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Full-Text Articles in Personality and Social Contexts
Linking Creativity To Psychological Well-Being: Theoretical Insights From Instrumental Emotion Regulation, Angela K. Y. Leung, Brandon Koh, Riyang Phang, Sean T. H. Lee, Tengjiao Huang
Linking Creativity To Psychological Well-Being: Theoretical Insights From Instrumental Emotion Regulation, Angela K. Y. Leung, Brandon Koh, Riyang Phang, Sean T. H. Lee, Tengjiao Huang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Research has recognized that people regulate their emotions not only for seeking pleasurable experiences but also for receiving instrumental gains. We draw on the theoretical framework of instrumental emotion regulation (IER; Tamir, 2005, 2009) to shed new light on the relationships among creativity, emotion, and psychological well-being. We outline propositions that explain why there are concurrent creative and well-being benefits when people experience emotional states that are consistent with their personality trait (e.g., worrisome emotions being consistent with trait neuroticism) even if such trait-consistent emotions are negative. The IER perspective offers new interpretations of the creativity—well-being relationship through motivating a …
Middle Ground Approach To Paradox: Within- And Between-Culture Examination Of The Creative Benefits Of Paradoxical Frames, Angela K. Y. Leung, Shyhnan Liou, Ella Micron-Spektor, Brandon Koh, David Chan, Roni Eisenberg, Iris K. Schneider
Middle Ground Approach To Paradox: Within- And Between-Culture Examination Of The Creative Benefits Of Paradoxical Frames, Angela K. Y. Leung, Shyhnan Liou, Ella Micron-Spektor, Brandon Koh, David Chan, Roni Eisenberg, Iris K. Schneider
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Thriving in increasingly complex and ambiguous environments requires creativity andthe capability to reconcile conflicting demands. Recent evidence with Western samplessuggested that paradoxical frames, or mental templates that encourage individuals torecognize and embrace contradictions, could produce creative benefits. We extendedthe timely, but understudied, topic by studying the nuances of for whom and whycreative advantages of paradoxical frames emerge. We suggest that people endorsinga middle ground approach are less likely to scrutinize conflict and reconcile withintegrative solutions, thus receiving less creative benefits of paradoxical frames. Fivestudies that examined individual and cultural differences in middle groundendorsement support our theory. Study 1 found that …
Sympathy Fuels Creativity: The Beneficial Effects Of Sympathy On Originality, Hwajin Yang, Sujin Yang
Sympathy Fuels Creativity: The Beneficial Effects Of Sympathy On Originality, Hwajin Yang, Sujin Yang
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Sympathy is usually evoked by heightened awareness of and concern for others' suffering by perceiving or reacting to their distress or need. Sympathetic contexts appear to spur creative solutions, because those who react sympathetically to others' suffering tend to seek novel, desirable, and prosocial solutions that alleviate suffering and promote well-being. We conducted two studies to investigate whether sympathy enhances creativity. Study 1 tested the feasibility of using images of distressed elderly as an unobtrusive method to induce sympathy. Study 2 sought to determine whether induced sympathy promotes creativity, and whether individual differences in trait empathy moderate this effect. Results …
The Role Of Instrumental Emotion Regulation In The Emotions-Creativity Link: How Worries Render Individuals With High Neuroticism More Creative, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Shyhnan Liou, Lin Qiu, Letty Y. Y. Kwan, Chi-Yue Chiu, Jose C. Yong
The Role Of Instrumental Emotion Regulation In The Emotions-Creativity Link: How Worries Render Individuals With High Neuroticism More Creative, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Shyhnan Liou, Lin Qiu, Letty Y. Y. Kwan, Chi-Yue Chiu, Jose C. Yong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Based on the instrumental account of emotion regulation (Tamir, 2005), the current research seeks to offer a novel perspective to theemotions–creativity debate by investigating the instrumental value of trait-consistent emotions in creativity. We hypothesize that emotionssuch as worry (vs. happy) are trait-consistent experiences for individuals higher on trait neuroticism and experiencing these emotions can facilitate performance in a creativity task. In 3 studies, we found support for our hypothesis. First, individuals higher in neuroticism had a greater preference for recalling worrisome (vs. happy) events in anticipation of performing a creativity task (Study 1). Moreover, when induced to recall a worrisome …
