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Depressive Anhedonia and Creative Self‐concepts, Behaviors, and Achievements
Author(s) -
Silvia Paul J.,
Eddington Kari M.,
Harper Kelly L.,
Burgin Chris J.,
Kwapil Thomas R.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the journal of creative behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.896
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2162-6057
pISSN - 0022-0175
DOI - 10.1002/jocb.482
Subject(s) - anhedonia , creativity , psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , pleasure
In the large literature on creativity and mental illness, relatively few studies have explored anhedonia—impairments in anticipating, seeking, and experiencing rewards. This project explored self‐reported creativity in a sample of adults who differed in depressive anhedonia, determined via face‐to‐face structured clinical interviews. Participants completed measures of everyday creativity (engaging in common creative behaviors and hobbies), creative self‐concepts (creative self‐efficacy, creative personal identity, and self‐rated creativity in different domains), and creative achievements. Compared to the control group ( n = 52), people in the anhedonia group ( n = 22) had significantly higher engagement in little‐c creative activities (medium effect size). Effect sizes for self‐rated creativity and creative achievement were either small or near‐zero. Taken together, the findings suggest that anhedonia deserves more attention in future research on motivational aspects of creativity.