Well-being can be described as the development and experience of positive processes and emotions (Fredrickson, 2001; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Seligman, 2011; Thin 2012). Positive emotions can be provoked in order to induct a positive mood which has proved to enhance creativity in adult population (e.g. Estrada, Isen, & Young, 1994; Isen, Daubman & Nowicki, 1987; Zenasni & Lubart, 2002). Nevertheless, only few studies have been done on the children's relationship between positive mood induction and creativity (e.g. Morrongiello et al., 2015 ; Katz, 1995) even though, creativity has already been related to well-being in both children and adults (Brown, 1989; Carson et al., 1994; Dowd, 1989; Runco, 1991). On the other hand, the role of children's emotional intelligence on creativity hasn't been discussed yet in well-being studies. In this research, our two main objectives were (1) to establish a relationship between emotional intelligence and the development of creativity as proposed by Zenasni & Lubart in 2009, and (2) to seek a relationship between children's emotional intelligence and its capacity to modulate the impact of emotion on their creativity. The participants were 334 school-aged children recruited in priority, public, and private schools: 175 in 1st to 3rd grade [CP-CE2] (76 girls and 99 boys; mean age = 7.5; SD = 0.5), and 159 in 4th and 5th grade [CM1-CM2] (82 girls and 77 boys; mean age = 9.5; SD=1.0). Children were randomly assigned to a control or an experimental group. We applied a neutral mood induction to the control group and a positive mood induction to the experimental group through an imagination procedure. Mood induction effectiveness was measured by SAM scale. Creative divergent thinking was measured by a TTCT figurative task; Creative convergent thinking by TCT-DP; and Emotional Intelligence by the child french version of TEIQue. We postulated that after positive mood induction, children in the experimental group (1) would have better performance on creative divergent thinking task, (2) would have better performance on creative convergent thinking task, (3) would produce more positive elements in their drawings, and (4) children with larger scores in the TEIQue would score larger in both creative thinking tasks. Results will be presented and discussed.

References:

Brown, R.T. (1989) Creativity: What are we to measure? In J.A. Glover, R.R. Ronning, C.R. Reynolds (Eds.) Handbook of creativity, 3-32. New York: Plenum

Carson, D.K., Bittner B.R., Brown, D.M.., Meyer, S.S. (1994). Creative thinking as a predictor of school-aged children's stress responses and coping abilities. Creativity Research Journal, 7, 145-158.

Dowd, E.T. (1989) The self and creativity: Several constructs in search of a theory. In J. Glover, R. Ronning, C. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of creativity, 223-242. New York: Plenum.

Estrada, C.A., Isen, A.M. & Young, M.J. (1994) Positive affect improves creative problem solving and influences reported source of practice satisfaction in physicians. Motivation and Emotion, 18, 4, 285–299

Fredrickson, B. (2001) The role of positive emotions in positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 3, 218-226.

Isen, A. M., Daubman, K. A., & Nowicki, G. P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1122–1131.

Katz, Hilary Einhorn (1995). Mood and divergent thinking: One role of affect in creativity. Dissertation Thesis. Case Western Reserve University / Ohio.

Morrongiello, B.A., Stewart, J., Pope, K., Pogrebtsova, E., BA, Boulay, K.J. (2015) Exploring Relations Between Positive Mood State and School-Age Children's Risk Taking. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 40, 4, 406–418.

Runco (1991) The evaluative, valuative and divergent thinking in children. Journal of Creative Behaviour, 25, 311-319.

Ryan R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2000) Self-Determination Theory and Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being. American Psychologist, 55, 1, 68-78.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011) Flourish. A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being. New York: Free Press.

Thin, N. (2012) Counting and recounting happiness and culture: on happiness surveys and prudential ethnobiography. International Journal of Wellbeing, 2, 4, 313-332.

Zenasni F.,& Lubart T. (2002). Effects of mood states on creativity. Current Psychology Letters: Behavior, Brain and Cognition, 2, 33–50.