Relationships between openness to experience, cognitive flexibility, self-esteem, and creativity among bilingual college students in the U.S.

ABSTRACT

Currently, the positive role of creativity has received support and research in bilingual literature. However, the positive psychological processes that may contribute to creativity only received little attention, especially in bilingual population. This study focused on exploring the possible psychological processes among several variables: openness to experience, cognitive flexibility, self-esteem, and creativity, in bilingual population, and further tested the mediating roles that cognitive flexibility and self-esteem may play in the relationship between openness to experience and creativity. A sample of 284 bilingual college students in the U.S. participated in this study. Results showed that: (1) openness to experience, cognitive flexibility and self-esteem all had moderate to strong positive correlations with creativity; (2) cognitive flexibility and self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between openness to experience and creativity. The results suggested that openness to experience, self-esteem, and especially cognitive flexibility, potentially play positive roles in promoting creativity of bilingual students. Based on the current findings, some practical implications about enhancing bilingual’s creativity through positive personal factors were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• openness to experience
• cognitive flexibility
• self-esteem
• creativity
• positive psychology

Acknowledgements

Xinjie Chen led the study design and data collection and draft the manuscript. Jinbo He participated the study design, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. Xitao Fan helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xinjie Chen

Xinjie Chen is a research associate in the Graduate School of Education, Stanford University. Dr Chen is interested in positive psychology and bilingualism.

Jinbo He

Jinbo He is an assistant professor in the School of Humanities and Social Science, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen). Dr He is interested in quantitative research methods and second language learning.

Xitao Fan

Xitao Fan is a presidential chair professor in the School of Humanities and Social Science, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen). Dr Fan mainly focuses on educational psychology and quantitative research methods.