2008-09 Erlbaum Winners' Abstracts
Don’t Be so Hard on Yourself: Self-Compassion Facilitates Creative Originality Among Self-Judgmental Individuals
Darya L. Zabelina, North Dakota State University
Graduate Winner
Faculty Sponsor: Michael D. Robinson, PhD
Self-compassion is a multi-faceted state of potential utility in alleviating the self-critical tendencies that may undermine creative expression among certain individuals. In the present study, 86 undergraduates were randomly assigned to control or self-compassion conditions, following which creative originality was assessed by a version of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT). In both conditions, participants wrote about a negative experience from the past, but individuals assigned to the self-compassion condition were additionally asked to view this experience from a compassionate and kind perspective. Consequently self-judgmental individuals displayed less creative originality in the control condition, but were equally as creative in the self-compassion condition. Results are discussed in the context of theories of creativity, self-compassion, and relevant individual differences.
Age Is More Than A Number: Effect of Preschool Children’s Numerical Capabilities on Estimations of Age
Nina Gold, Colby College (ME)
Undergraduate Winner
Faculty Sponsor: Martha Arterberry, PhD
To address the relationship between preschoolers’ numeracy capabilities and their perception of strangers’ ages, 44 children, between three- and five-years-old, completed two numeracy tasks and two age judgment tasks. Both numeracy tasks assessed understanding of the sequential nature of numbers. In the absolute age task, children estimated a person’s numerical age. In the relative age task, they compared which of two people was older. Children made more accurate relative judgments than absolute judgments. A positive correlation between both numeracy tasks and the absolute age task was also found. These findings suggest that preschoolers have a qualitative understanding of others’ ages, but have not developed the numerical capabilities to express their knowledge in the form of a number.