Conference: Women Learn from Women

On February 10, nearly one thousand women met at Barnard College to participate in a regional conference sponsored by Barnard, Columbia Women\u27s Liberation, Douglass College, NYU, Queens College, Sarah Lawrence, Hunter College, Richmond College, and SUNY/College at Old Westbury. Twelve workshops, each running morning and afternoon, allowed participants to attend two sessions, ranging from After Consciousness Raising, What? and How Far Will Legal Solutions Take Us? to Androgyny: The Range of Human Sexual Expression and Women Over Thirty: Fears, Expectations and Reality

Boundless Creativity: Evidence for the Domain Generality of Individual Differences in Creativity

This study investigated correlates of domain-general and domain-specific components of creativity. 158 college students completed a questionnaire that assessed their motivational and personality traits (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, creative personality, and originality in word association) as well as intellectual abilities (SAT verbal and quantitative scores). Cinder two different instruction conditions (standard instruction or explicit "be creative" instruction), students also took a battery of multi-item, product-based tests of creativity in three domains (artistic, verbal, and mathematical creativity). Factor analyses showed evidence of domain-generality of creativity. Furthermore, results from structural equation models showed that motivational and personality traits and intellectual abilities were associated with the domain-general component of creativity. Only one variable (SAT quantitative score) was found to be associated with the domain-specific component of mathematical creativity under the explicit "be creative" instruction condition. These results affirm the domain-generality of creativity and challenge researchers to identify correlates of domain-specific components of creativity

Imagining the impossible before breakfast: The relation between creativity, dissociation, and sleep

Dissociative symptoms have been related to higher Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep density, a sleep phase during which hyperassociativity may occur. This may enhance artistic creativity during the day. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a creative photo contest to explore the relation between dissociation, sleep, and creativity. During the contest, participants (N=72) took one photo per day for five consecutive days, based on specific daily themes (consisting of single words) and the instruction to take as creative a photo as possible each day. Furthermore, they completed daily measures of state dissociation and a short sleep diary. The photos and their captions were ranked by two professional photographers and two clinical psychologists based on creativity, originality, bizarreness, and quality. We expected that dissociative people would rank higher in the contest compared with low-dissociative participants, and that the most original photos would be taken on days when the participants scored highest on acute dissociation.We found that acute dissociation predicted a higher ranking on creativity. Poorer sleep quality and fewer hours of sleep predicted more bizarreness in the photos and captions. None of the trait measures could predict creativity.In sum, acute dissociation related to enhanced creativity. These findings contribute to our understanding of dissociative symptomatology

Supporting carer–child relationships through play: a model for teaching carers how to use play skills to strengthen attachment relationships

This article presents a rationale for delivering training in play skills to groups of foster carers and adopters, and others who work with children and young people in the care system. The aim is to emphasise the relevance of play for facilitating emotional growth and regulation, and to demon- strate how ‘playing in relationship’ can support children who have experienced abuse or trauma in their primary relationships. The article includes a number of suggestions for activities that can be incorporated into training and discussion of how a playful approach to adult learning can enhance the experience. Evaluation comments by participants are also included and possibilities for future carer training programmes are considered. Keywords play, attachment, relationships, carers, adopters, traum