Motivated information processing, social tuning, and group creativity.

The extent to which groups are creative has wide implications for their overall performance, including the quality of their problem solutions, judgments, and decisions. To further understanding of group creativity, we integrate the motivated information processing in groups model (De Dreu, Nijstad, & Van Knippenberg, 2008) with work on epistemic social tuning (Lunn, Sinclair, Whitchurch, & Glenn, 2007). Three propositions were advanced: (a) Groups produce more ideas when members have high rather than low epistemic motivation, especially when members also have a prosocial rather than pro-self motivation; (b) these ideas are more original, appropriate, or feasible when a group norm favors originality, appropriateness, or feasibility; and (c) originality is valued more in individualistic cultures (e.g., the Netherlands), whereas appropriateness is valued more in collectivist cultures (e.g., Korea). Four studies involving 3-person groups generating ideas supported these propositions: Epistemic motivation (mild vs. intense time pressure; presence vs. absence of process accountability) stimulated production and originality, especially when prosocial rather than pro-self motives were present and participants were Dutch or originality norms were experimentally primed. When appropriateness norms were primed or participants were Korean, epistemic motivation stimulated production and appropriateness, especially when prosocial rather than pro-self motives were present. We discuss implications for research on group processes and for work on culture and creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation losses in small groups: A social dilemma analysis.

A theory developed to account for behavior in social dilemmas—situations in which the rational pursuit of self-interest can lead to collective disaster—was applied to the analysis of group motivation losses. Two group motivation loss effects demonstrated in previous research, the social-loafing effect and the free-rider effect, are shown to follow from social dilemma theories. An experiment with 75 undergraduates was performed to empirically demonstrate a 3rd motivation loss effect, termed the "sucker" effect. It was hypothesized that group members would reduce their efforts if they had a capable partner who free-rode on their efforts, that is, who was capable of contributing to the group but would not. This prediction was confirmed. The effect was particularly strong in males. Potential remedies for such motivation losses are discussed. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working for the self or working for the group: How self- versus group affirmation affects collective behavior in low-status groups.

Experiencing social identity threat can lead members of stigmatized groups to protect their self-regard by withdrawing from domains that are associated with higher status groups. Four experiments examined how providing identity affirmation in alternative domains affects performance motivation in status-defining domains among stigmatized group members. Two forms of identity affirmation were distinguished: self-affirmation, which enhances personal identity, and group affirmation, which enhances social identity. The results showed that although self- and group affirmation both induce high performance motivation, they do so in different ways. Whereas self-affirmation induces a focus on the personal self, group affirmation induces a focus on the social self (Study 1). Accordingly, group affirmation elicited high performance motivation among highly identified group members (Studies 1 and 2) by inducing challenge (Study 2) and protected interest in group-serving behaviors that improve collective status (Studies 3 and 4). By contrast, low identifiers were challenged and motivated to perform well only after self-affirmation (Studies 1 and 2) and reported an even stronger inclination to work for themselves at the expense of the group when offered group affirmation (Studies 3 and 4). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and creativity: Effects of motivational orientation on creative writers.

72 members of the college community who identified themselves as actively involved in creative writing participated in individual laboratory sessions, in which they were asked to write 2 brief poems, to investigate the hypothesis that intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity and extrinsic motivation is detrimental. In the present study, intrinsic motivation was defined as resulting from an S's interest in and enjoyment of writing for its own sake, while extrinsic motivation was defined as resulting from the external things obtained by writing (e.g., rewards, approval). Ss were divided into approximately equal groups that were designated as intrinsic-orientation, extrinsic-orientation, and control conditions. Before writing the 2nd poem, Ss in the intrinsic-orientation condition completed a questionnaire on intrinsic reasons for being involved in writing, and Ss in the extrinsic-orientation condition completed a questionnaire on extrinsic reasons. Ss in the control condition were not given a questionnaire on reasons for writing. Results indicate that, although there were no initial differences between conditions on prior involvement in writing or on creativity of the 1st poems written, there were significant differences in the creativity of the poems written after the experimental manipulations. Poems written under an extrinsic orientation were significantly less creative than those written in the other 2 conditions. Implications for social-psychological and individual-difference conceptions of creativity are discussed. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication, commitment, and cooperation in social dilemma.

