The effect of psychological empowerment training on emotional creativity and cognitive creativity of female students in the third grade of the first year of Ivan City High School

Dissertation for Master's Degree in Educational Psychology (MA)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine the effectiveness of psychological empowerment training on cognitive creativity and emotional creativity of students. The statistical population of this study consisted of all the female students of the third year of the first year of high school who were studying in the city of Ivan in the academic year of 1992-1993. After the pre-test, 30 students who scored low in both questionnaires were selected as a sample group and were randomly divided into two experimental (15) and control (15) groups. The tools used in this research were Abedi's Cognitive Creativity Test and Avril's Emotional Creativity Questionnaire. Psychological empowerment training sessions were conducted for 8 sessions of 60 minutes on the experimental group, but no intervention was applied on the control group. After the completion of the training sessions, the post-test of both groups was conducted immediately. Covariance analysis was used to analyze the data. The results of the data analysis in the two stages of the test in the two experimental and control groups confirmed the effectiveness of psychological empowerment training on cognitive creativity and emotional creativity with 0.99 certainty.

Key words: psychological empowerment, cognitive creativity, emotional creativity.

Introduction

Today's complex life is drinking every moment, creativity[1] and innovation are the necessity of continuing active life. In order to create vitality and dynamism in life, man needs innovation and initiative to satisfy his desire for diversity. Human society needs transformation and innovation to survive and avoid death and stagnation. Today, the slogan "Destruction awaits you unless you are creative and innovative" is in front of the managers of all organizations, but the responsibility of educational organizations, especially education, which is responsible for the education of children and future builders of society, takes on a different color. One of the issues that has been occupying the minds of thinkers, psychologists and humanities scientists for a long time is how to develop creativity and initiative in students and teenagers. Basically, one of the indicators of scientific growth and advancement in any country is the flourishing and manifestation of creativity and initiative as the infrastructure of that society. Therefore, educational organizations are responsible for providing the context for the growth and cultivation of creativity and innovation and the correct and directed use of talents and abilities of individuals, which is the basis for cultural, economic and social development in the society (Karmi Baghtifoni, 2013). On the cognitive side of this boundary, creativity is classified at the highest level of thought processing, among the "higher" thinking processes. On the emotional side, creativity provides a situation for the most intense emotional experiences in life, from pure despair to the peak of intoxication (Dalgish and Power [2], 1999). Most new approaches to creativity consider it to include "the ability to form new associations between phenomena" in a way that leads to the production of new ideas in the form of a new schema (Yilderimi[3], 2010).

Cognitive creativity[4] has been examined and defined by researchers and theorists from different perspectives. Different dimensions of fluidity, flexibility, expansion, originality and complexity of thinking are indicators and criteria of cognitive creativity that have been paid attention to in different models (Gilford [5], 1950; Amabile [6], 1996; Renzoli [7], 1999; Sternberg [8], 2001).

Research on creativity is often seen as a smart issue, which focuses on the cognitive domain. has Avril and his colleagues extended the idea of ??expressing creativity to the field of emotions and stated that people differ in their ability to experience and express emotions creatively. Avril founded the term "emotional creativity [9]" (Fuchs and Kumar and Porter [10], 2007).

Since the concept of emotional creativity was proposed, three major issues have been raised around it: First, what are the correlates of this type of creativity? Second, to what extent is this kind of creativity related to emotional creativity? And the third issue, which is in line with the first two questions, is the discussion of the antecedents of these two types of creativity. In other words, the question is "Does the profile of the antecedents of these two types of creativity have a similar pattern?" April [11] (2000, 1992) using criteria similar to those used in the definition of cognitive creativity, defines emotionally creative behavior when it has the characteristics of innovation [12], effectiveness [13] and originality [14] (Fuchs, Kumaro). Porter, 2007)..

In addition to the three criteria mentioned, Avril and Thomas Knowles [15] (1992) believe that people prone to creative emotions spend more time and effort to recognize emotions than others, and pay more attention and accuracy to their own and others' emotions. This feature, named "readiness[16]", is equivalent to the acquisition of information and knowledge in the model of cognitive creativity.

Paying attention to the definition and criteria of cognitive creativity and emotional creativity shows that these two constructs, although they have common features with each other, are independent of each other and each of them manifests differently in two different behavioral domains (cognition and emotions). Due to the newness of this field, there are many questions regarding these two variables and their correlations, and what are the antecedents of these two types of creativity.

The development of creativity in students requires knowing the dimensions and factors influencing it. Sternberg [17] (2010) considers internal motivation as one of the essential elements of creativity. This motivation to be creative has been so neglected that it can be called the missing circle of creativity (Collins and Amabil [18], 2009). Psychological empowerment[19] is a new approach in internal motivation that means releasing people's internal forces and power (Abdollahi, 2014).

Empowering people means encouraging people to participate more in decisions that affect their activities; It means providing a space for people to create good ideas and turn them into action (Smith[20], 2000).

In order to understand the goals and requirements of empowerment, it is necessary to understand the purpose and evolution of this concept in the intellectual and political history of the West. In fact, the modern form of empowerment usually originates from the women's rights and civil rights social movements of the 1960s. The subject of empowerment in psychology began in the late 1970s. Two meanings of political participation and increasing choices were introduced in psychology. The dominant meanings of the term empowerment in psychology are: increasing self-worth, strengthening the power of minorities, control over destiny. Some of these meanings emphasize the sharing of real power and some emphasize the further development of human well-being. Considering the breadth of the concept of empowerment, contemporary researchers have used three different perspectives to study it. 1-Social structural perspective 2-Psychological perspective 3-Critical perspective (Spritzer and Danson [21], 2005).

Psychological perspective refers to a set of psychological conditions that are necessary for a person to feel that his destiny is in his own hands.  In fact, the psychological perspective focuses on empowered perception. That is, on the individual's reaction to the structures, policies and strategies that include him (Spritzer, 2007). Thomas and Wolthaus [22] (1990) suggested in an influential article that the motivation underlying successful empowerment requires four internal rewards (meaningfulness, choice, competence, and effectiveness).

Given that empowerment is the basis of innovation, competence [23], autonomy [24], motivation, effectiveness, meaningfulness, and self-confidence. And on the other hand, creativity at the highest level of thought processing is classified as a part of higher thinking processes (Dalgish and Power, 1999). In this research, we aim to increase cognitive creativity and emotional creativity, both of which are acquireable, changeable, and the product of social interactions, by using psychological empowerment training for students.

2-1-Statement of the problem

There is no doubt that all social, economic, cultural and scientific developments begin with education and education in any country is the center of training human resources. Therefore, the training of healthy, creative and capable human resources is the most basic discussion in all-round development.

Unfortunately, in Iran's educational system, the cultivation of creativity does not have a special place and its growth is not paid attention to. Most teachers teach and reinforce stereotypical thinking and acting to students. The structure of the textbooks has been almost uniform during the last forty years and these basics have been taken from the translation of the books of the European countries. The limitations in scientific activities in educational centers, whether schools or universities, happen in such a way that the discovery and strengthening of brilliant talents is very limited and slow moving.