Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 1998
  • Article
  • Creativity Research Journal

Looking Inside the Fishbowl of Creativity: Verbal and Behavioral Predictors of Creative Performance

By: J. Ruscio, D. M. Whitney and T. M. Amabile
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:21
ShareBar

Abstract

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 a motivational measure and were later videotaped while engaging in tasks in three different domains: problem solving (a structure-building activity), art (collage making), and a writing (an American Haiku poem). Behavioral coding and think-aloud protocol analysis yielded reliable measures that, when empirically combined form task process indicators, strongly predicted judge-rated product creativity in each domain. One of the indicators, involvement in the task, served as a mediator of intrinsic motivation's positive influence one creativity. Other indicators reflect domain-relevant skills and creativity-relevant processes, lending support to the componential model of creativity. Theoretical and methodological implications for future creativity research are discussed.

Keywords

Creativity; Cognition and Thinking; Behavior

Citation

Ruscio, J., D. M. Whitney, and T. M. Amabile. "Looking Inside the Fishbowl of Creativity: Verbal and Behavioral Predictors of Creative Performance." Creativity Research Journal 11, no. 3 (1998): 243–263.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Purchase

About The Author

Teresa M. Amabile

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • August 2021
    • Academy of Management Perspectives

    The Undervalued Power of Self-relevant Research: The Case of Researching Retirement While Retiring

    By: Teresa M. Amabile and Douglas T. (Tim) Hall
    • January–February 2021
    • Harvard Business Review

    How to Help (Without Micromanaging)

    By: Colin M. Fisher, Teresa M. Amabile and Julianna Pillemer
    • September 2020
    • Academy of Management Discoveries

    Creativity, Artificial Intelligence, and a World of Surprises

    By: Teresa M. Amabile
More from the Authors
  • The Undervalued Power of Self-relevant Research: The Case of Researching Retirement While Retiring By: Teresa M. Amabile and Douglas T. (Tim) Hall
  • How to Help (Without Micromanaging) By: Colin M. Fisher, Teresa M. Amabile and Julianna Pillemer
  • Creativity, Artificial Intelligence, and a World of Surprises By: Teresa M. Amabile
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College