Intragroup communication promotes cooperation in social dilemmas. Two explanations are plausible: discussion may (1) enhance feelings of group identity or (2) induce commitments to cooperate. Some remedies for social dilemmas (like group communication) may be subclassified as public welfare remedies (of which enhanced group identity is an example) vs cooperation-contingent remedies (of which commitment is an example). The efficacy of a cooperative act for enhancing the collective welfare should moderate remedies of the former but not the latter type. An experiment, using 441 female undergraduates, is reported in which group communication and the efficacy of cooperation were manipulated. As expected if communication induced commitments, but contrary to the group identity explanation, efficacy did not moderate the effect of group discussion. Other analyses provided more direct evidence that group members made and honored commitments to cooperate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive regularities in creative activity.

Theories of creativity have not traditionally considered whether novel ideas or inventive behaviors can result from regularities in the cognitive processes responsible for such activities. Most of these traditional theories are based on the evaluation of products as meeting (or not) some abstract metric of creative output. However, cognitive theories of creativity can be proposed in which creative activity is a function of more traditional cognitive processes that are not unique to inventive behaviors. The purpose of this article is to review the cognitive regularities of creative activity and organize the research on this topic into a framework that might be useful in understanding and extending investigations directed at studying creativity. To these ends, cognitive processes underlying generation, synthesis, and selection of information in creative activities are delineated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Where are the generators?

Organizational creativity is presented as four distinctly different sequential stages of a dynamic cognitive creative problem solving process: generation, conceptualization, optimization, and implementation. The generation stage is the activity that initiates the creative process. It is disruptive, because it entails proactively and deliberately seeking and discovering brand new problems and opportunities. Often called opportunity finding, generation results from restless discontent with the status quo. This activity is different from the second stage, conceptualization, which other researchers have previously described as problem construction, identification, or formulation. Such second stage activity gives definition to a newly discovered problem freshly emerging from the first stage or to a presented or otherwise already existing problem. We provide research showing that the people who prefer the generation stage activity (generators) are underrepresented in industrial and business organizations and are likely to be found in occupations normally found outside such organizations, for example, artists, writers, designers, teachers, and academic institutions. We argue that organizations seeking increased creativity and innovation could do so by understanding and recognizing the contributions made by people preferring the generator style, and by making generator activity more attractive for all members of the organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changing AIDS-risk behavior.

Presents a comprehensive, critical review of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)-risk-reduction literature on interventions that have targeted risky sexual behavior and iv drug use practices. A conceptually based, highly generalizable model for promoting and evaluating AIDS-risk behavior change in any population of interest is then proposed. The model holds that AIDS-risk reduction is a function of people's information about AIDS transmission and prevention, their motivation to reduce AIDS risk, and their behavioral skills for performing the specific acts involved in risk reduction. Supportive tests of this model, using structural equation modeling techniques, are then reported for populations of university students and gay male affinity group members. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy and the collective good: Caring for one of the others in a social dilemma.

We predicted that feeling empathy for another member of the collective in a social dilemma would create an altruistic desire to allocate resources to that person as an individual, reducing collective good. To test this prediction, 2 studies were run. In each, participants faced a dilemma in which they could choose to benefit themselves, the group, or other group members as individuals. In Study 1, empathy for another group member was manipulated; in Study 2, naturally occurring empathic response was determined by self-report. In both studies, participants who experienced high empathy allocated more resources to the target of empathy, reducing the overall collective good. These results suggest the importance of considering self-interest, collective interest, and other-interest (altruism) as three distinct motives, each of which may operate in social dilemmas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of distribution rules in small groups.

Investigated whether rational individuals adopt a specific form of reward distribution that is beneficial to the group (and thus to all group members) by assigning 126 undergraduates to 42 same-sex, 3-person groups. Group members were informed of their own profits and asked to make contributions to the production of valuable rewards to be distributed. Members were given opportunities to decide collectively on the form of reward distribution. Results show that members adopted an objectively beneficial form of reward distribution when its benefits were easily recognized by the members; however, when benefits were difficult to experience, members adopted an objectively harmful form of reward distribution, presumably because of their tendency to free-ride (low contributors preferred the equality distribution of rewards, but high contributors preferred the equity rule of distribution). It is concluded that distribution that will maximize collective reward depends on the strength of the conflict between individual and collective interests and the ease with which members experience the benefit of specific distribution rules. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why seeking help from teammates is a blessing and a curse: A theory of help seeking and individual creativity in team contexts.

