Effects of goal orientation and self regulation on creative behaviors

The present study aimed at examining the influence of two motivational variables---achievement goal and regulatory focus on creativity. It was composed of two empirical studies. Study 1 was designed to investigate how achievement goal and regulatory focus affected creativity. A total of 824 Grade 7 students took part in completing a questionnaire which comprised an alternate use item of a standardized creativity assessment, a creative problem solving task, an instrument on achievement goal and two instruments on regulatory focus. Exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to confirm the factor structures of achievement goals (mastery-approach goal, performance-approach goal, mastery-avoidance goal, and performance-avoidance goal) and regulatory foci (promotion focus and prevention focus). Results showed that these two variables were basically distinctive in nature. Positive but weak correlations were found between promotion focus and creativity, as well as prevention focus and creativity. Positive and weak correlations were also found between mastery-approach goal and creativity, performance-approach goal and creativity, as well as mastery-avoidance goal and creativity. Promotion focus had moderately high associations with both approach goals (mastery-approach and performance-approach) and avoidance goals (mastery-avoidance and performance-avoidance), and so had prevention focus. Regression analyses indicated that the strongest predictor for creativity was promotion focus. Performance-approach goal and mastery-avoidance goal served as weak mediators of regulatory focus on creativity.;Study 2 took a further step to examine the effects of regulatory focus on creativity in 490 Grade 7 students who had taken part in the previous study. Participants of 13 intact classes were randomly assigned to one of the conditions, namely promotion-framing condition (188 students from 5 classes), prevention-framing condition (149 students from 4 classes), and the control condition (153 students from 4 classes). Verbal and written instructions were provided with an intention to frame the regulatory focus of individual students. Participants completed a parallel item of the alternate use battery of the standardized creativity assessment, another item of creative problem solving, and six checking questions. Previous scores of achievement goals and regulatory foci were used as covariates in analysis of variance to examine the differences in the checking items.;Results showed that the manipulation was relatively ineffective as reflected by the manipulation questions. Participants' promotion trait had, however, main effects on the manipulation items. Participants with high promotion trait scored significantly higher in all the checking items of promotion focus. Participants' prevention trait also had main effects on their perception of checking items of prevention focus. Participants with high prevention trait got higher scores of prevention situation than individuals with medium and low trait level.;Further analyses of comparing the creativity scores of the experimental groups also showed inconsistent results. Participants in the promotion cue condition scored significantly higher in uniqueness and unusualness of standardized assessment, and fluency and flexibility of creative problem solving than those in the prevention cue condition. The correlation between promotion focus and creativity was found significantly higher under the promotion cue condition than the prevention cue condition. But other mixed results showed that the control group scored significantly higher fluency and flexibility of standardized assessment than participants in the promotion cue condition. Participants' levels of promotion focus trait also had main effects on their creativity scores. Participants with higher trait of promotion focus tended to score higher in most of the creativity indicators.;In conclusion, the present study provided some limited evidence that promotion focus as a personality trait had weak but positive associations with creativity, and achievement goal as a weak mediator in affecting students' creativity. Students' promotion trait had stronger main effect on their creative performance than situational promotion focus. Ways to improve the manipulation effects and future direction on research had been suggested.