Negative ideation in creative problem-solving is task-specific too: Evidences from a sample of incarcerated juveniles. (December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Barbot, Baptiste; Cerda, Kassandra; Teo, Taralyn
• Is Part Of: Thinking skills and creativity. Volume 38(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Subjects: Malevolent creativity -- Negative creativity -- Juvenile delinquency -- Divergent thinking -- Careless responding; Thought and thinking -- Periodicals; Critical thinking -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Creative thinking -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Thinking -- Periodicals; Creativeness -- Periodicals; Teaching -- Periodicals; Pensée -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; Créativité (Éducation) -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; 370.15205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsc.2020.100740
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1871-1871

Abstract

Highlights: Individual differences exist in negative and malevolent ideation (BNI). BNI is not generalized to any creative problem-solving task. BNI is mainly task-specific and theme-specific. Fluency and Originality differentially predict distinct BNI themes. Low response accuracy in creative problem-solving predicts BNI across tasks. Abstract: Why do youth generate negative or malevolent responses when prompted to come up with original or creative ideas? Is this tendency generalized across a range of situations and manifested in specific (negative or malevolent) themes that youth use consistently? Which aspects of creative potential are best associated with this "baseline" negative ideation? This study addresses these questions among an understudied sample of 114 males incarcerated in juvenile detention center settings, who completed three creative problem-solving tasks. Using a theme-specific scoring system for negative and malevolent ideation (e.g., inappropriate sexual content, harming, substance use ), multivariate multiple regression in the path analytic framework showed an inconsistency of negative ideation across themes within each task, and within each theme across tasks. Further, accounting for response accuracy as a proxy for careless responding, creative potential indicators predicted moderately the occurrence of theme-specific (up to 26 % of the variance) and composite (up to 15 % of the variance) negative creativity according to the task considered. These results are discussed with regards to the apparent situation-specificity and theme-specificity of negative ideation as well as the role of careless responding in the occurrence of such ideation.