97-022
HOW DO MOTIVATION AND TASK BEHAVIORS AFFECT CREATIVITY? AN
INVESTIGATION IN THREE DOMAINS
John Ruscio, Dean Whitney, and Teresa Amabile
This study set out to identify specific task behaviors
that predict observable product creativity in three domains,
and to identify which of those behaviors mediate the well-
established link between intrinsic motivation and
creativity. One hundred fifty-one undergraduate students
completed motivational measures and were later videotaped
while engaging in tasks in three different domains: problem-
solving (a structure-building activity), art (collage-
making), and writing (an American Haiku poem). Behavioral
coding and think-aloud protocol analysis yielded reliable
measures that, when empirically combined to form task
process indicators, strongly predicted judge-related product
creativity in each domain. Several of the indicators, most
notably involvement in the task in all three domains, served
as mediators of intrinsic motivation's positive influence
on creativity. Other indicators appeared to reflect domain-
relevant skills and creativity-relevant processes, lending
support to the componential model of creativity are
discussed, as well as more general implications for social,
personality, and organizational psychology.
EM
52 pages
Complete Text (Acrobat PDF Version) [HBS Only]
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