Gudmund J. W. Smith

Creativity in Early and Middle School Years

The purpose of the study was to follow the development of creativity defined as the inclination to transgress the confines of an established perceptual context in children aged 7 to 11 years, after having studied 4-6-year-olds previously. One group of 55 7-8-year-olds, divided in a younger and/or more cognitively immature subgroup (I) and an older and/or more mature one (II), and one group of 31 10-1 1-year-olds (III), were tested with a special percept-genetic creativity test (PG) which significantly correlated with a creativity-fantasy scale. While creativity decreased in group I as compared with younger children, it increased drastically in group III, as did anxiety signs in a percept-genetic personality test (MCT) applied in all groups. While thus creativity seemed to benefit from a certain amount of anxiety, it was obviously blocked by excessive amounts or by low anxiety tolerance. The low creativity tide in 7-year-olds could perhaps be associated with the beginning of regular school in Sweden, but the high tide at the age of 10-11 years would perhaps point to an autonomous developmental rhythm.

Creativity in Middle and Late School Years

The purpose of the study was to follow the development of creativity defined as the inclination to transgress the confines of an established perceptual context in youngsters aged 12-16 years, after having studied 4-11-year-olds previously. There were altogether 142 subjects, 24-33 in each age group, who were tested with a special percept-genetic creativity test (PG). A creativity-fantasy scale was also applied together with a percept-genetic personality test (MCT). After a creative peak among 10-11-year-olds, 12-year-olds showed a significant decrease of strong creativity signs, a simultaneous increase of compulsive and kindred defense strategies and decrease of signs of anxiety. The recovery of creativity was slow during high puberty (14-15 years) but more marked after (16 years). Using the duality of inwardness and the outside world as a point of departure the paper discusses the fluctuations between high and low creative periods and, among other things, tries to explain why they are more pronounced among subjects with an academic home background.

The effect on an established percept of a perceptual process beyond awareness

Summary In this tachistoscopic study a line design and a square are presented in rapid succes- sion. Together they constitute a well-known optical illusion where the lower side of the square looks shorter than the upper side. The exposure time of the square is kept constant at full recognition time, the exposure time of the line design is gradually prolonged. The experiment is confined to that part of the exposure series where Ss are still unaware of the first picture. After each exposure Ss judge the form of the quadrangle (square) according to a scale where minus-figures and plus-figures denote gradual decrements of the upper and lower sides respectively and zero represents a true square. Most judgments go in the positive direction (as compared with judgments in a previous control series where the square is presented alone) i. e., Ss judge the quadrangle as it appears in the illu- sion. The deformation seems to be strongest in the middle of the exposure series. This change in the perception of the square is not the result of mere repetition of presenta- tions but of a line design of which Ss are not aware, or rather of pre-stages of the perpectual process eventually leading up to conscious perception of the lines. Indi- vidual differences, especially with respect to isolation mechanisms, are also studied, and the implications of the results for a genetic theory of perception are discussed.

The Concept of Defense Mechanisms in Contemporary Psychology

The editors have brought together theoretical and empirical contributions on the topic of defence together with studies on the applications of these constructs to clinical and personality assessment, especially with regard to psychopathology, psychosomatics, and psychotherapeutic intervention. This systematic and up-to-date overview highlights the advantages and potentials of currently available approaches to empirical research on defence mechanisms. The text is divided into five practical sections: general issues; methodological considerations; personality and applied psychology; clinical assessment and psychotherapeutic interventions; and psychosomatics.

Post-diction of suicide in a group of depressive patients

Prediction of suicides was made on the basis of 99 psychiatric patients included in a study of anti-depressive therapy during 1961-63. These patients were followed up until 31 December 1984. Eight of them committed suicide. The prediction was based on two test methods, the Serial Colour-Word Test (CWT), which registers style of adaptation to a conflicting situation, and the Meta-Contrast Technique (MCT), where incongruous or threatening stimulation is introduced by degrees into neutral pictures and various defense misrepresentations of the threat are spotted. Both tests could predict suicide, but MCT was most successful. The sensitivity of the test was 0.80 and the specificity 0.75. The main risk symptom appeared to be depressive retardation together with lack of functional defensive structures.

Creativity in old age

Sixty elderly subjects (M = 72 years) were tested and interviewed to find out how they experience and come to terms with the advent of illness, aging, and death. The choice of test instruments was steered by the necessity to learn how our subjects handled their anxiety (the Meta‐Contrast Technique [MCT]); to operationally define the concept of self‐image (the Identification Test [IT]); and to illuminate the findings from the perspective of creativity (the Creative Functioning Test [CFT]). The results revealed creativity to be a key factor in aging. The attitude of creative individuals towards aging was less negative and their attitude to illness less defensive. On the whole, their self‐projections were not only more flexible but also more emotional. However, creativity is not uninfluenced by context, particularly when it is of medium strength. The results also revealed that the subliminal messages used in the IT to manipulate the projected self‐image were effective.

Defense mechanisms: Current approaches to research and measurement

This chapter highlights the general theme of the book, including definitions of defense mechanisms within various theoretical frames of reference. After a period of exclusion from mainstream clinical psychology the concept of defense has now returned to center stage.

Creativity through psychosomatics

Abstract: This study postulated two links between creativity and psychosomatics: one concerned with alexithymia (the inability to find adequate words for emotional problems), another with the need for autonomy. These postulates were tested in one group of patients with Ulcerative Colitis (n = 24) and another with Morbus Crohn (n = 61). A reference group (n = 43) was also included. The test instruments were an interview about parental relations, the percept‐genetic Creative Functioning Test (CFT) probing the inclination to let subjective alternatives replace the correct one, and a projective Identification Test (IT) where descriptions of tachis‐toscopic presentations of a vague face were manipulated by the tags “I WELL”; and “I ILL.”; Creativity correlated with the use of emotional words (the opposite of alexithymia) in the IT but also with signs of light anxiety in the beginning of the test signaling an anticipatory unease, particularly in creative people with their relatively open inward communication. A...

Studies in the development of a percept within various contexts of perceived reality

SUMMARYTwo stimuli, A and B, were presented immediately after each other in a tachistoscope, B at the threshold value for correct perception, A at a subthreshold value subsequently raised in geometrical progression. In one series A might be congruent with B (car + street-scene), in the other series the two stimuli were incongruent (car + interior). A pilot study demonstrated that the first independent representation of A was affected by the perceived context of B, i. e., the reconstruction of initial pre-stages of the correct percept would be partly organized on the basis of the percept already established. But pre-stages of A beyond awareness might also exert a significant influence upon the perception of B. The genesis of stimulus A from its first appearance either as an independent percept, or as an obvious influence upon B, seemed to reveal consistent patterns reflecting mechanisms of adaptive regulation.Part of these experiments were applied to groups of normal (n = 18), compulsive (n = 10), paranoid...

Alexithymia in patients with eating disorders: an investigation using a new projective technique.

The concept of alexithymia was scrutinized in a group of female patients with eating disorders: 15 anorectics and 13 bulimics (mean age of 27 yr.), plus a control group of 21 (mean age 38 yr.). Subjects were interviewed and tested. In the main test an ambiguous face was flashed briefly on a screen opposite the viewer who had to describe her impressions. To enhance the ego-involvement, subliminal words (I, I ILL, I WELL) were presented before each exposure. Contrary to expectations the present patients used more emotional words than controls. Instead, they employed alternative strategies to avoid empathizing. The results were interpreted as indicating a pronounced incapacity for emotional understanding.