Motivation and creativity: The relationship between achievement goals and creativity in writing

Two studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between motivational goals and the creativity of short stories and poems. Creativity of the stories and poems was measured using a consensual technique based on independent assessments of a group of expert judges. The first study, with 121 undergraduates as subjects, considered individual differences in orientation toward mastery and performance goals and creativity in writing short stories. The second study was experimental in design, with situational cues manipulated to induce the adoption of the desired goal before students wrote two short poems. The subjects of the study were 52 students of junior high school age. The first study failed to demonstrate the hypothesized relationship between creativity and orientation toward a mastery goal. The results of the second study did demonstrate that students encouraged to adopt a mastery goal wrote poems judged more creative than the poems of students encouraged to adopt a performance goal. This result must be accepted with caution, however, because students' reactions to writing the poem did not match those which would be predicted by achievement goal theory. The relationship between achievement goals and creativity failed to emerge when students wrote a second poem, after they had received an evaluation of their first poem. It is argued that the receipt of evaluation triggered the adoption of a performance goal in students who were encouraged to adopt a mastery goal. Because of this, they might not have maintained a mastery orientation as they wrote their second poem.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Archer, Jennifer

Contributors dc:contributor

• Maehr, Martin L.

• Education, Language and Literature
• Psychology, Social
• Education, Educational Psychology
• Psychology, Experimental

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1989 Archer, Jennifer

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9010796
(UMI)AAI9010796

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/23308