FORMAL WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Formal Writing Assignment #2 Tressy J. Crutchfield University of Memphis

FORMAL WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Formal Writing Assignment #2 According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary online, creativity is defined as the ability to make new things or think of new ideas. Creativity is something that every person, at some point in his or her lives, has strived to be. We want to be the person with the next big idea, or, as children, we just wanted to be described as creative or having creativity. Teresa Amabile has devoted over 30 years of her life to research individual creativity, team creativity, and individual organization. One very interesting article by her was one she did in the beginning of her research in 1985 titled, Motivation and Creativity: Effects of Motivational Orientation on Creative Writers. Through her studies and research, she has discovered that creativity, no matter the amount possessed by a person, is stifled through a few different negative stimuli. Currently, Teresa Amabile is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, Head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit, and Faculty Chair of the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School (President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2002). She first started out as a chemist, but went back to school in 1977 to get her Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University. She has presented her theories and research in dozens of forums nationwide. She has used her insights from her research to work with various groups in education, business, and government. She has also written several books and published many renowned articles and chapters. One of these published articles titled, Motivation and Creativity: Effects of Motivational Orientation on Creative Writers discusses a study done on college students who were actively involved in creative writing. This article starts off with a quote by Sylvia Plath talking about her

FORMAL WRITING ASSIGNMENT problem with writers block. The poet analyzed her problem as caused by an excessive concern with external recognition from her work (Amabile, 1985). She understood that in order to write well and creatively, that she did not need to write for editors, publishers, and critics, but that she needed to write for herself. This is stated more formally in Amabiles

intrinsic motivation hypothesis of creativity. It is defined as, An intrinsically motivated state is conducive to creativity, whereas an extrinsically motivated state is detrimental (Amabile, 1985). So, this hypothesis is pretty much saying that when you are motivated to write or do a project for yourself without fear of outside judgment or critique, a person is more likely be more creative than if he or she created something that he or she knew would be judged. This study looked at 72 young adults that were asked to write two brief poems. They were first divided into three different groups. The first poem the participants in each group were asked to write was written without any evaluation or critique. They were just asked to write a poem based on a certain topic. Before writing their second poem, however, the subjects in the intrinsic orientation condition completed a questionnaire focused on intrinsic reasons for involvement in writing, such as, you get a lot of pleasure out of reading something good that you have written, or you derive satisfaction from expressing yourself clearly and eloq uently (Amabile, 1985). The second group, extrinsic orientation condition, completed a questionnaire that focused on extrinsic reasons for writing, such as, you want your writing teachers to be favorably impressed with your writing talents, or you enjoy public recognition of your work (Amabile 1985). The last group, which was the control condition, was not asked to complete a questionnaire on their reasons for writing.

FORMAL WRITING ASSIGNMENT Even though there were no initial differences, creativity-wise, between the three

groups first poems, there was a substantial change in the poems written after the experimental manipulations (questionnaires). The article states, Poems written under an extrinsic orientation were significantly less creative than those written in the o ther two conditions (Amabile, 1985). At the end of the study, Amabile concluded that focusing on extrinsic reasons for writing did result in a temporary decrease of creativity in the writers. The study did not, however, prove that focusing on intrinsic motivations increases creativity in writers; it just does not decrease. Amabile says in the article, Although the effects of the extrinsic manipulation would only be expected to be temporary, it is nonetheless startling that spending barely 5 minutes reading and ranking extrinsic reasons for writing could have a significant impact on the creativity in creative writers (Amabile, 1985). It is amazing to see how our motivations affect our creativity and the quality of the project produced. Even though this article focuses just on creative writers and their writing, it ties in perfectly with the section about Teresa Amabile in the textbook. The textbook specifies four different negative stimuli; these are evaluation, rewards, competition, and constraints. In Amabiles article, she also talks about negative stimuli affecting creativity in writers. She does not go into specifics, but all of the examples listed in the article fall into one of the four stimuli that were mentioned in the book. In the textbook, it states, People are less likely to be creative when their product is going to be evaluated people are not as creative when they receive rewards people are also not as creative when there is competition involved people are less likely to be creative if there are rules and regulations imposed on their product (Winsor, 2013). Instead of people harping on deadlines and rubrics, maybe the only

FORMAL WRITING ASSIGNMENT

requirement should be to do something you like and be as creative as possible with it. It would open up so many new ideas and really promote creativity in school, the workplace, and just peoples everyday lives. After reading this article and reading through chapter four in the textbook, I cannot say that there is much that I disagree with. I do believe that we are negatively affected when it comes to producing something for school or for work. There are too many rules and regulations in every aspect of our lives. The artists, designers, inventors, and every day people that are excelling in their lives have figured out a way to not let the evaluations, the rewards, the competitions, and the rules and regulations affect their work. If we all focused on the intrinsic reasons for writing or creating a presentation, the products created would be far more unique and creative. The extrinsic motivations weigh to heavy on peoples expectations. Teresa Amabile has written many books designed for workplace motivation and creativity. I feel that these books do not just have to be applied to workplace environments; they can branch out and be utilized in everyday lives. Creativity is something that is beginning to disappear. We want our children in school to play by the rules, and do things that are socially correct. We are extinguishing the creative flame before children are getting the chance to really understand how to use it to their benefit. Teresa Amabile and many theorists just like her are trying to help employers and teachers to understand that creativity and thinking differently is not a bad thing. It is something that should be encouraged and supported.

FORMAL WRITING ASSIGNMENT Works Cited

Amabile, T. M. (1985). Motivation and creativity: Effects of motivational orientation on creative writers. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 48(2), 393-399. doi:10.1037/00223514.48.2.393

Creativity. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2014, from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/creativity

President and Fellows of Harvard College. Teresa m. amabile. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~noviello/COMMON/DISPLAYS/MEDIA EXAMPLES/Teresa M_ Amabile - Biography - Faculty & Research.htm

Winsor, D. L., Murrell, V., & Magun-Jackson, S. (Eds.). (2013). Human development: An educational psychology perspective. Pearson: New York, New York.