TY - JOUR PY - 1975// TI - Enhancing creativity by modifying what subjects say to themselves JO - American educational research journal A1 - Meichenbaum, Donald SP - 129 EP - 145 VL - 12 IS - 2 N2 - Three conceptualizations of creativity, including a mental abilities approach, an ego-analytic levels analysis approach, and an attitudinal self-concept approach, were each translated into sets of self-statements which could be modeled and then rehearsed by a group of volunteer college students. This self-instructional training group (N = 7), relative to Gendlin's focusing training (N = 7) and to an untreated waiting list control group (N = 7), manifested a significant increase in originality and flexibility on tests of divergent thinking, an increase in preference for complexity, a significant increase in human movement responses to an inkblot test, and concomitant changes in self-concept. As a result of the focusing training, which emphasized being aware of one's bodily feelings, the subjects' self-reports indicated that they felt more creative, but this was not reflected in their performance. The implications of enhancing creativity by explicitly training subjects to talk to themselves was discussed.

LA - SN - 0002-8312 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00028312012002129 ID - ref1 ER -