Elisabeth Rudowicz

Creativity and Culture: A Two Way Interaction.

Different manifestations of the impact of culture on creativity are discussed and illustrated by empirical studies. They include: (i) conceptualisation of creativity on both the explicit and implicit levels; (ii) attitudes towards creativity and values attached to creativity; (iii) channelling creative endeavour through different domains of human activities; and (iv) socialisation processes and educational goals and practices. It is argued that creative expression is a universal human phenomenon that is firmly grounded in culture and has its own profound impact on culture itself. The effects of culture on creativity are presented within an interactive model that, besides culture, also incorporates historical, societal and individual factors. Methodological dilemmas involved in cross-cultural studies of creativity are also discussed.

Compatibility of Chinese and Creative Personalities

ABSTRACT: The compatibility between the creative personality and the Chinese personality, as perceived by Chinese people, was investigated. Additionally, values attached to traits of both personalities were explored. A Likert-like checklist of 60 adjectives consisting of traits of creative, Chinese, and Western personalities was administered to 451 Chinese undergraduates from Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Five strong factors of personality perception were derived from the Chinese descriptors and the creative descriptors of personality. Traits of creative and Chinese personalities were perceived as distinctive by all samples. The correlation coefficients between Chinese and creative personality characteristics were negligible. In all groups, participants valued Chinese personality traits the most, followed by creative and Western traits.

Applicability of the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production for Assessing Creative Potential of Hong Kong Adolescents

This study explored the applicability of the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP) in the Hong Kong Chinese cultural context. The psychometric properties of scores on the TCT-DP were examined in a sample of 2,368 Hong Kong Chinese students aged 12 to 16. The study compared the TCT-DP’s internal consistency, interrater, and test-retest reliability coefficients for the Hong Kong sample to previously reported findings for European samples. Structural, concurrent, and discriminant validity of the test scores were evaluated. Our data provided encouraging empirical evidence for the reliability and structural and discriminant validity of the TCT-DP. The psychometric properties of the test were comparable to those obtained for European samples. However, the very low stability of Humor and Unconventionality b scales is of some concern. No sex differences were observed with regard to the test scores.

Hong Kong Chinese People's View of Creativity

This study was aimed at attaining some sense of implicit concepts of creativity among Hong Kong Chinese across different populations of participants and finding out how these implicit concepts compare to explicit concepts grounded in Western culture and tradition. Three stages of investigation are reported. In the first stage, 370 persons at railway and subway stations were asked to give their views on creativity and nominate Hong Kong person(s) outstanding for creativity, They were also asked to provide some demographic data and rate themselves on the creativity scale. In the second stage, 34 persons nominated in the first stage as outstanding for creativity were given the same task as the general public. In the third stage, local academics working in the area of creativity were asked to assign the categories of answers generated in the first and second stages of the study into one of the creativity strands: process, product, person or press. It was found that some core parts of the implicit concepts of creativity were overlapped highly across sex, age, education and occupational status variables. In other parts of the concept, how-ever, differences were found between males and females, teachers and laypersons, persons with tertiary education and other groups. Points of agreement between the implicit concepts of Hong Kong Chinese and explicit ones in the Western literature of creativity were these which linked creativity with something new, unique, leading to change and based on the independent thinking initiated by internal power and energy. However, originality, self expression as well as aesthetic and artistic elements were almost invisible in the Hong Kong implicit concepts of creativity.

