PROMOTING CHILDRENS CREATIVITY - EFFECTS OF COMPETITION, SELF-ESTEEM,AND IMMUNIZATION

The effects of reward and intrinsic motivation training on the creativ ity and self-esteem of elementary school students were assessed Third- grade children (N = 103) participated in an intrinsic motivation or co ntrol training session, completed the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventor y before and after training, and participated in a collage-making task . The children were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: intrinsic moti vation training/reward intrinsic motivation training/no reward, contro l training/reward, and control training/no reward. Two sets of judges- 3 artists and 21 schoolteachers-rated the creativity of the collages u sing a consensual assessment technique. Creativity ratings of artist j udges revealed a main effect of reward, and ratings by the teachers re vealed a marginally significant effect of training. No significant cha nges in self-esteem scores were found These results were compared to e arlier findings that intrinsic motivation training reverses the negati ve effect of reward on creativity. Questions about the validity and re liability of the consensual assessment technique for measuring creativ ity were also raised.