The Motivational Function of Regulatory Focus in Creativity

✍ Scribed by TOM WING-HONG LAM; CHI-YUE CHIU

• Publisher: Creative Education Foundation
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 87 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-0175
• DOI: 10.1002/j.2162-6057.2002.tb01061.x

✦ Synopsis

The Regulatory Focus Theory maintains that people may focus on achieving positive outcomes (have a promotion focus) or avoiding negative ones (have a prevention focus) when they pursue their goals. Under a promotion focus, people would formulate as many strategies as possible to attain their goal, and hence be fluent in idea generation when they perform a creative task. In contrast, people under a prevention focus would seek to avoid the negative consequences of failing to attain a valued goal, and persist even when the likelihood of success in a creativity situation is small. We tested these predictions in a study, where regulatory focus was measured as an individual differences variable (Part 1) and induced by a goal framing manipulation (Part 2). The results supported our predictions, and suggested that creative accomplishment requires flexible alternation of regulatory foci at the different stages of creative undertakings.