Some thought on creative self.docx

Some thought on creative self.docx

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Somethoughtoncreativeself

Somethoughtoncreativeself-efficacyInthispost,Ioutlineexistingresearchontheroleofselfefficacyincreativityandproposefutureresearchtofurtherexplainthepowerofcreativeself-efficacy.Todothis,Ifirstdiscusstheconceptofself-efficacyanditsmeasurement,asdescribedbyBandura（1977,1997）,aswellascreativity,especiallyasdiscussedby（AbuhamdehandCsikszentmihalyi2002）.Ithenclarifywhatismeantbycreativeself-efficacy,relyingprimarilyonthreestudies:

TierneyandFarmer’s（2002）,Choi（2004）,andJaussi,Randel,&Dionne（2007）.Lastly,Idescribeastudythatmightbedonetoexploreitinthecontextofcreativity,creativeself-efficacy,andself-efficacy（Bandura,2006）.

Inthefirststudy,TierneyandFarmer（2002）examinedhowself-efficacypredictscreativity.Understandingcreativityasthecreationoftheusefulandthenovelinadomain,TierneyandFarmerproposedthatcreativityinadomainshouldbepredictedbothbyself-efficacyforthatdomainandself-efficacyforcreativity.Theauthorsproposedthatjobtenure,educationlevel,jobself-efficacy,supervisorsupport,jobcomplexity,andjobtenurewouldallpositivelypredictcreativeself-efficacy.Allofthesehypotheseswereconfirmedinastudyof584employeesatlargecorporationexceptforthelast:

therewasanegativecorrelationbetweencreativeself-efficacyandtenure,whichispuzzlingifcreativityistheresultofincreaseddomain-specificlearning.Afollowupstudyof191workersataresearchanddevelopmentunitofaMidwestchemicalcompany（Tierney&Farmer,2004）foundsimilarresults,withcreativeselfefficacyexplaining35%ofemployeecreativity.Inthesecondstudy,thecorrelationofcreativitytotaskexpertisewas-.11,implyinggreatertaskexpertiseweakenedcreativeperformance.

ThesecondstudytobeexaminedisChoi（2004）.Choiproposedthatanumberofpsychologicalmediatorsofcreativity,includingcreativeself-efficacy,creativeintention,andcreativepersonality,andtotestthissurveyed430studentsatabusinessschool.Choi’sconfirmatoryanalysisshowedthatcreativeself-efficacyexplained34%ofthevarianceincreativeperformance,whilecreativeintentionexplained24%,andcreativepersonalitydidnotexplainanyadditionalvariation,onceothervariablessuchascautiouspersonalitywereaddedtoalongitudinalstructuralmodel.

Theroleofcreativeself-efficacywasfurtherdescribedbyJaussi,Randel,&Dionne（2007）.Jaussiandcolleaguesconductedatreatmenton219professionalseniormanagersCreativeself-efficacywasmeasuredusingtheTierneyandFarmer（2002）scale,andcreativitywasmeasuredthroughco-workerappraisal.Othervariables,suchascreativeidentity,stressatwork,andgenderwerealsogathered.Theauthorswereprimarilyinterestedintheroleofcreativeidentityinpredictingcreativity,thoughalsohypothesizedthatcreativeidentitywouldinteractwithcreativeself-efficacyinpredictingcreativity.Hierarchicalregressionanalysiscontinuedtosupporttheroleofcreativeself-efficacy.Creativeself-efficacy’sstatisticalsignificantimpactwasapparentaftertwostepsoftheanalysis,whilecreativeself-identityrequiredanothersteptoappear.However,theeffectsizesweresmall,withallindependentvariablestogetheronlyaccountingfor14%ofthevarianceincreativity.

Unfortunately,thesestudiessufferfrommethodologicalflawswhichlimittheirgeneralizability.Considerhowthestudiestreatcreativity:

Choi’s（2004）definitionas“creativityasthegenerationofnovelororiginalideasthatareusefulorrelevant”（p.188）,Tierney&Farmer’s（2002）definitionas“thegenerationofdomain-specific…novel,andusefuloutcomes”（p.138）,andJaussi,Randel,&Dionne’s（2007）definitionas“theproductionnovelandusefulideas”（p.247）areallclosetoeachother,andtodefinitionsofcreativityusedinotherarticles（Mayer,1999）.However,allofthesepaperusereportsbyinstructors（Choi,2004）,aworksupervisor（Tierner&Farmer,2002,2004）,orco-workers（Jaussi,Randel,&Dionne,2007）.Thus,creativityisoperationalizedasthepositiveimpressiononemakesonco-workers,ratherthanpayingattentiontoafield,“alltheindividualswhoactasgatekeeperstoadomain,”thatarethearbitratorsofcreativity（AbuhamdehandCsikszentmihalyi,2002,p.37）.ConsiderAbuhamdehandCsikszentmihalyi’sexampleofthefieldinthedomainofart:

“thefieldconsistsoftheartcriticsandarthistorians,theartdealersandartcollectors,andtheartiststhemselves.”Whetherornotthefieldmightalsoincludethesupervisorsofthecreativeindividual,itisclearafieldwouldnotbelimitedtothem.

