Primary and secondary process thinking in creative performance: group, alcohol and emotional influences

Sammanfattning: Degree of licentiate in psychology Abstract Svensson, N (2010). Primary and secondary process thinking in creative performance: group, alcohol and emotional influences. Department of psychology, university of Gothenburg, Sweden. Primary and secondary process thinking can be associated to different phases in the creative process, where primary process thinking has been linked to early, inspirational phases, and secondary process has been linked to later, evaluating phases. In the current investigation, conditions were manipulated in order to produce a shift in the primary-secondary process relations, whereupon creative performance was tested. In Study I, group work was compared to individual work (experiment 1), as well as a control condition with de Bono creativity enhancing techniques (experiment 2). Further, the impact of group work and a de Bono technique on the creative process was investigated (experiment 3). In Study II, alcohol (experiment 1) and emotional enhancing film material (experiment 2) was used in order to produce a shift in primary-secondary process relations. Study I showed that Group-work produced higher results on different measures of creative performance, although Single-work produced higher total fluency scores. Further, the Group-work groups showed a higher degree of preparation and incubation than the Single group at all times of the experiment, and the individuals had a higher level of illumination during the final meeting. In addition, de Bono techniques led to lower fluency (experiment 2) and lower flexibility (experiment 3), but also a higher level of thought change during the middle phase of experiment 3. Study II showed indications of increased secondary process thinking after intake of a moderate dose of alcohol, and indications of increased primary process thinking after emotional enhancement. Keywords: Creativity, Primary process, Secondary process, Group work, de Bono, Alcohol, Aggression. ISSN 1101-718X ISRN GU/PSYK/AVH--233--SE ____________________________________