Date of Completion

11-20-2020

Embargo Period

11-24-2020

Keywords

well-being, creativity, positive affect, negative affect, satisfaction with life, subjective happiness, everyday creativity

Major Advisor

James C. Kaufman

Associate Advisor

Sally M. Reis

Associate Advisor

Catherine A. Little

Field of Study

Educational Psychology

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Open Access

Campus Access

Abstract

This quantitative study examined the relationship between well-being and stages of the creative process, including problem identification and construction, idea generation, and idea evaluation among gifted young adults (n= 173). A sample of college honors students responded to multiple measures of well-being, creative problem-solving tasks, the Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS), and the Big Five Inventory-2. Regression models tested the association between well-being and creativity with positive affect, negative affect, and long-term well-being as the dependent variables. The independent variables included gender, GPA, personality, self-reported creativity, and problem identification and construction performance, idea generation performance, and idea evaluation performance. Controlling for GPA, gender, and personality, regression analyses found that none of the creative problem-solving tasks significantly predicted well-being. However, the K-DOCS everyday factor predicted all three dependent well-being variables. These findings imply that the relationship between well-being and creativity may depend more so on a creative mindset than creative ability.

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