Creativity across the lifespan: changes with age and with dementia (original) (raw)
Related papers
Creativity and dementia - A review
In these last years, creativity was found to play an important role for dementia patients in terms of diagnosis and rehabilitation strategies. This led us to explore the relationships between dementia and creativity. At the aim, artistic creativity and divergent thinking are considered both in non-artists and artists affected by different types of dementia. In general, artistic creativity can be expressed in exceptional cases both in Alzheimer's disease and Frontotemporal dementia, whereas divergent thinking decreases in dementia. The creation of paintings or music is anyway important for expressing emotions and well-being. Yet, creativity seems to emerge when the right prefrontal cortex, posterior temporal, and parietal areas are relatively intact, whereas it declines when these areas are damaged. However, enhanced creativity in dementia is not confirmed by controlled studies conducted in non-artists, and whether artists with dementia can show creativity has to be fully addressed. Future research directions are suggested.
Creative performance in older adults.
The prevailing stereotype of the relationship between intellectual productivity and age is that there is a rapid decrease after the age of about 60. However, this view is not supported by findings from case studies or laboratory research. When attention is focused o n creativity, much the same is true: there are indeed differences related to age, but creative performances are seen (under appropriate circumstances) in people of all ages. Ag e differences in creative performance are not due to a general deterioration, but to a combination of cognitive changes, effects of external factors such as social norms, an d internal factors such as motivation and personality. Such findings suggest ways o f maintaining creativity, even after retirement!
Age-related Changes in Creative Thinking
The Journal of Creative Behavior, 2008
Age-related differences in cognitive processes were used to understand agerelated declines in creativity. According to the Geneplore model , there are two phases of creativity -generating an idea and exploring the implications of the idea -each with different underlying cognitive processes. These two phases are measured in the Creative Invention Task (CIT; . Younger adults (n = 41) and older adults (n = 41) completed the CIT, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), and a measure of working memory capacity (Paper Folding test). In addition, the CIT was scored by both younger and older adults. There were age-related declines on both phases of the CIT, but not on the TTCT. These declines were noted by both the younger and older raters. After adjusting for working memory capacity, however, age-related differences on the CIT were nonsignificant.
Health Psychology Report, 2021
health psychology report • original article background In general terms, aging is associated with a decline in cognitive skills. Nevertheless, researchers are aware of the existence of persons quickly losing cognitive skills during aging, in contrast to others whose skills are preserved. Consequently, an increasing amount of research in the last years has been devoted to individual differences in decline and possible factors affecting cognitive preservation. Creative engagement seems to play a role as a protective factor against cognitive decline in the elderly. participants and procedure The current correlational study aims to analyze individual differences in terms of cognitive skills in elderly persons engaged or not engaged in creative daily activities. It is hypothesized that creative activities are correlated with higher preservation of cognitive skills in elderly persons. 80 elderly non-institutionalized persons living in the Alentejo region (Portugal) took part voluntarily in this study; 40 of them were male elderly (N = 40, ages from 65 to 90 years) and 40 were female elderly (N = 40, ages from 65 to 89 years). Cognitive skills were assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination. results The results seem to show that creative activities are negatively correlated with cognitive decline in female and male elderly persons. The results of this study seem to emphasize the importance of activities of creative production and expression in the preservation of cognitive functions. conclusions These results suggest the importance of creativity for cognitive preservation and the need to produce innovative strategies to increase and support creative production and expression in elderly persons.
Cognitive aging: why we need creativity to increase cognitive preservation
Health Psychology Report
health psychology report • original article background In general terms, aging is associated with a decline in cognitive skills. Nevertheless, researchers are aware of the existence of persons quickly losing cognitive skills during aging, in contrast to others whose skills are preserved. Consequently, an increasing amount of research in the last years has been devoted to individual differences in decline and possible factors affecting cognitive preservation. Creative engagement seems to play a role as a protective factor against cognitive decline in the elderly. participants and procedure The current correlational study aims to analyze individual differences in terms of cognitive skills in elderly persons engaged or not engaged in creative daily activities. It is hypothesized that creative activities are correlated with higher preservation of cognitive skills in elderly persons. 80 elderly non-institutionalized persons living in the Alentejo region (Portugal) took part voluntarily in this study; 40 of them were male elderly (N = 40, ages from 65 to 90 years) and 40 were female elderly (N = 40, ages from 65 to 89 years). Cognitive skills were assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination. results The results seem to show that creative activities are negatively correlated with cognitive decline in female and male elderly persons. The results of this study seem to emphasize the importance of activities of creative production and expression in the preservation of cognitive functions. conclusions These results suggest the importance of creativity for cognitive preservation and the need to produce innovative strategies to increase and support creative production and expression in elderly persons.
Creativity and cognitive reserve in old age: an exploratory study in the Portuguese population
2020
The present study aims to investigate the relationship between creativity, particularly divergent thinking, and cognitive reserve (CR), in a sample of older adults without cognitive impairment. 53 community-dwelling subjects met the inclusion criteria and were submitted to the Creativity Test (ProCriativ) and the Cognitive Reserve Questionnaire (CRQ). The correlational analysis revealed that ProCriativ’s fluency and flexibility indexes were positively and significantly correlated with the CRQ. However, according to the backward stepwise regression analysis, only flexibility was a significant predictor of CRQ. Our results are in line with former studies that found a clear association between creativity and CR. Additionally, in other studies fluency and originality were also predictors of CR proxies besides flexibility. It is speculated that creativity could represent another indicator of CR. Further investigation is needed to corroborate the previous findings.