On Ng's Why Asians Are Less Creative Than Westerners

The title of Ng’s book is indeed provocative, to both Asian and Caucasian readers. The ability to use provocations in a constructive manner is considered by De Bono (1990) an essential skill for anyone who wants to replace judgment with “movement” or “forward effect.” Ng’s provocation seems to be very efficient in initiating such a “movement” and jerks our thinking and behavior out of well-established patterns. Ng’s provocation turned out to be a strong motivating power for us to start an intellectual affair with this well-written and engaging book. Why Asians Are Less Creative Than Westerners (2001) deserves the attention of anyone who wants to know more about creativity, as well as its influence in different historical times, societies, and cultures. The book, although written for the general public, is firmly rooted in solid scientific research but is free from jargon and technical language. For a creativity researcher, the book is thought-provoking, involving, and at times entertaining. For a novice to the creativity field, or for a lay person, the book offers interesting, vivid, and attractive initiation into the issues of an interplay between the self, culture, society, and creative behavior. For all readers, the book puts forward some suggestions on how to liberate oneself from habitual uncreative patterns of behavior and become a creative individual leading a more fulfilling life. The primary goal of the book, as stated by Ng, is to explain why it is much harder for Asians to behave in a creative manner, as compared to their counterparts in the West. The author attempts to achieve this objective by looking at how Asians and Westerners typically behave in their respective societies. Ng places much emphasis on the importance of cultural and societal influences on one’s psychological makeup, which in turn determines one’s behavior. Ng further argues that this psychological makeup, including among other things the indigenous conception of selfhood, value system, and perception of conflict, is manifested in childrearing philosophy and practices, which in turn lead to the observed differences in creative and task-involved behaviors between the Confucian/collectivistic societies of the East and liberal/individualistic societies of the West. Ng’s assertion that it is much harder for Asians to think, feel, and act in a creative manner than for Westerners is supported by the fact that Asian society is tightly organized, collectivistic, hierarchical, and face-conscious. It places great emphasis on social order and harmony, where the Galilean self (we-ness) is promoted. Asian parents socialize their children to be psychologically dependent on the in-group and to avoid conflict. In contrast, Western society is loosely organized, individualistic, and egalitarian. It places great emphasis on democratic exchange of opinions where the Ptolemaic self (I-ness) is promoted. Western parents socialize their children to be independent and to have a positive outlook on conflict. In fact, we are totally in line with the idea adopted by Ng from creativity theorists (Csikszenmihalyi, 1988; Mooney, 1975) that culture and social system is a major component in shaping behavior in general and creative performance in particular. But we have a general impression that the cultural/social perspective has been Creativity Research Journal Copyright 2003 by 2003, Vol. 15, Nos. 2 & 3, 301–302 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Help-seeking experiences of Hong Kong social work students Implications for professional training

Experiences of help-seeking among the sample of 250 social work students were explored. A model of the reciprocal relationship between the situation prompting help-seeking, the social and cultural context, and the individual’s feelings was used to analyze the data. The results support the reciprocal link between the type of help-seeking situation, feelings and utilized resources, and show that Hong Kong social work students carry a heavy cultural load of preconceptions relating to help-seeking.

Stigmatization as a Predictor of Psychological Well-Being of Hong Kong Single Mothers

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of stigmatization and other pressures associated with single-motherhood on a variety of well-being variables. A sample of 356 Hong Kong Chinese single mothers, whose marriage ended due to divorce, husbands death, separation or desertion, responded to the self-administered questionnaire. The results show that stigmatization is a very salient factor affecting nine out of the eleven domains of psychological well-being. The impact on well-being of other social pressures, i.e., personal burdens and custodial responsibilities is rather limited. Deterioration in the employment situation after becoming a single parent is found to be the strongest predictor of stigmatization, whereas being on welfare and a lack of employment are positively and significantly correlated with stigmatization.

Underachievement and Attributions Among Students Attending Schools Stratified by Student Ability

Underachievement among students tends to be a social product. In this case, schools stratified to admit students of lower academic ability might be more likely to produce underachievers. A reason for this is the encouragement of external attribution and the discouragement of internal attribution among students in these schools. These hypotheses get support from a study of 2720 junior high school students in Hong Kong. This study shows that the hypothesized relationships generally held for six alternative methods of identifying underachievers.

THE CHINESE VERSION OF THE MARITAL COMPARISON LEVEL INDEX REVISITED

An attempt was made to tailor the Chinese version of the Marital Comparison Level Index to the Hong Kong Chinese context by adding 11 items. Analysis showed that the amended version is a reasonably reliable and culture-appropriate measure for research.