Creativity Enhancement Methods for Adults: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis synthesizes 332 effect sizes of various methods to enhance creativity. We clustered all studies into twelve methods to identify the most effective creativity enhancement methods. We found that, on average, creativity can be enhanced, Hedges’ g = 0.53, 95%-CI [0.44, 0.61], with 70.09% of the participants in the enhancement conditions being more creative than the average person in the control conditions. Complex training courses, meditation and cultural exposure were most effective (gs = 0.66), while the use of cognitive manipulation drugs was least and also non-effective, g = 0.10. The type of training material was also important. For instance, figural methods were more effective in enhancing creativity, and enhancing converging thinking was more effective than enhancing divergent thinking. Study effect sizes varied considerably across all studies and for many subgroup analyses, suggesting that researchers can plausibly expect to find reversed effects occasionally. We found no evidence of publication bias. We discuss theoretical implications and suggest future directions for best practice in enhancing creativity.Peer Reviewe

Do Digital Jobs Need an Image Filter? Factors Contributing to Negative Attitudes

The rapid expansion of high-speed internet has led to the emergence of new digital jobs, such as digital influencers, fitness models, and adult models who share content on subscription-based social media platforms. Across two experiments involving 1,002 participants, we combined theories from both social psychology and information systems to investigate perceptions of digital jobs compared to matched established jobs, and predictors of attitudes toward digital jobs (e.g., symbolic threat, contact, perceived usefulness). We found that individuals in digital professions were perceived as less favorably and as less hard-working than those in matched established jobs. Digital jobs were also regarded as more threatening to societal values and less useful. The relation between job type and attitudes toward these jobs was partially mediated by contact with people working in these jobs, perceived usefulness, perception of hard-working, and symbolic threat. These effects were consistent across openness to new experiences, attitudes toward digitalization, political orientation, and age. Among the nine jobs examined, lecturers were perceived as the most favorable, while adult models were viewed least favorably. Overall, our findings demonstrate that integrating theories from social psychology and information systems can enhance our understanding of how attitudes are formed.Comment: 32 pages, 2 figure

Do student samples provide an accurate estimate of the general public?

Most psychological studies rely on student samples. Students are usually considered as more homogenous than representative samples both within and across countries. However, little is known about the nature of the differences between student and representative samples. This is an important gap, also because knowledge about the degree of difference between student and representative samples may allow to infer from the former to the latter group. Across 59 countries and 12 personality (Big-5) and attitudinal variables we found that differences between students and general public were partly substantial, incoherent, and contradicted previous findings. Two often used cultural variables, embeddedness and intellectual autonomy, failed to explain the differences between both groups across countries. We further found that students vary as much as the general population both between and within countries. In summary, our results indicate that generalizing from students to the general public can be problematic when personal and attitudinal variables are used, as students vary mostly randomly from the general public. Findings are also discussed in terms of the replication crisis within psychology

Mapping the Structure of Human Values through Conceptual Representations

The present research provides the first direct examination of human values through concept categorization tasks that entail judging the meaning of values. Seven studies containing data from nine samples (N = 1086) in two countries (the UK and Brazil) asked participants to compare the meaning of different values found within influential quasi-circumplex model of values. Different methods were used across experiments, including direct similarity judgment tasks, pile sorting, and spatial arrangement. The results of these diverse conceptual assessments corresponded to spatial configurations that are broadly convergent with Schwartz's model, both between and within participants

Brief Resilience Scale: testing its factorial structure and invariance in Brazil

Across two studies we aimed to provide evidences of validity and reliability for the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) in Brazil. In study 1, 171 individuals participated (Age M = 21.9, SD = 6.59) and 232 in Study 2 (Age M = 26.3, SD = 7.06). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the predicted one-factor solution, with five items and satisfactory internal consistence (α= 0.76). A multi-group CFA revealed partial measurement equivalence between our and the original (USA) versions of the BRS. The BRS correlated significant with positivity and personality traits. The composite reliability was satisfying; the convergent validity, measured with the average variance extracted, was slightly below the recommendations. Overall, the results show that the measure is psychometrically suitable for research in Brazil

The Efficient Assessment of Self-Esteem: Proposing the Brief Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

Self-esteem is defined as sense of self-worth and self-respect, being crucial for understanding people’s well-being and success. It is one of the most studied constructs in the social sciences, with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) being the most used measure. Across four studies (N= 1450), we tested the psychometric parameters of an abbreviated version of the RSES. Through Item Response Theory, the five best items were selected to form the unidimensional Brief Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (B-RSES),a reliable and valid measure of self-esteem, which is invariant across age groups and gender. In addition, both RSES and B-RSES correlated very similarly with the Big Five Personality Factors. Also, the B-RSES was strongly correlated with three other short measures of self-esteem, besides being more strongly associated with a range of variables such as conscientiousness and self-competence in comparison to the other three short scales. Together, the B-RSES is especially useful in research that requires rapid evaluation and the use of multiple variables

On the road: Personality and values of sojourners

We investigated differences in personality traits (Big-5) and human values amongst four groups of Brazilian students staying at home or studying abroad. Two groups came from Brazilian universities: one had no interest studying abroad (n = 112), while the other group was interested studying abroad (n = 227). The third and fourth groups were Brazilian sojourners (n = 121) and Brazilians returning to the country after finishing a degree abroad (n = 150). Results showed that students who were not interested in studying abroad had lower scores on excitement values and on the personality trait of openness when compared to the other three groups. Overall, students interested in studying abroad did not differ significantly from sojourners or returnees, except on the trait of agreeableness and the value of excitement, in which they scored lower than sojourners and returnees, respectively

The Perception of Family, City, and Country Values Is Often Biased

People often make inferences about the values of other people in their families, cities, and countries, but there are reasons to expect systematic biases in these inferences. Across four studies ( N = 1,763), we examined people’s perceptions of the values of their families, fellow citizens of the cities in which they live, and compatriots across three nations (Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom). Our results show that people systematically misperceive comparison groups’ values. People underestimate the importance that their compatriots ascribe to more important values and overestimate the importance of less important values. This occurs in comparison with their own values, the actual values of the people living in the same city and the actual values of their compatriots. The effect sizes were medium to large. Furthermore, the results occurred independently of participants’ culture, time spent in the culture, and the underlying value model used. These results consistently show that people’s speculations about values in their community and society are biased in a self- and family favoring direction. In addition, we found that the structure of values (e.g., as proposed by Schwartz) holds for perceived family, fellow citizens of the cities in which they live, and compatriots’ values. Overall, our findings suggest that the values of other people are more selfless than is often believed

Need for Affect and Attitudes Toward Drugs: The Mediating Role of Values

Human values and affective traits were found to predict attitudes toward the use of different types of drugs (e.g., alcohol, marijuana, and other illegal drugs). In this study (N = 196, Mage = 23.09), we aimed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of those predictors of attitudes toward drug use in a mediated structural equation model, providing a better overview of a possible motivational path that drives to such a risky behavior. Specifically, we predicted and found that the relations between need for affect and attitudes toward drug use were mediated by excitement values. Also, results showed that excitement values and need for affect positively predicted attitudes toward the use of drugs, whereas normative values predicted it negatively. The pattern of results remained the same when we investigated attitudes toward alcohol, marijuana, or illegal drugs separately. Overall, the findings indicate that emotions operate via excitement and normative values to influence risk behavior