Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Effects of Group Interactive Brainstorming on Creativity

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dc.contributor Near Environments
dc.contributor Germana, Joseph
dc.contributor Sawyers, Janet K.
dc.contributor Cross, Lawrence H.
dc.contributor Marshall-Baker, Anna
dc.contributor Bowker, Jeanette E.
dc.creator Park-Gates, Shari Lane
dc.date 2014-03-14T20:14:56Z
dc.date 2014-03-14T20:14:56Z
dc.date 2001-07-16
dc.date 2001-08-09
dc.date 2002-09-03
dc.date 2001-09-03
dc.date.accessioned 2023-03-01T08:10:56Z
dc.date.available 2023-03-01T08:10:56Z
dc.identifier etd-08092001-104543
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28577
dc.identifier http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-08092001-104543/
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/276686
dc.description Corporations spend a great deal of time and money trying to facilitate innovation in their employees. The act of introducing something new, a product or a service that is viable and innovative is often increased by enhancing or nurturing creativity.This experimental study investigated the effect of group verbally interactive brainstorming (social interaction) on creativity, not by comparing the number of ideas generated on a simple task in a brainstorming session, but by assessing creativity in the final product of a complex heuristic task. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of group interactive brainstorming to individual brainstorming on individual creativity assessed in the final product.The hypothesis which was tested in this study was that participation in group verbally interactive brainstorming prior to developing a design solution would not facilitate creativity in the final product more than individual brainstorming. Indeed, it was hypothesized that individuals brainstorming in teams.Participants were 36 interior design students in a FIDER accredited program at Virginia Tech. The Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure (MSFM) was administered before beginning the experiment in order to determine individual differences in creativity. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a treatment group than participated in group verbally interactive brainstorming prior to developing a product individually, or a control group that participated in an individual brainstorming session. All subjects then created a design project individually that was assessed for creativity by judges who were recruited from professional interior design organizations. Creativity was measures using the Consensual Assessment for Interior Design Creativity (Barnard, 1992). A post session questionnaire also was used to measure attitudes and perceptions of the subjects about the creative process.Analysis of variance revealed no significant differences when creativity scores were compared between two brainstorming groups. That is, projects developed by interior design students did not differ significantly in creativity systematically between the two brainstorming techniques. When scores on the two dependent variables of secondary interest (novelty and appropriateness) were compared between groups they also did not differ significantly.Responses to post-session questionnaires indicated that although students found it more difficult to generate ideas in a group, they still believed they would generate more ideas and preferred to generate ideas in a group rather than alone. However, when developing a project students preferred to work independently.This study supports past research which suggests that group verbally interactive brainstorming does not enhance creativity. In this study, interactive brainstorming neither enhanced nor constrained creativity in the final product. The creativity scores were higher for those in the individual brainstorming condition, although not significantly so. This study also supports findings which indicate that people still believe they will generate more ideas in a group and that they prefer to generate ideas as a group.
dc.description Ph. D.
dc.format application/pdf
dc.publisher Virginia Tech
dc.relation FinalCopyDissertation.pdf
dc.rights In Copyright
dc.rights http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
dc.subject interaction and creativity
dc.subject creativity tasks
dc.subject teams and creativity
dc.subject measures of creativity
dc.subject perceptions of idea generation and creativity
dc.subject brainstorming and creative product
dc.subject electronic brainstorming and creativity
dc.subject creativity and the environment
dc.subject interior design and creativity
dc.subject group interaction and creativity
dc.subject industry and creativity
dc.subject innovation and team interaction
dc.subject brainstorming
dc.subject social environment and creativity
dc.subject creativity
dc.subject groups and creativity
dc.title Effects of Group Interactive Brainstorming on Creativity
dc.type Dissertation


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