The Structure Of The Mental Model Of Creativity And Its Impact On Creativity

Creativity is an essential part of the success of teams,individuals,and organizations,as well as being crucial in many facets of everyday life,such as scientific discovery,art,and education.Creative mindsets is people' s implicit theories referring to the nature and the beliefs about the stable-versus-malleable character of creativity which influence creative performance.This article aimed at exploreing the structure of creative mindsets and investigating the relationship between creative mindsets and creative performance by adding Creative Self-Efficacy as a mediator.In the first study,239 college students participated in questionnaires survey which includes Karwowski's Creative Mindset Scale.We conducted exploratory factor analysis to verifie whether a one-or two-factor solution is better.The results showed:two-factor structure with growth-and fixed-creative mindsets forming two relatively independent scales,rather than two ends of one continuum is better.In the second study,239 college students participated in questionnaires survey which includes Karwowski's Creative Mindset Scale,Creative Self-Efficacy Scale and verbal,figural tests of Creative thinking and were explored for the relationship between creative mindsets,creative self-efficacy and creative performance.The results showed:(1)Creative mindset have effect on creative performance.More specifically,the growth mindset positively predicted the fluency and originality of verbal test,fluency,emotional expressiveness and extending or breaking boundaries of figural test.The fixed mindset negatively predicted the elaboration of figural test.(2)The fixed mindsets did not relate to creative self-efficacy,while growth mindsets were positively correlated with creative self-efficacy.(3)Creative self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between growth mindset andthe fluency and originality of verbal test,the fluency,emotional expressiveness and extending or breaking boundaries of figural test.While Creative self-efficacy didn't mediate the relationship between the fixed mindset and the elaboration of figural test.In the third study,creative mindsets was primed,130 college students were randomly assigned into two groups.In the growth mindset prime group,participants read an article which states that creativity is trainable and may be developed.In the fixed mindset prime group,participants read an article which illustrates that creative skills are fixed and unchangeable.After priming,we compare the creative self-efficacy and creative performance of two groups.The results showed:(1)The growth mindset prime group was significantly higher than the fixed mindset prime group on the fluency,originality,storytelling articulateness and humor of figural test.The difference of creative performance between the two groups mainly reflect on figural test which reminds us that the growth mindset under prime condition promote Imagery Thinking rather than Abstract Thinking.(2)The growth mindset prime group wasn't significantly different from the fixed mindset prime group on the creative self-efficacy,and creative self-efficacy didn't mediate the relationship between the creative mindsets and creative performance.In general,this article find that:(1)Creative mindsets is a two-factor variable with growth-and fixed-creative mindsets forming two relatively independent factor,rather than two ends of one continuum.(2)Creative mindset have effect on creative performance.More specifically,the growth mindset promote creative performance.The growth mindset under prime condition led to improved creative performance.Also,the growth mindset as a stable factor positively predicted creative performance which was partially mediated by creative self-efficacy.While the fixed mindset have negative effect on creative performance.