Abstract

This study is entitled "Why We Sing the Blues: The Relation Between Self-Reflective Rumination, Mood, and Creativity" and is found in the APA Journal Emotion. The authors hypothesized that a 3rd underlying factor, self-reflective rumination, makes the connection amongst creativity and depression. Ninety-nine undergrads were surveyed in a variety of measures: dimensions of creativity, interests, and seriousness about creative activities. The major challenge that faced the experimenters was measuring the construct of creativity. The findings of this study concluded that with rumination, there is an association between depression and creativity. It was found that the blues singing appears to be rooted in an all-too-closely examined life.

Participants were tested in small groups with a variety of tests. The tests used in this experiment were mostly self-report tests. This naturally could lead to some biases. Some of the tests included the following: a yes or no checklist of the 10 symptoms of depression; a questionnaire listing 20 activities and had the participants indicate how many hours a week they engaged in the activity, then indicate on a scale from 1-5 their seriousness in their engagement in the activity; creative behavior was study using three activities in which participants would be given the question "what would happen if you could walk on air or fly" and were instructed to list, in three minutes, any problems that would come of this. This test, part of the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults was scored on three scales. Fluency - the number of distinct answers, Originality - number of responses not appearing on the list of common answers, and Elaboration - number of details contained within the answers; the Purdue Creativity Test also was included in which participants had 2 minutes upon being shown abstract line drawings to write down as many answers to the question "what is this?", with fluency was

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