968.
54.
AmabileT., Effects of External Evaluation on Artistic Creativity, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, pp. 221–233, 1979.
55.
AmabileT., Motivation and Creativity: Effects of Motivational Orientation on Creative Writers, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, pp. 393–399, 1985.
56.
McGrawK., The Detrimental Effects of Reward on Performance: A Literature Review and a Prediction Model, in The Hidden Costs of Reward, LepperM.GreeneD. (ed.), Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey, pp. 33–60, 1978.
57.
HirschE. D.Jr., The Philosophy of Composition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1977.
58.
PopperK. R., The Logic of Scientific DiscoveryHarper Torchbooks, New York, 1959.
59.
KierkegaardS., The Sickness unto Death, LowrieW. (trans.), Doubleday Anchor, Garden City, New York, 1849 (1941).
60.
MacKinnonD., Personality and the Realization of Creative Potential, American Psychologist, 20, pp. 273–281, 1960.
61.
HelsonR., Experiences of Authors in Writing Fantasy: Two Relationships between Creative Process and Product, Journal of Altered States of Consciousness, 3, pp. 235–248, 1978.
62.
LazarusR., The Self-Regulation of Emotion, in Emotions-Their Parameters and Measurement, LeviL. (ed.), New York, pp. 47–67, 1975.
63.
MorrisW. N.ReillyN. P., Toward the Self-Regulation of Mood: Theory and Research, Motivation and Emotion, 11, pp. 215–249, 1987.
64.
HarrisonA., Creativity, Class, and Boredom: Cognitive Models for Intelligent Activities, Journal of Education, 166, pp. 150–169, 1984.
