| Abstract: | In this study 24 fifth graders, 12 males and 12 females, were individually tested twice, once under frustrating conditions and once under non-frustrating conditions, in order to determine whether their creative expression would be affected by frustration. The frustrating condition consisted of being prematurely halted from completing a familiar task with the opportunity of receiving a reward upon its completion. The non-frustrating condition allowed the subject to finish the task and be rewarded. Changes in fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration as measured by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Figural Forms A and B, were investigated. On all components except originality, nonsignificantly higher scores were found under the frustrating conditions. Females scored higher than males on all four components. The only statistically significant interaction effect found was the sex X treatment interaction for elaboration. |