Cognitive Decline Influences Emotional Creativity in the Elderly
Creativity Research Journal, 2019
Little is known about the relationship between emotional creativity and age-related cognitive decline. This study explored how deficits in some cognitive abilities are related to emotional creativity, i.e., cognitive abilities relating to originality and appropriateness in emotional experience. One hundred and eighty-seven older adults (mean age = 63.2; 58.4% females) were administered the Emotional Creativity Inventory, the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale, and the Cognitive Complaint Interview. As hypothesized, emotional creativity was negatively related to apathy and positively to disinhibition/emotional dysregulation. Several processes, such as apathy-related loss of interest, unconcern, subjective lack of energy, and changed perception of one’s disinhibited emotional reactions, may explain the observed results.
The Relationships Between Cognitive Reserve and Creativity. A Study on American Aging Population
The Cognitive Reserve (CR) hypothesis suggests that the brain actively attempts to cope with neural damages by using pre-existing cognitive processing approaches or by enlisting compensatory approaches. This would allow an individual with high CR to better cope with aging than an individual with lower CR. Many of the proxies used to assess CR indirectly refer to the flexibility of thought. The present paper aims at directly exploring the relationships between CR and creativity, a skill that includes flexible thinking. We tested a sample of 72 adults (aged between 45 and 78) assessing both their level of CR and their creativity. To evaluate CR we used the proxies commonly used in literature, namely, three subtests from the WAIS (vocabulary, similarities, and digit span) and the years of education. We also used an ad-hoc test asking people to report how frequently they tend to perform activities that are believed to increase CR. We used verbal creativity tasks (alternative uses and generation of acronyms) to assess individual levels of creativity. We asked participants to describe their main occupation (present or past) and coded each occupation as creative or not creative. Results (controlling for age-related differences) showed that scores from the WAIS correlated positively with creativity performance, even though correlations varied across the subtests. Focusing on the frequency and type of activities that people perform, and comparing individuals who have or had a creative job to those with a routine job, a clear relationship between creativity and CR emerged. This effect was more relevant than the level of job complexity. Implications for the study of CR and aging are discussed.
The Many Faces of Creativity in Old Age. Chapter 11.
The Cambridge Handbook of Lifespan Development of Creativity. Edited by Sandra W. Russ, Jessica D. Hoffmann, James C. Kaufman, 2021
The field of creativity research has grown exponentially in recent years, primarily using the lens of psychological inquiry (Kaufman & Sternberg, 2010). It is well understood that creativity is a desirable trait that can enhance well-being and human potential (Kaufman, 2018). This chapter provides insights into different domains of creativity in late life. The co-authors are Eva Kahana, a sociologist; Boaz Kahana, a developmental psychologist; and Polina Ermoshkina, a sociologist. All of the co-authors have expertise and long-term research interests in the field of gerontology. Consequently, we are passionate about understanding both late-life opportunities and challenges for creative expression among older adults (Martin et al., 2015). An important contribution we can bring to our task of exploring late-life creativity is the introduction of a life-course framework (Elder, Johnson, & Crosnoe, 2003). Life-course theory contextualizes old age by emphasizing the "social pathways of human lives, particularly in their historical time and place" (Elder et al., 2003, p. 4). The life-course theory helps link creativity in early life with patterns of creative expression in late life, based on the assumption that prior life history exerts important influences on later life outcomes (Mayer, 2009). Further, a life-course perspective allows us to understand the importance of linked lives, historical time and place, life transitions, human agency, and lifelong processes (Bengtson, Elder Jr, & Putney, 2012). Thus the question is not only whether creative production increases or declines over time, but also the meaning of life-course influences in relation to different forms of creative expression. Life-course theory also emphasizes heterogeneity or diversity among older adults, noting the influence of social categories such as race, class, and gender in impacting the likelihood of creative expression (Mortimer & Moen, 2016). Our prior work, outside of creativity research, gave us the freedom to raise questions about the relevance of prevalent approaches to the study of creativity in the daily lives of older adults. We are focused not only on demonstrating age differences or age-related changes in creative performance, but also on exploring diverse expressions of late-life creativity. Thus, we open the door to considering the manifestations of new creative strategies to deal with the challenges of aging. Bringing sociological orientations to our task, we also pay close attention to ecological factors and the role of society and the environment in facilitating or hindering creative actions in late life (
Successful Aging And Creativity In Later Life
Journal of Aging Studies, 1999
This study examined the meanings older people attached to successful aging and its relationship to creative activity. Thirty-six contributors to a senior art exhibition participated in this study and ranged in age from 60 ± 93. Interviews with participants explored their understandings of successful aging and creativity, the factors viewed as necessary for each, and the benefits of creative activity and its relationship to successful aging. Qualitative data were coded by two independent reviewers. Content analysis confirmed six features of successful aging: a sense of purpose, interactions with others, personal growth, self-acceptance, autonomy, and health. The findings indicate that creative activity contributes to successful aging by fostering a sense of competence, purpose, and growth. Artistic creativity also facilitates successful aging by encouraging the development of problem-solving skills, motivation, and perceptions that translate into a practical creativity in the way these individuals manage their everyday lives.