Apara Ranjan

The recognizability of individual creative styles within and across domains.

We present a set of studies that tested the hypothesis that creative style is recognizable within and across domains. Art students were shown two sets of paintings, the first by five famous artists and the second by their art student peers. For both sets, they guessed the creators of the works at above-chance levels. In a similar study, creative writing students guessed at above-chance levels which passages were written by which of five famous writers, and which passages were written by which of their writing student peers. When creative writing students were asked to produce works of art, they guessed at above-chance levels which of their peers produced which artwork. Finally, art students who were familiar with each others paintings guessed at above-chance levels which of their peers produced which non-painting artwork. The findings support the hypothesis that creative styles are recognizable not just within but also across domains. We suggest this is because all of an individuals creative outputs are expressions of a particular underlying uniquely structured self-organizing internal model of the world.

Creative Ideas for Actualizing Student Potential

Due to the highly public nature of forensic psychology (the testimony of forensic psychologists in courts and other adjudicative tribunals) there exists a critical need in forensic psychology training programs to teach not only didactically, but to give students ways of handling psychological data when confronted by attacks on their findings (such as cross examination). Several aspects of the training program in forensic psychology at Nova Southeastern University are described, all the way from basic courses in ethics and professional issues, to advanced courses in forensic consulting, civil and criminal law, and forensic assessment. Experiential exercises such as serving as expert witnesses in trials and hearings, and defending various psychological assessments against cross examination are described. Students write briefs and argue the psycho-legal issues in front of a mock supreme court justice, as well as prepare amicus briefs that address certain psychological issues in family law settings.