Research has not explored the extent to which seeking help from teammates positively relates to a person's own creativity. This question is important to explore as help seeking is commonly enacted in organizations and may come with reciprocation costs that may also diminish creativity. Results based on 291 employees in a single division of a large multinational organization revealed that seeking help predicted creativity and mediated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and creativity. However, help seekers also incurred reciprocation costs in that they tended to give more help to teammates, and giving help to teammates was negatively related to creativity. In general, giving higher levels of help attenuated the positive relationship between help seeking and creativity. We also tested an integrated model to show that help giving moderated the mediated relationship between intrinsic motivation and creativity via help seeking, such that higher levels of help giving attenuated this mediated effect. We discuss theoretical and practical implications recommending additional research regarding the interpersonal creative process in team contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

No pain, no gains: Negative mood leads to process gains in idea-generation groups.

Research has consistently demonstrated that individuals tend to outperform groups on idea-generation tasks (e.g., Mullen, Johnson, & Salas, 1991). However, mood states have the capacity to alter the coordination and motivation of group members, leading to performance gains or performance losses. In this experiment, individuals and 3-person groups generated slogans for a fictitious company after experiencing a positive or negative mood induction. Contrary to previous research, negative mood groups in our study actually generated slogans that were more creative than those produced by negative mood individuals. No differences emerged for positive individuals and groups. In the negative conditions, the effect of level of analysis (individual vs. group) on creativity was mediated by persistence on the slogan-generation task. Results are presented in the context of feelings-as-information (N. Schwarz & G. L. Clore, 1988). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation gains of inferior group members: A meta-analytical review.

In recent years, a growing number of studies have demonstrated that individuals can exert higher motivation when working in a group compared to working individually. This is particularly true for less capable, inferior group members. To aggregate these findings and to examine preconditions as well as moderating influences on motivation gains of inferior group members, the authors conducted a meta-analysis (17 studies, N=2,240). Results indicated that the overall motivation gain effect of inferior group members observed is moderate and significant (g=.60). Moderator analyses revealed substantial influences of task structure, performance information, physical presence, gender, and task type. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distributed creativity: How collective creations emerge from collaboration.

Creativity is often considered to be a mental process that occurs within a person’s head. In this article, we analyze a group creative process: One that generates a creative product, but one in which no single participant’s contribution determines the result. We analyze a series of 5 theater performances that were improvisationally developed in rehearsal by a theater group; over the course of these 5 performances, a collaborative creation emerged from the improvised dialogues of the group. We argue that in cases of creativity such as this one, it is inaccurate to describe creativity as a purely mental process; rather, this case represents a nonindividualistic creative process that we refer to as distributed creativity. We chose this term by analogy with studies of distributed cognition, which are well established in cognitive science, but have not yet had a substantial impact on creativity research. Our study demonstrates a methodology that can be used to study distributed creative processes, provides a theoretical framework to explain these processes, and contributes to our understanding of how collaboration contributes to creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analysis of 25 years of mood-creativity research: Hedonic tone, activation, or regulatory focus?

This meta-analysis synthesized 102 effect sizes reflecting the relation between specific moods and creativity. Effect sizes overall revealed that positive moods produce more creativity than mood-neutral controls (r = .15), but no significant differences between negative moods and mood-neutral controls (r = -.03) or between positive and negative moods (r = .04) were observed. Creativity is enhanced most by positive mood states that are activating and associated with an approach motivation and promotion focus (e.g., happiness), rather than those that are deactivating and associated with an avoidance motivation and prevention focus (e.g., relaxed). Negative, deactivating moods with an approach motivation and a promotion focus (e.g., sadness) were not associated with creativity, but negative, activating moods with an avoidance motivation and a prevention focus (fear, anxiety) were associated with lower creativity, especially when assessed as cognitive flexibility. With a few exceptions, these results generalized across experimental and correlational designs, populations (students vs. general adult population), and facet of creativity (e.g., fluency, flexibility, originality, eureka/insight). The authors discuss theoretical implications and highlight avenues for future research on specific moods, creativity, and their relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

