Anna N. N. Hui

Arts Education and Creativity Enhancement in Young Children in Hong Kong.

The present study aimed at assessing Hong Kong young children’s gains in creativity and their teachers’ application of arts education after a one-year artists-teachers collaborative arts education project that involves various art forms (i.e. drama, visual arts and integrated). Participants included 790 young children, 217 parents and 65 teachers in seven kindergartens and nurseries. Measures included the Test for Creative Thinking–Drawing Production, Story-Telling Test (STT), the subscales of parent-rated creativity, communication and motivational characteristics, and the adapted Scale of Application of Arts in the Classroom. Among the three art forms, children in the visual arts group demonstrated highest gains in verbal creativity as evaluated by the STT. Based on parents’ report, there were significant differences in children’s communication characteristics across the three art forms. Significant differences across art forms were also found in teachers’ confidence in teaching arts to 3–4 years old and their perception of arts for arts sake. Both teachers and students take advantage of the professional and artistic input and guidance of practising artists in arts appreciation and production. Implications and limitations were discussed.

Self-perception of aging and acute medical events in chronically institutionalized middle-aged and older persons with schizophrenia†

To examine the relationship between self‐perceptions of aging and acute medical events in chronically institutionalized middle‐aged and older persons with schizophrenia.

Gains and losses in creative personality as perceived by adults across the life span.

In this study, we used a life span model to study the subjective perception of creative personality (CP) in emerging, young, middle-aged, and older Hong Kong Chinese adults. We also asked participants to estimate the approximate age by which people develop and lose CP across adulthood. We expected an interesting interplay between internalized age stereotypes and age-related differentiation in beliefs about personality development. Older adults perceived increases in both gains and losses in CP in old age. But they still maintained a similar level of self-perceived CP traits when compared with young participants. Emerging, young, and middle-aged adults were less optimistic about their creativity development into old age. Young adults, in contrast to older adults, believed that gains in CP began and ceased at an earlier age. Positive perceptions of CP in ones aging process may have implications for aging successfully.

Creativity and Early Talent Development in the Arts in Young and Schoolchildren

This chapter argues and provides research evidence that creativity can be nurtured in young schoolchildren through early arts education in preschools and primary schools. The data presented in this chapter lend supports to the hypotheses that early arts education inside the classrooms and outside the schools is associated with creativity in typical schoolchildren. Implications and limitations for implementation will be discussed.

The State, Not the Trait, of Nostalgia Increases Creativity

Nostalgic experience evokes emotions and activates the cognitive process of recalling and reconstructing information in memory. This study investigated the effects of nostalgia on creativity using experiments and questionnaires. Two-hundred-and-eighty university students were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, in which participants received and completed different writing tasks (nostalgic experience vs. common life experience). They also responded to questionnaires measuring personality, nostalgia proneness, and creativity. Results showed that participants who were primed with nostalgic experience demonstrated higher creativity than the control group. In both groups, women demonstrated higher creativity than men. When specific aspects of the nostalgic experience were used to predict creativity, results showed that: (a) nostalgia triggered by social interaction and negative affect was positively related to creativity; (b) nostalgic experience containing tangibles positively predicted creativity; (c) the total number of triggers and the amount of, but not the positivity or salience of self in, nostalgia narrative contributed positively to creativity; and (d) higher agreeableness and openness, but not nostalgia proneness or other personality traits, were associated with higher creativity. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

Emotional Reactions Mediate the Effect of Music Listening on Creative Thinking: Perspective of the Arousal-and-Mood Hypothesis

This study examined the effect of music listening on creative thinking through the lens of the arousal-and-mood hypothesis, which posits that emotional reactions (i.e., arousal and valence) mediate the effect of music listening on cognitive functioning. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: a positive music group (n = 198), a negative music group (n = 195), and a control group (n = 191). Creative thinking and emotional reactions were assessed with the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production and the Affect Grid, respectively. The results showed that both positively and negatively arousing music enhanced creative thinking. The results further revealed that arousal, regardless of valence, significantly mediated the music-creativity relationship. This study enriches the research on the arousal-and-mood hypothesis by (1) providing direct empirical testing on the mediating roles of emotional reactions; (2) including both positively and negatively arousing music in the study design; and (3) identifying that only arousal, and not valence, was a significant mediator in the music-creativity link.

Gender differences in means and variability on creative thinking: Patterns in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood

Gender differences in creative thinking remain an unresolved research question. Researchers have increasingly recognized that both mean and variability analyses should be conducted to uncover a complete picture of gender differences. Moreover, it has been suggested that gender differences in intellectual abilities are dynamic across age, and gender differences need to be analyzed developmentally. This study aimed to reframe the study of gender differences in creative thinking by (1) using both mean and variability analyses and (2) employing a developmental perspective. Creativity was assessed with the Test for Creative Thinking–Drawing Production (TCT–DP) which was developed based on the componential model of creativity. The TCT–DP scores of six age groups (N = 2,224), which included participants of ages 3–4 years, 5–7 years, 10–12 years, 13–15 years, 18–19 years, and 20–22 years, were analyzed. Results showed that while mean analyses generally revealed trivial gender differences, variability analyses tend to support great gender differences. Furthermore, developmental data demonstrated that the magnitude and the direction of gender differences change across age. While greater female variability (favoring girls) was observed in young children, a reverse pattern that was found in adolescents and young adults. The findings shed lights on the different developmental trajectories of boys and girls in creativity.

Team processing and creative self-efficacy in professionals from creative and non-creative industries

The value of creative industries is developing worldwide: the United States (11 % of GDP in 2010; Oxford Economics The economic impact of the creative industries in the Americas. Oxford Economics, UK, 2013), Argentina, Mexico, and Peru (7 % of GDP in 2010; Oxford Economics in The economic impact of the creative industries in the Americas. Oxford Economics, UK, 2013), the European Union (4.5 % of GDP in 2008; TERA Consultants in The economic contribution of the creative industries to EU GDP and employment: evolution 2008–2011. TERA Consultants, France, 2014), South Korea (10 % between 2010 and 2012; CISAC in The creative industries and the BRICS. CISAC, France 2014), China (6.37 % of GDP between 2010 and 2012; CISAC in The creative industries and the BRICS. CISAC, France 2014), Hong Kong (4.1 % of GDP in 2009; Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR in Hong Kong Mon Dig Stat 1–28, 2011), and Taiwan (3.7 % of GDP in 2010, Ministry of Culture, Taiwan in Taiwan cultural and creative industries annual report 2010).