Sandra W. Russ

Affect and creativity : the role of affect and play in the creative process

Contents: Preface. Affect and Creativity. Primary Process, Affect, and Creativity. Childrens Fantasy, Play, Affective Expression, and Creativity. The Affect in Play Scale. Personality Trait Approach to Creativity. Mood-Induction and Motivational Systems Approaches to Creativity. Neurological Processes, Artificial Intelligence, and Creativity. Implications for Home, Educational, and Therapeutic Environments. Affective Components of the Creative Process: Conclusions and Future Research Directions. Appendix: The Affect in Play Scale.

Play and Creativity: Developmental issues

Play and creativity have been linked in numerous ways. Theoretically, pretend play fosters the development of cognitive and affective processes that are important in the creative act. Russs (1993) model of affect and creativity identified the major cognitive and affective processes involved in creativity and the relations among them, based on the research literature. Central to both play and creativity is divergent thinking. Both cognitive and affective processes in play have been related to divergent thinking in children. In a longitudinal study, quality of fantasy and imagination in play predicted divergent thinking over time. Divergent thinking itself was relatively stable over time. An important question is whether play can facilitate creativity. Play has been found to facilitate insight ability and divergent thinking. Studies have also shown that children can be taught to improve their play skills. Future research studies should: (i) investigate specific mechanisms that account for the relationship between play and creativity; (ii) develop play intervention techniques that improve play skills; and (iii) carry out longitudinal studies with large enough samples to enable the application of statistical procedures such as path analysis.

Prenatal Cocaine Exposure: Drug and Environmental Effects at 9 years

OBJECTIVE To assess school-age cognitive and achievement outcomes in children with prenatal cocaine exposure, controlling for confounding drug and environmental factors. STUDY DESIGN At age 9 years, 371 children (192 cocaine exposure [CE]; 179 non-cocaine exposure [NCE]) were assessed for IQ and school achievement in a longitudinal, prospective study from birth. An extensive number of confounding variables were controlled, including quality of caregiving environment, polydrug exposure, blood lead level, iron-deficiency anemia (IDA), and foster/adoptive care. RESULTS Prenatal cocaine exposure predicted poorer perceptual reasoning IQ, with a linear relationship of the concentration of the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine to the degree of impairment. Effects were mediated through birth head circumference, indicating a relationship with fetal brain growth. Negative effects of alcohol, lead, and marijuana exposure and positive effects of the home environment were additive. The CE children in foster/adoptive care had better home environments and lower lead levels. School achievement was not affected. CONCLUSIONS Persistent teratologic effects of CE on specific cognitive functions and additive effects of alcohol, lead, and marijuana exposure; IDA; and the home environment were identified. Documenting environmental factors in behavioral teratology studies is important, because in this sample, CE was associated with better home environment and lower environmental risk in a substantial number of children.

Play in child development and psychotherapy : toward empirically supported practice

Contents: Preface. Fundamental Play Processes. The Role of Play in the Development of Adaptive Abilities. The Role of Play in Therapy: The Theories. The Role of Play in Therapy: The Research. The Affect in Play Scale. Current Trends in the Therapeutic Uses of Play. Teaching Children to Play. Future Directions in Research and Practice. Appendix: Affect in Play Scale.

Affective Expression in Children's Fantasy Play, Primary Process Thinking on the Rorschach, and Divergent Thinking

The relationships among expression of primary process thinking on the Rorschach, affective expression in fantasy play, and divergent thinking were investigated in first and second grade children. Sixty children received the rorschach (Holts scoring system), a play task (Affect in Play Scale), and the Alternate Uses Test. Major hypotheses were supported because the amount of primary process thinking on the Rorschach (frequency and percent) was significantly, positively related to amount of affective expression and primary process expression in play. Also, expression of affect in play (frequency, variety, integration, and comfort) was significantly, positively related to divergent thinking, independent of IQ for both boys and girls. On the Rorschach, percent of primary process was significantly related to divergent thinking for boys. The results suggest that the ability to think imaginatively in a free-association style and the ability to have access to affect-laden material are related processes.

A model for training psychologists to provide services for children and adolescents.