基于PSM-DID模型的绿色金融对工业固废资源化技术创新的支持效果评价

工业固废污染由于量大、资源化比例低而成为固废污染的主要问题,解决固废污染问题的重点是做好工业固废的处理、处置与资源化。绿色金融支持方法可在绿色技术创新系统的全过程为技术创新提供支持,是创新系统中不可缺少的重要助力。利用倾向得分匹配(Propensity Score Matching, PSM)方法和双重差分(Differences-in-Differences, DID)模型,从作用机理、效果验证和提出改进三个方面对大宗工业固废资源化技术创新的绿色金融支持方法进行了理论与实证研究,以期对绿色金融在大宗工业固废资源化技术创新方面的应用和改进起到支持和促进作用。     

Motivated information processing, strategic choice, and the quality of negotiated agreement.

The authors tested a motivated information-processing model of negotiation: To reach high joint outcomes, negotiators need a deep understanding of the task, which requires them to exchange information and to process new information systematically. All this depends on social motivation, epistemic motivation (EM), and their interaction. Indeed, when EM (manipulated by holding negotiators process accountability or not) was high rather than low and prosocial rather than proself, negotiators recall more cooperative than competitive tactics (Experiment 1), had more trust, and reached higher joint outcomes (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 showed that under high EM, negotiators who received cooperative, rather than competitive, tactics reached higher joint outcomes because they engaged in more problem solving. Under low EM, negotiators made more concessions and reached low joint outcomes. Implications for negotiation theory and for future work in this area are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achieving positive social identity: Social mobility, social creativity, and permeability of group boundaries.

Three experiments examined 5 hypotheses of social identity theory ( H. Tajfel & J. C. Turner, 1979 ) concerning social mobility and social creativity strategies and how permeability of group boundaries affects strategy use. As predicted, members of negatively distinctive in-groups distanced themselves psychologically from the in-group (social mobility), rated the distinguishing dimension as less undesirable (social creativity), and rated the in-group more favorably on other dimensions (social creativity) than did members of nondistinctive in-groups. Also as predicted, social creativity strategies were more likely to be used when group boundaries were impermeable rather than permeable. Permeability effects on social mobility strategies were more complex than predicted. Additional findings shed light on relationships among identity-enhancement strategies and on how dimensions are chosen to flatter a negatively distinctive in-group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical tests of an information-motivation-behavioral skills model of AIDS-preventive behavior with gay men and heterosexual university students.

This article contains empirical tests of the information-motivation-behavioral skills (IMB) model of AIDS preventive behavior (J. D. Fisher and W. A. Fisher; see PA, Vol 79:28622; W. A. Fisher and J. D. Fisher, 1993), which has been designed to understand and predict the practice of AIDS-preventive acts. The IMB model holds that AIDS-preventive behavior is a function of individuals' information about AIDS prevention, motivation to engage in AIDS prevention, and behavioral skills for performing the specific acts involved in prevention. The model further assumes that AIDS-prevention information and motivation generally work through AIDS-prevention behavioral skills to influence the initiation and maintenance of AIDS-preventive behavior. Supportive tests of the model, using structural equation modeling techniques, are reported with populations of gay male affinity group members (n?=?91) and heterosexual university students (n?=?174). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the motivational bases for attachment behavior.

Tested 2 models of the relationship between a hypothetical attachment mechanism and an incompatible motivation (a tendency to explore) by pitting 2 levels of attachment motivation (AM) against 2 levels of exploratory motivation (EM). Ss were 28 15–18 mo old mobile infants, alternating freely between play with novel toys at one end of the room and visits with their mother at the other end. The temporal patterns of looks and trips to mother, and of infant-initiated interaction, were examined under each of the 4 combinations of AM and EM to determine the effects of EM level on the choice and timing of these attachment behaviors. When AM was high, Ss looked at and approached their mothers with equal frequency regardless of the level of EM. Results suggest that infants possess a mechanism that functions to maintain mutual monitoring between mother and infant and that this mechanism is dominant to exploratory mechanisms. Sustained interaction, in contrast, was preempted by play at high levels of EM, suggesting that the mechanisms underlying interaction are distinct from the identified dominant system. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)