Boosting creative ideation through improving self-regulation
Although creative ideation requires deviating sufficiently from conventional thoughts, people tend to fixate on highly salient and accessible concepts when responding to idea generation tasks. Surmounting such a default tendency then, is crucial to generating creative ideas. Bridging creative cognit...
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sg-smu-ink.etd_coll-12632020-07-20T05:50:22Z Boosting creative ideation through improving self-regulation LEE, Sean Teck Hao Although creative ideation requires deviating sufficiently from conventional thoughts, people tend to fixate on highly salient and accessible concepts when responding to idea generation tasks. Surmounting such a default tendency then, is crucial to generating creative ideas. Bridging creative cognition with self-regulation research, I hypothesized that inhibitory control over such a default response may require self-regulatory resources. This would suggest that interventions that increase people’s self-regulatory resources may also boost their creativity. However, results from Study 1 did not support this hypothesis. Specifically, there was no significant difference between ego-depleted versus non-depleted participants in terms of inhibitory control over salient concepts (assessed by the newly developed Concept Inhibition Task; CIT) or creative performance. Interestingly, post-hoc findings suggest a moderating relationship between ego-depletion status and inhibitory control, such that higher inhibitory control was associated with increased creativity only for non-depleted participants; the association was otherwise null for depleted participants. Study 2 replicated the null findings of Study 1 and did not support the utility of glucose consumption – an established ego-replenishing intervention – in increasing the creative performance of ego-depleted individuals. Study 3 examined the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation – an established self-regulation boosting intervention – in elevating people’s creativity. Results revealed no significant difference in inhibitory control and creativity between participants who meditated versus those who listened to music (a comparable control group) after a ten-day intervention period. Although improvements to both inhibitory control and creativity were found when comparing baseline to post-intervention levels, such improvements were not unique to those who meditated. Interestingly, Study 3 showed that inhibitory control was positively associated with creativity at both pre- and post-intervention assessments, whereas the association was null for Study 2 where most participants were subjected to ego-depletion. Together, these three studies suggest that self-regulatory resources may not exert a direct impact on inhibitory control over salient concepts and generating creative ideas. Instead, self-regulatory resource levels may modulate the relationship between inhibitory control and creativity, such that only non-depleted individuals may reap creative benefits from inhibiting salient concepts. For ego-depleted individuals, inhibitory control over salient concepts appear to be inconsequential towards their creative performance. This post-hoc finding is explained by considering the dual pathway theory of creative idea generation (Nijstad et al., 2010). Implications and future directions are discussed. 2020-04-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/263 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1263&context=etd_coll http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access) eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University creativity creative idea generation self-regulation inhibitory control self-regulatory resources ego-depletion mindfulness mindfulness meditation Industrial and Organizational Psychology Personality and Social Contexts |
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Although creative ideation requires deviating sufficiently from conventional thoughts, people tend to fixate on highly salient and accessible concepts when responding to idea generation tasks. Surmounting such a default tendency then, is crucial to generating creative ideas. Bridging creative cognition with self-regulation research, I hypothesized that inhibitory control over such a default response may require self-regulatory resources. This would suggest that interventions that increase people’s self-regulatory resources may also boost their creativity. However, results from Study 1 did not support this hypothesis. Specifically, there was no significant difference between ego-depleted versus non-depleted participants in terms of inhibitory control over salient concepts (assessed by the newly developed Concept Inhibition Task; CIT) or creative performance. Interestingly, post-hoc findings suggest a moderating relationship between ego-depletion status and inhibitory control, such that higher inhibitory control was associated with increased creativity only for non-depleted participants; the association was otherwise null for depleted participants. Study 2 replicated the null findings of Study 1 and did not support the utility of glucose consumption – an established ego-replenishing intervention – in increasing the creative performance of ego-depleted individuals. Study 3 examined the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation – an established self-regulation boosting intervention – in elevating people’s creativity. Results revealed no significant difference in inhibitory control and creativity between participants who meditated versus those who listened to music (a comparable control group) after a ten-day intervention period. Although improvements to both inhibitory control and creativity were found when comparing baseline to post-intervention levels, such improvements were not unique to those who meditated. Interestingly, Study 3 showed that inhibitory control was positively associated with creativity at both pre- and post-intervention assessments, whereas the association was null for Study 2 where most participants were subjected to ego-depletion. Together, these three studies suggest that self-regulatory resources may not exert a direct impact on inhibitory control over salient concepts and generating creative ideas. Instead, self-regulatory resource levels may modulate the relationship between inhibitory control and creativity, such that only non-depleted individuals may reap creative benefits from inhibiting salient concepts. For ego-depleted individuals, inhibitory control over salient concepts appear to be inconsequential towards their creative performance. This post-hoc finding is explained by considering the dual pathway theory of creative idea generation (Nijstad et al., 2010). Implications and future directions are discussed. |
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LEE, Sean Teck Hao |
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LEE, Sean Teck Hao |
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LEE, Sean Teck Hao |
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Boosting creative ideation through improving self-regulation |
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Boosting creative ideation through improving self-regulation |
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Boosting creative ideation through improving self-regulation |
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Boosting creative ideation through improving self-regulation |
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Boosting creative ideation through improving self-regulation |
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boosting creative ideation through improving self-regulation |
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Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University |
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2020 |
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https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/263 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1263&context=etd_coll |
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