The Motivational Influence of Self-Guides on Creative Pursuits.

There is robust evidence for a relationship between regulatory focus and creative cognition, with prevention states undermining creative insight and promotion states facilitating it. We tested whether similar effects occur as a result of priming goal standards related to prevention focus (ought standards) versus promotion focus (ideal standards). A pilot study established that the importance placed on ought versus ideal self-standards predicted the desire to be creative, with the strongest creativity orientation observed among participants who placed a high value on achieving goals related to ideal standards and a low value on achieving goals related to ought standards. Two experiments then demonstrated that goal priming influenced the novelty of responses to a word association task, with activation of ought standards decreasing and activation of ideal evaluative standards increasing novelty. Study 2 revealed that the influence of goal priming was eliminated when participants were put under time pressure, suggesting that this manipulation exerted influence on response novelty through a controlled (as opposed to spontaneous) process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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