Methodologicalflawsalsoweakentheresearchoncreativeself-efficacy.Creativeself-efficacyisanindividual’sbeliefinhisabilitytoperformataskinordertoachieveagoal（Bandura,1997,2006）.Efficacyvariesintermsofthemagnitude,generality,andstrengthoftheexpectation（Bandura2006）.Self-efficacycancomefromanindividual’sownaccomplishments,observingamodel,persuasion,oremotionalarousal.Theconceptualdefinitionsarelessclear,referringto“employees’beliefsintheirabilitytobecreativeintheirwork”（Tierner&Farmer,2002,p.1141）,“perceivedbehavioralcontrol…inthecontextofcreativeperformance.Inotherwords…aperson’sbeliefthatheorshecansuccessfullyperformcreativebehaviorinaparticularsetting”（Choi,2004,p.190）,or“feelingsaboutwhetherheorsheiscreative（feelsconfidentthatheorshecanbecreativeinagiventask）…thecapacitytodoajobcreatively”（Jaussi,Randel,&Dionne,2007,p.249）.Examplesofthequestionsusedtocapturecreativeself-efficacywere“Ihaveconfidenceinmyabilitytosolveproblemscreatively”（Tierney&Farmer,2002,p.1141）,aformulationalsousedinTierneyandFarmer（2004）andJaussi,Randel,&Dionne（2007）,aswellas“IfeelconfidentthatIcanintroducenewideastotheclassinaconvincingmanner”and“IfeelnervouswhenIpresentdifferentviewstoclassmates”（Choi,2004,p.139）.

Self-efficacyshouldbedefinedandoperationalizedinawaykeepingwiththeestablishedmethod（Bandura,2006）.Ifthesameconstructifmeasuredindifferentwaysindifferentpapers,theresearchonthetopicwillbecomeconfused.Indeed,asBandurawrites,“Theconstructionofsoundefficacyscalesreliesonagoodconceptualanalysisoftherelevantdomainoffunctioning”（p.310）.Withoutagoodunderstandingofwhatitmeanstobecreative,neithercreativitynorcreativeself-efficacycanbemeasured!

Bandurabeginshisguidetooperationalizaingself-efficacywiththefollowingdefinition,originallyfromBandura（1977）:

“Perceivedself-efficacyisconcernedwithpeople’sbeliefsintheircapabilitiestoproducegivenattainments”（p.307）.Whilenostandardself-efficacyscaleexists,astandardwayofgeneratingthemdoes（Bandura,2006）.Self-efficacyscalesshouldbedomain-specific,targetfactorsthathelppredictproperfunctioninginthedomain,shouldvaryinthedifficultyoftheratedtasksothatindividualdifferencesinself-efficacycanbeexamined,andwheremotivationisafactorshouldmeasureself-efficacytosustaintheaction.Thedefinitionandoperationalizationofself-efficacyisstraight-forward（Bandura,2006）.Tomeasureself-efficacy,questions“shouldbephrasedintermsofcandoratherthanwilldo”（p.308）,Self-efficacyquestionsshouldaskabouttheconfidenceoftheindividualtoperformaspecifictaskasofnow.Scalesshouldinclude11steps,beginningat0andendingat100.Apracticeitemshouldbeincludedtohelppeopleunderstandthescale.Afterscaleconstruction,thescaleshouldbepre-testedandtheCronbach’salphascoreshouldbeusedtodeterminewhichitemstokeep.

AbuhamdehandCsikszentmihalyi（2002）presentaguideformeasuringcreativitywhentheydescribeitasanindividualwhooperatesinadomaintogainrecognitionbythefield.Thus,creativitycanbemeasuredbytherecognitionofthefield.Interesting,theELOsystemthatisusedbyresearcherstomeasureexpertise（Charness,Krampe,&Mayr,1996）isthusavalidmeasureofcreativity.InELO,everygamethatachessplayerplaysagainstanotherchessplayerisrecorded.Thehistoriesoftheplayersareusedtojudgetherelativedifficultyofthegameforeach.Thus,ifaplayerwithabetterrecorddefeatsaplayerwithaworserecordlittlewillchange:

thatisexpected.However,ifaplayerwithasubstantiallyworserecordupsetsaplayerwithabetterrecord,itwillleadtothepreviouslyworseplayerrisingandthepreviouslybetterplayerfalling.InELO,therefore,recognitionbyadomainisobjectivemeasuredthroughaplayer’srecordedinteractionwiththefield.

Iproposetoexpandmypriorresearchinthelightofcreativeself-efficacy.Previously,Iconductedacorrelationalpilotstudyon77blogreadersandwriters.Iwasinterestedinexploringtheroleofattitudesoncreativity,soImeasuredcognitiveandaffectiveattitudesfromastandardscale（Crites,etal.,1994）,somequestionsrelatingtobehaviorstypicalofcreativepeople,andsoon.IfoundthatIcouldexplain20%ofvariationincreativityusingthreeofthebehavioralquestionsamongblogcreators,andIcouldexplain18%ofthevariationinconsumptionofblogsamongreadersbytheiraffectiveattitudetowardblogs.Atthetime,Iwaspuzzledthataffectiveattitudes.However,Idecidedthattheymightdototheconceptofflow（AbuhamdehandCsikszentmihalyi2002）,inwhichpeopleparticipateincreativeactionsinordertoavoidshutouttheoutsideworld.Thatis,itmightbethatbloggingisnotaffectivelyagreeable,butthatnot