Center for Mental Health Services Background and rationale for a comprehensive model of training for psychologists to provide services to children and adolescents are outlined. Eleven integrated aspects of training are described with respect to training topics, justification for the training, and ways to implement the training. The model described addresses the need for guidance in training specialists in psychologically based mental health services for children, adolescents, and their families. Practitioners can use this model to assess their own backgrounds, knowledge, and skills in working with these populations. Children, adolescents, and their families represent a large segment of the population whose mental health needs are un- derserved (Markel-Fox & Stiles, 1996; Saxe, Cross, & Sil- verman, 1988). The relative lack of psychologists adequately trained to provide assessment, treatment, and prevention ser- vices to these groups pose s a major obstacle to providing more and better services. Over many years, professionals have in- creasingly recognized the need for an updated, comprehensive, and integrated outline of training components in the area of THE GENESIS OF THIS MODEL

Emotion in Children's Play and Creative Problem Solving

Theoretically, pretend play facilitates cognitive and affective processes important in creativity. Expression of affect states and affect-laden fantasy are affective processes common to both play and creativity. This study investigated the effect of instructing children to engage in happy or angry play on affect in play and on divergent thinking. Eighty 1st- and 2nd-grade children were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups. It was hypothesized that children in the happy and angry puppet play groups would have more affect in their play and that their mood would be congruent with the play instruction. It was also hypothesized that children in the happy and angry groups would have higher divergent thinking scores than children in the free-play and puzzle conditions. One major finding was that children in the angry play group had more expression of negative affect in their play and more self-reported negative mood than children in the other groups. There were no differences among the experimental groups in divergent thinking. However, self-reported mood during the play and puzzle tasks was significantly associated with originality of the divergent thinking responses. Children who experienced more affect as opposed to feeling neutral gave more original responses. The major conclusion of the study is that the play paradigm can be used to study affective processes in children.

Affect in Fantasy Play, Emotion in Memories, and Divergent Thinking

ABSTRACT: Theory and research support the involvement of emotion in the creative process. Access to emotion in cognition and memories should broaden the associative process, which is important in divergent thinking and creativity. This study tested the hypothesis that affect in fantasy play in children would be related to divergent thinking and to emotion in memories. Emotion in memories was also expected to relate to divergent thinking. Forty-six first- and second-grade children received a 5-min puppet play task (Affect in Play Scale), an alternate uses task, and an emotional memories questionnaire. Major findings were that affect in play was significantly and positively related to the number of uses generated and originality of the use. In particular, negative affect in play was significantly related to all criteria. In addition, affect in play was significantly related to amount of affect in memory descriptions. Expression of affect appears to be cross-situational. Although amount of affect in memories also related to divergent thinking, it did not function as a mediator between negative affect and divergent thinking. Implications for the importance of affect and negative affect in childrens play and emotion in memories are discussed.

Follow-up of a Pretend Play Intervention: Effects on Play, Creativity, and Emotional Processes in Children

This study investigated the effects of a pretend play intervention on 45 first and second grade children 2–8 months post-intervention. It was hypothesized that pretend play would be improved in the intervention groups and that they would score higher than controls on measures of play, creativity, and emotional processes. Subjects were randomly assigned to an affect, imagination, or control group. The imagination group significantly increased on multiple play scores from baseline to follow up and compared with controls, scores on frequency of positive affect expression were significantly higher. Differences on other scores were not found. Results indicate that play skills can be improved and cognitive play skills may have a stronger impact on affective processes than anticipated.

Pretend play as a resource for children : Implications for pediatricians and health professionals

ABSTRACT. Pretend play relates to many areas of adaptive functioning in child development including creativity, coping, and emotion regulation. Though pretend play interventions have been employed in medical settings for decades, there are few empirical studies of such interventions in the literature. A review of literature involving pretend play in medical settings indicates that pretend play interventions are effective in inpatient and outpatient settings for preventing and reducing anxiety and distress. Pretend play also has effects on pain, externalizing behavior, and adaptation to chronic illness. Such effects have been demonstrated in the short term; however they have not been shown to be stable in the long term, indicating that intermittent refresher sessions may be necessary. The sparse empirical literature regarding pretend play in medical settings spans a large number of journals and years, and conclusions are limited by methodological issues including measurement, treatment fidelity, research design, statistical procedures, and potential confounding variables. Despite these limitations, existing evidence suggests that play is a helpful intervention and that future research that addresses these limitations is warranted.