[kictanet] Creativity and Living Abroad

[waudo siganga]

Thanks for sharing the article Luvisia. The study results tend to
confirm common observation worldwide. Looked at in another way people in
home environments tend to be more complacent; maybe living in one's
homestead poses less dangers/challenges and so the brain gets less
sharp/alert. Will read he article.
Waudo

On Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:20 -0400, "Luvisia Bakuli"
<luvisia.bakuli at gmail.com> wrote:
> Maddux and Galinsky (2009) have published a thought-provoking article
> reporting a significantly positive relationship between living abroad
> and creativity. The researchers wanted to answer the question:"does
> spending time in new cultures transform individuals into more creative
> beings?"
> 
> Using five creative contexts to answer the question, the researchers
> said that in one test that involved a creative negotiation deal, the
> results indicated that "the amount of time spent living abroad, but not
> traveling abroad, significantly predicted whether a deal was reached
> even when [they] controlled for a variety of important personality and
> demographic factors. Openness to experience predicted creative
> deals . . . " 
> 
> Access to a greater number of novel ideas and concepts; ability to
> approach problems from different perspectives; and psychological
> readiness to accept and recruit ideas from unfamiliar sources -- which
> may lead to unconscious idea recombination and conceptual expansion,
> both being critical processes in the creative process, are among the
> elements that contribute to the creativity.
> 
> I think this article will spawn a long list of research. It leads to
> many questions, some of which I can guess to be: Is there is a positive
> relationship between living in another culture, within a country, and
> creativity? For example, are Kambas who have lived in Nyanza more
> creative than those who never left Ukambani? If so, how long would they
> need to live in the alien culture to improve their creativity? What are
> the educational policy implications for educational institutions - does
> having a students spend a good amount of time in a foreign culture
> improve their creativity? At what age should one go abroad, and for how
> long, in order to improve their creativity?
> 
> The complete citation for the article is: 
> 
> Maddux, William W. and Adam D. Galinsky. Journal of Personality and
> Social Psychology,  Vol. 96, No. 5, pp. 1047-1061. 
> 
> Here is a link to the article:
> http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/psp9651047.pdf
> 
> And a summary of the article is also here:
> http://www.apa.org/releases/creativity.html 
> 
> 
> What do you think? I'd be interested in your take on the article. 
> 
> Best regards, 
> 
> DBL
> 
> 
> 
> 
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