engleski

Do positive emotions induce divergent thinking?

According to the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001), positive emotions broaden an individual’s scope of attention and increase the range of thoughts and actions that come to mind at a given moment in time. This study investigated the relationship between positive emotions and divergent thinking. Sample consisted of 82 female students aged from 18 to 20. First, positive (N=40) or negative emotions (N=42) were induced depending on which group participants were in. Emotions were induced by asking participant to write about happy or unhappy experience. After that instrument for measuring positive and negative emotions – PANAS was administered followed by scale for measuring divergent thinking. The scale for measuring divergent thinking was specially developed for this study. Scale consisted of three Verbal (Expressional fluency, Consequences and Alternate uses) and three Figural tasks (Sketches). Independent samples T-test proved that there was difference in positive affect (t=2, 07 ; p<0, 05) and negative affect (t=-2, 97 ; p<0, 01) between testing conditions. The group with induced positive emotions scored higher on divergent thinking, but only in figural tasks (Fig1 (t=2, 05 ; p<0, 05), Fig2 (t=3, 19 ; p<0, 01), FigTOT (t=3, 03 ; p<0, 01)). For verbal tasks there was no significant difference between groups with induced positive and negative emotions.

Positive emotions; divergent thinking; creativity

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