Publications
Publications
- 1984
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Children's Artistic Creativity: Effects of Choice in Task Materials
By: T. M. Amabile and J. Gitomer
Abstract
Preschool boys and girls made collages using a subset of a large array of materials. Half of the children were allowed to choose those materials they would use. For the rest of the children, the choice was made by the experimenter. Children in the no-choice condition were yoked to those in the choice condition by the specific materials they were given. The collages made by children given a choice of materials were judged by a group of artists as significantly higher in creativity than those made by children given no choice. These results support the hypothesis that unconstrained choice in task approach can be conducive to creativity, whereas constrained choice can be detrimental.
Keywords
Citation
Amabile, T. M., and J. Gitomer. "Children's Artistic Creativity: Effects of Choice in Task Materials." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 10 (1984): 209–215.
About The Author
