Emotion in Children's Play and Creative Problem Solving

Abstract

Theoretically, pretend play facilitates cognitive and affective processes important in creativity. Expression of affect states and affect-laden fantasy are affective processes common to both play and creativity. This study investigated the effect of instructing children to engage in happy or angry play on affect in play and on divergent thinking. Eighty 1st- and 2nd-grade children were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups. It was hypothesized that children in the happy and angry puppet play groups would have more affect in their play and that their mood would be congruent with the play instruction. It was also hypothesized that children in the happy and angry groups would have higher divergent thinking scores than children in the free-play and puzzle conditions. One major finding was that children in the angry play group had more expression of negative affect in their play and more self-reported negative mood than children in the other groups. There were no differences among the experimental groups in divergent thinking. However, self-reported mood during the play and puzzle tasks was significantly associated with originality of the divergent thinking responses. Children who experienced more affect as opposed to feeling neutral gave more original responses. The major conclusion of the study is that the play paradigm can be used to study affective processes in children.