Affect and Creativity

The question of how the affective experience influences creativity has fascinated and captured the interest of work and organizational psychology and organizational behavior scholars over time. In this chapter, we survey, discuss, and summarize theoretical and empirical research addressing this question, reviewing findings affirming the importance of positive and negative affective states for the generation of novel and useful ideas in the workplace. Furthermore, we apply the Theory of Core Affect to the body of research in this area, which describes the affective experience in terms of affective valence (positive vs negative), but also as a function of activation (energy expenditure). Drawing on this, we argue how a wider array of affective states described by blends of affective valence and activation may influence creative performance, by means of discrete cognitive and behavioral correlates.