Guillaume Fürst

The Creative Process in Visual Art: A Longitudinal Multivariate Study

The purpose of this research was to study the creative process in real-life settings and in a multicomponential perspective of creativity. Relations between the creative process and other important variables (mood, personality, and the creative product) were investigated. The data analyzed were collected in four applied art schools (n = 41) in Switzerland, during mandatory workshops. The creative process was operationalized through 2 subprocesses: generation (idea production) and selection (idea evaluation), both repeatedly measured across the workshops. The trajectories of theses subprocesses were modeled with a commonly used statistical model for longitudinal data (Latent Growth Models). Results showed that generation had an overall decreasing pattern through time, whereas selection had an inverted U-shaped pattern. Important individual differences in both subprocesses and related variables were also found, many of which had strong predictive validity. Indeed, process and personality variables explained 70% of the variance of the evaluation of the final product.

Trauma exposure interacts with impulsivity in predicting emotion regulation and depressive mood

Background Traumatic exposure may modulate the expression of impulsive behavioral dispositions and change the implementation of emotion regulation strategies associated with depressive mood. Past studies resulted in only limited comprehension of these relationships, especially because they failed to consider impulsivity as a multifactorial construct. Objective Based on Whiteside and Lynams multidimensional model that identifies four distinct dispositional facets of impulsive-like behaviors, namely urgency, (lack of) premeditation, (lack of) perseverance, and sensation seeking (UPPS), the current study used a sample of community volunteers to investigate whether an interaction exists between impulsivity facets and lifetime trauma exposure in predicting cognitive emotion regulation and depressive mood. Methods Ninety-three adults completed questionnaires measuring lifetime trauma exposure, impulsivity, cognitive emotion regulation, and depressive mood. Results Results showed that trauma-exposed participants with a strong disposition toward urgency (predisposition to act rashly in intense emotional contexts) tended to use fewer appropriate cognitive emotion regulation strategies than other individuals. Unexpectedly, participants lacking in perseverance (predisposition to have difficulties concentrating on demanding tasks) used more appropriate emotion regulation strategies if they had experienced traumatic events during their life than if they had not. Emotion regulation mediated the path between these two impulsivity facets and depressive mood. Conclusions Together, these findings suggest that impulsivity has a differential impact on emotion regulation and depressive mood depending on lifetime exposure to environmental factors, especially traumatic events.

Multilingualism and creativity: a multivariate approach

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a contribution to the investigation of the relation between multilingualism and creativity. Past evidence of a correlation between multilingualism and creativity is reviewed in a generalist perspective, that is, without focusing on a specific population such as migrants or highly proficient bilinguals. This review is also anchored in contemporary cognitive psychology and specialised research on creativity, allowing for a consideration of different levels and domains of creativity, as well as a distinction between creative potential and manifest creativity. On this basis, we test various hypotheses with a sample of 596 participants, using multiple regressions that incorporate several control variables. Key results show that L2 skills are systematically and positively related to virtually all indicators of creativity. Additional results reveal effects of other linguistic variables, along with effects of control variables related to cultural diversity (travelling and experience of living abroad), as well as interactions between linguistic and control variables. These results are contrasted with earlier findings and then discussed in terms of language policy implications and perspectives for future research.

Quels sont les facteurs qui renforcent l’exigence d’apprentissage par les migrants de la langue du pays d’accueil?

This study shows, based on a survey carried out among more than 40,000 young people, that there is an almost unanimous social consensus concerning the need to learn the language of the host country, a consensus which tends to be reinforced by cultural capital and experience gained from travelling but largely transcends social and inter-regional differences. This learning expectation remains compatible with positive attitudes towards immigration, which suggests that citizens see a requirement for integration policies of which language is a vital component.