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The way people feel is important for how they behave and perform in the workplace. Experiencing more positive−and less negative−emotions at work is often associated with greater status and power. But there may be differences in how men and women feel at work, particularly at different levels in their organizations. Using data from a nation-wide sample of working adults, we examine differences in the emotions that men and women experience at work, how gender interacts with rank to predict emotions, if the association between gender and emotions is accounted for by emotional labor demands, and if this relationship differs according to the proportion of women in an industry or organizational rank. Results demonstrate that women experience emotions associated with disvalue and strain at work more frequently than men and that organizational rank moderates the relationship between gender and several discrete emotions. Some of the effects are partially accounted for by occupational emotion demands, differing by organizational rank and/or the proportion of women employed in an industry.

We developed a novel conceptualization of one component of creativity in narratives by integrating creativity theory and distributional semantics theory. We termed the new construct divergent semantic integration (DSI), defined as the extent to which a narrative connects divergent ideas. Across nine studies, 27 different narrative prompts, and over 3500 short narratives, we compared six models of DSI that varied in their computational architecture. The best-performing model employed Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), which generates context-dependent numerical representations of words (i.e., embeddings). BERT DSI scores demonstrated impressive predictive power, explaining up to 72% of the variance in human creativity ratings, even approaching human inter-rater reliability for some tasks. BERT DSI scores showed equivalently high predictive power for expert and nonexpert human ratings of creativity in narratives. Critically, DSI scores generalized across ethnicity and English language proficiency, including individuals identifying as Hispanic and L2 English speakers. The integration of creativity and distributional semantics theory has substantial potential to generate novel hypotheses about creativity and novel operationalizations of its underlying processes and components. To facilitate new discoveries across diverse disciplines, we provide a tutorial with code (osf.io/ath2s) on how to compute DSI and a web app (osf.io/ath2s) to freely retrieve DSI scores.

The current study addresses gaps in our understanding of the relationship between creative cognition, intelligence (IQ), and executive functioning (EF). Undergraduate students completed an IQ test, verbal and figural divergent thinking (DT) tests, and a self-assessment of EF, across four study sessions. Participant data (N = 199) were analyzed using linear regression and PROCESS moderation models. Results demonstrated that EF interacts with IQ to predict figural and verbal DT in distinct ways, with different patterns emerging from different methods of scoring DT. Using traditional DT scoring, Gf (but not Gc) significantly moderated the relationship between EF and scores on both verbal and figural DT tasks. Low EF was associated with diminished DT scores for those with low Gf scores, unrelated for those with relatively higher Gf, and enhanced scores for those with the highest Gf. Using originality ratio scores, low EF was associated with diminished originality in verbal DT responses for those with low IQ (both Gf and Gc), unrelated for those with relatively higher IQ, and enhanced originality for those with the highest Gc (but not Gf) scores. Thus, there are several nuances in the way that EF interacts with IQ to predict DT.

The present study examines effort in narrative creative writing (operationalized as time-on-task) using a new assessment approach, the storyboard task. Participants (N = 125) completed alternate forms of the storyboard task in two sessions five weeks apart. They also completed measures of divergent thinking and self-reported ideational behavior. Time-on-task, story length, and rated creativity scores were obtained for the participants’ stories. The storyboard task demonstrated good alternate form reliability and convergent validity with the criterion measures. Although time-on-task was strongly, positively associated with creativity scores, this relationship was confounded by the contribution of story length. Relationships amongst these variables were similar when creativity was rated by novice raters using a rubric or experienced raters using the consensual assessment technique. Additionally, story length and time-on-task were moderately correlated with the external criterion measures of creativity. Thus, the strong associations between rated creativity, story length, and time in creative writing raise important issues and avenues for future research, and results for the storyboard task suggest that it is a valuable assessment of narrative creative writing.

The Greater Male Variability Hypothesis (GMVH) suggests that males demonstrate greater variability than females and are overrepresented in the lowest and highest ranges of cognitive ability. Several studies have found evidence for the GMVH in creative performance, yet nearly all have used the same task (i.e., Test of Creative Thinking Drawing-Production) limiting inference to a single domain and modality of creative ability. In two studies, we examine the GMVH in relation to performance by adults (Study 1; N = 120) on a creative writing task and by adolescents (Study 2; N = 529) on a creative drawing task, as well as figural and verbal divergent thinking tasks. The variability of scores did not differ substantively between males and females on any of the tasks in either study and the pattern of the proportions of males and females in different regions of the distribution of scores was inconsistent across tasks. Although males received significantly greater mean scores than females on the verbal divergent thinking task in Study 2, no significant mean differences were found for any other task. Overall, our results do not support the GMVH and suggest that, if any, gender differences in creative variability are likely inconsistent across domains and tasks.