Revisiting The Multicultural Experience-Creativity Link: The Effects Of Cultural Distance And Comparison Mindset, Chi-Ying Cheng, Angela K. Y. Leung
Revisiting The Multicultural Experience-Creativity Link: The Effects Of Cultural Distance And Comparison Mindset, Chi-Ying Cheng, Angela K. Y. Leung
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
A growing literature provides evidence for the multicultural experience-creativity link such that exposure to the juxtaposition of two cultures facilitates individual creativity. The underlying mechanisms for this relationship, however, are still far from being well explored. Drawing upon the novel perspective of motivated cognition, we hypothesize that two factors interact to affect creative outcomes: (a) perceived cultural distance between the two juxtaposed cultures, and (b) comparison mind-sets. Specifically, we argue that individuals’ creative performance will be increased only when a difference mind-set is employed to process the cultural stimuli that are sufficiently different from each other. In two studies, individuals …
Embodied Metaphors And Creative "Acts", Angela K.-Y. Leung, Suntae Kim, Evan Polman, Lay See Ong, Lin Qiu, Jack A. Goncola, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks
Embodied Metaphors And Creative "Acts", Angela K.-Y. Leung, Suntae Kim, Evan Polman, Lay See Ong, Lin Qiu, Jack A. Goncola, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Creativity is a highly sought after skill. To inspire people’s creativity, prescriptive advice in the form of metaphors abound: We are encouraged to think outside the box, to consider the problem on one hand, then on the other hand, and to put two and two together to achieve creative breakthroughs. These metaphors suggest a connection between concrete bodily experiences and creative cognition. Inspired by recent advances on body-mind linkages under the emerging vernacular of embodied cognition, we explored for the first time whether enacting metaphors for creativity enhances creative problem-solving. In five studies, findings revealed that both physically and psychologically …
Going Beyond The Multicultural Experience-Creativity Link: The Mediating Role Of Emotions, Chi-Ying Cheng, Angela K. Y. Leung, Tsung-Yu Wu
Going Beyond The Multicultural Experience-Creativity Link: The Mediating Role Of Emotions, Chi-Ying Cheng, Angela K. Y. Leung, Tsung-Yu Wu
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This research examines the mediating role of emotions implicated in the multicultural experience—creativity link. We propose that when individuals are dealing with apparent cultural contradictions upon encountering two cultures simultaneously, mentally juxtaposing dissonant cultural stimuli could lower positive affect or increase negative affect, which could in turn induce a deeper level of cognitive processing of cultural discrepancies and inspire creativity. Two studies compared dual cultural exposure versus single cultural exposure among bicultural Singaporeans (Study 1) and compared self-relevant (jointly presenting local and foreign cultures) versus self-irrelevant (jointly presenting foreign cultures only) dual cultural exposure among monocultural Taiwanese (Study 2). As …
Multicultural Experience, Idea Receptiveness, And Creativity, Angela K. Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu
Multicultural Experience, Idea Receptiveness, And Creativity, Angela K. Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Inspired by recent advances in creative cognition research, the authors examined in the current research some creative benefits of multicultural experiences. Study 1 showed that European American undergraduates had better creative performance immediately after being exposed to American and Chinese cultures or to a hybrid culture formed by fusing American and Chinese cultures; this effect was also observed 5 to 7 days after the initial exposure. Studies 2 and 3 showed that exposure to multicultural experiences is positively related to the likelihood of engaging in some creativity-supporting processes—generation of unconventional ideas (Study 2) and receptiveness to ideas originated from foreign …