| Literature DB >> 25859231 |
Dalena van Heugten-van der Kloet1, Jan Cosgrave1, Harald Merckelbach2, Ross Haines3, Stuart Golodetz4, Steven Jay Lynn5.
Abstract
Dissociative symptoms have been related to higher rapid eye movement sleep density, a sleep phase during which hyperassociativity may occur. This may enhance artistic creativity during the day. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a creative photo contest to explore the relation between dissociation, sleep, and creativity. During the contest, participants (N = 72) took one photo per day for five consecutive days, based on specific daily themes (consisting of single words) and the instruction to take as creative a photo as possible each day. Furthermore, they completed daily measures of state dissociation and a short sleep diary. The photos and their captions were ranked by two professional photographers and two clinical psychologists based on creativity, originality, bizarreness, and quality. We expected that dissociative people would rank higher in the contest compared with low-dissociative participants, and that the most original photos would be taken on days when the participants scored highest on acute dissociation. We found that acute dissociation predicted a higher ranking on creativity. Poorer sleep quality and fewer hours of sleep predicted more bizarreness in the photos and captions. None of the trait measures could predict creativity. In sum, acute dissociation related to enhanced creativity. These findings contribute to our understanding of dissociative symptomatology.Entities:
Keywords: creativity; dissociation; dreaming; hyperassociativity; photography
Year: 2015 PMID: 25859231 PMCID: PMC4374390 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00324
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Front Psychol ISSN: 1664-1078
Mean scores (SD) and Pearson product-moment correlations of trait and state variables (N = 72).
| 13.68 (11.48) | – | – | – | – | |
| 35.11 (17.00) | 0.54∗ | – | – | – | |
| 9.37 (4.98) | 0.73∗ | 0.45∗ | – | – | |
| 12.57 (2.72) | 0.31∗ | 0.06 | 0.41∗ | – | |
| 0.28 (0.42) | 0.63 to 0.75∗ | 0.40 to 0.53∗ | 0.47 to 0.59∗ | 0.21 to 0.35∗ | |
| 2.88 (0.72) | -0.15 to -0.23 | -0.31to -0.19∗ | -0.20 to -0.05 | -0.14 to 0.01 | |
| 7.2 (1.5) | -0.16 to 0.07 | 0.01-0.20 | -0.26 to 0.10∗ | -0.22 to -0.02 |
Spearman’s rank correlations and internal consistency analyses (measured by Cronbach’s alpha) between the creativity ratings of our 4 judges.
| Day 1 = 0.73 | |||||
| 0.46∗ | – | – | Day 2 = 0.63 | ||
| 0.60∗ | 0.59∗ | – | Day 3 = 0.36 | ||
| 0.48∗ | 0.35∗ | 0.49∗ | Day 4 = 0.65 | ||
| Day 5 = 0.69 |
Correlations between mean state measures and average ratings of judges on creativity, originality, bizarreness, and quality (.
| – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 0.89∗ | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 0.53∗ | 0.32∗ | – | – | – | – | |
| 0.79∗ | 0.73∗ | 0.34∗ | – | – | – | |
| 0.27∗ | 0.29∗ | 0.11 | 0.19 | – | – | |
| -0.14 | -0.06 | -0.27∗ | -0.13 | -0.21 | – | |
| -0.08 | -0.00 | -0.29∗ | -0.13 | 0.08 | 0.24∗ |
Summary of mixed-effects model fits for creativity rankings.
| 3 | 1362.1 | 1373.7 | -678.05 | 1356.1 | ||||
| 4 | 1351.4 | 1366.9 | -671.68 | 1343.4 | 12.74 | <0.001 | ||
| 6 | 1353.8 | 1377.0 | -670.88 | 1341.8 | 1.62 | 0.45 | ||
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| ||||||||
| 5 | 0.59 (0.26) | 1348.4 | 1367.8 | -669.2 | 1338.4 | 2.268 | < 0.05 | |