Most studies investigating the effects of motivation on creativity have employed a social-psychological approach and used a dichotomous conceptualization of motivation (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic). However, trait motivation may exist on a continuum and, although individual differences in motivation have also been found to predict creativity, no scales exist to directly assess creative trait motivation. The current report describes two studies examining the factor structure and psychometric properties of the creative trait motivation (CTM) scales. In the first study, participants (N = 580) completed three domain-specific scales (art, everyday, and science) and a well-established measure of creative self-perception. All three CTM scales demonstrated a similar factor structure, strong internal consistency for each of the factors, and evidence for construct validity. In the second study, the factor structures of the three scales were replicated employing a different sample (N = 597). The scales continued to demonstrate strong internal consistency and additional evidence for construct validity was provided, using well-established scales of both creativity and trait motivation. Together, the studies demonstrate that the domain-specific CTM scales are valuable tools for assessing creative trait motivation.

The appeal of expressively sad music has long been a topic of fascination among scholars, in large part because it ostensibly contradicts the hedonic principle: Why would people willingly expose themselves to sounds that express suffering? Wouldn't this merely provoke or heighten personal feelings of distress (Levinson, 1990)? On consideration, this paradox may be largely, if not fully, resolved by considering the myriad ways in which sad music, like other forms of expressively sad media, may be rewarding to listeners (Sachs, Damasio, & Habibi, 2015; Taruffi & Koelsch, 2014). For instance, sad music may be aesthetically pleasing, with beautiful melodies and harmonies, rich timbres, and artfully resolved tensions (Huron, 2006; Vuoskoski, Thompson, McIlwain, & Eerola, 2012). It may allow individuals to empathize with the composer or performer, providing valuable insight into the human condition (Oliver & Raney, 2011) or enable favorable comparisons between the listener's own plight and that of the musician, whose grief is captured in song (Zillmann, 2000). Listening to sad music may also help individuals prepare themselves emotionally for social interactions in which sadness would be normatively appropriate, such as a funeral or hospital visit (Martin, 2001; Oliver, 2008).Other hypotheses regarding the appeal of sad music lend prominence to its potential role in mood repair. For example, it has long been argued that listening to sad music may be cathartic for individuals in sad affective states, helping them to purge themselves of sorrow by expressing their painful feelings more fully (Taruffi & Koelsch, 2014). It has also been suggested that sad music fosters the sense among individuals in sad affective states that the composer or performer can relate to their feelings, thereby making them feel less alone (DeMarco, Taylor, & Friedman, 2015). In a similar vein, sad songs may contain lyrics that help individuals in states of sadness gain insight into the loss they have experienced and/or provide them with clues regarding how to cope (Oliver, 2008; Taylor & Friedman, 2015). An extensive recent qualitative study by Van den Tol and Edwards (2013) found that when asked to describe their own motivations for listening to self-identified sad music, participants listed most of the reasons detailed above and additionally emphasized the use of such music as a "memory trigger" that would help them recall and reexperience episodes in their lives, particularly those that involved significant others whom they missed and wished to feel close to again (see also, Eerola, Peltola, & Vuoskoski, 2015).A number of recent studies have provided evidence consistent with the notion that sadness breeds an affinity for sad music. For instance, Lee, Andrade, and Palmer (2013) presented participants with a set of hypothetical losses (e.g., losing someone you love; failing an exam) and asked them to choose whether they would prefer to hear expressively cheerful or sad music following each of these sad life events. Participants overwhelmingly believed that they would opt to hear expressively sad music in the aftermath of such events, especially if they involved the loss of a significant other. Research using lab-based affect inductions in place of hypothetical judgments has also appeared to support the notion that "misery loves company" in terms of music choice. For example, Chen, Zhou, and Bryant (2007) induced sadness in participants by showing them a clip from a documentary about the personal lives of soldiers who were killed in combat in Iraq. Afterward, during a brief music-listening session, participants were asked to freely choose from a set of popular songs that had been pretested to be either expressively happy or sad. Results revealed that participants in sad affective states were at least initially inclined to select affect-congruent music, although the tendency generally diminished over time. More recently, Hunter et al. …

Although the belief that creativity is related to psychopathology is prevalent, empirical evidence is limited. Research findings relating to mood disorder in particular are mixed, possibly as a result of differing research approaches (e.g., assessing the creativity of individuals with versus without mood disorder opposed to the prevalence of mood disorder in creative versus noncreative individuals). Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to investigate prior research examining the link between mood disorder and creativity from three distinct research approaches. Multilevel random effects models were used to calculate the overall effect size for studies that assessed (a) creativity in a clinical versus nonclinical sample ( k = 13), (b) mood disorder in a creative versus noncreative sample ( k = 10), and (c) the correlation between dimensional measures of creativity and mood disorder symptoms ( k = 15). Potential moderators were examined using meta-regression and subgroup analyses, as significant heterogeneity was detected among the effects in all three analyses. Results reveal a differential strength and pattern of effects across the three analyses, suggesting that the relationship between creativity and mood disorder differs according to the research approach. The theoretical implications of results and potential mechanisms responsible for the relationship between creativity and mood disorder are discussed.