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The relationship between social anxiety and verbal creativity in the context of induced mindfulness

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The relationship between social anxiety and verbal creativity in the context of induced mindfulness

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Content Running head: SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 1

The Relationship between Social Anxiety and Verbal Creativity in the Context of Induced
Mindfulness
Sophia J. Rabiee
University of Southern California

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 2

Abstract
There is a distinct lack of literature regarding the relationship between anxiety disorders
and creativity. This investigation explored how levels of social anxiety related to creativity in the
context of a mindfulness induction. It was hypothesized that (1) social anxiety and shyness
would be two independent constructs, (2) a brief mindfulness induction would increase scores on
a verbal creativity task, and (3) those in the induced mindfulness condition would display
increasing levels creativity as social anxiety increased, while those in the control condition
would display decreasing levels of creativity as social anxiety increased. Evidence supported the
first two hypotheses. Support was not found for the third hypothesis, but trends in the elicited
graphs indicated that future studies with larger samples may produce significant results that
support the model.

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section Page
Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………. 2
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………….. 4
Literature Review ……………………………………………………………………. 6
Social Anxiety and Shyness ………………………………………………………. 6
What Is Creativity and How Is It Measured? ……………………………………... 10
Psychodynamic View of Creativity and Related Studies …………………………. 13
Mindfulness ……………………………………………………………………….. 18
Hypotheses …………………………………………………………………………… 21
Methods …………………………………………………………………………………… 21
Participants ………………………………………………………………………... 21
Instruments and Materials ………………………………………………………… 22
Procedures ………………………………………………………………………… 24
Poetry Judging Task ………………………………………………………………. 28
Results …………………………………………………………………………………….. 30
Pilot Study of the Measurement Model …………………………………………… 30
Principal Investigation of the Measurement Model ………………………………. 32
Experimental Component in Mindfulness Induction ……………………………... 33
Reflection Responses ……………………………………………………………... 37
Discussion …………………………………………………………………………………. 37
Limitations ………………………………………………………………………... 39
References ………………………………………………………………………………… 41
Tables ……………………………………………………………………………………… 49
Figures …………………………………………………………………………………….. 51
Appendices ………………………………………………………………………………... 53
Author’s Note ……………………………………………………………………………... 62

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 4

The Relationship between Social Anxiety and Verbal Creativity in the Context of Induced
Mindfulness
The ostensible connection between madness and genius has been a source of fascination
for philosophers and scientists dating back to the time of Plato (trans. 1974). It is mystifying to
observe a fusion of such starkly contrasting characteristics as madness and genius and find that
their synthesis somehow results in a greater mass of brilliance than could have been expected
from either alone. This incongruous synergism begs explanation. How can we not be intrigued
by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh who suffered hallucinations and delusions, checked himself
into an asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence and, during his yearlong stay, painted approximately
150 master works; or Sylvia Plath who, despite being troubled by severe depression that
culminated in suicide, was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her poetry? How can we
not be fascinated by such scientists as Nikola Tesla who dealt with progressive germaphobia and
claimed to be able to communicate with other planets and split the earth in half in the same
timeframe that he discovered the rotating magnetic field and obtained at least 278 different
important patents, including one for alternating-current dynamos and another for the Tesla coil
(widely used in radio technology); or William James, sometimes labeled the father of American
psychology, who, though challenged by a type of phobic panic that was based in compulsive
self-doubt, was able to write the first textbook of psychology? As one considers the challenges
and successes of such individuals, the mystery becomes ever more intriguing: Does creative
genius happen because of madness, or in spite of it?
Researchers today continue the attempt to demystify the complex relationship between
psychopathology and creativity. However, most clinical samples for such studies have consisted
of schizotypal and bipolar patients; other disorders have, for the most part, been left by the
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 5

wayside. For example, relatively little research has been conducted on the link between anxiety
and creativity. Literature in this area tends to suggest that general anxiety and creative
performance are inversely related (Byron & Khazanchi, 2011). Even less is known about the
specific link between social anxiety and creativity. The findings suggest that individuals with
social anxiety disorder are likely to regard themselves as less creative in interpersonal domains
and to report fewer creative achievements (Silvia & Kimbrel, 2010). Similarly, verbal creativity
and shyness have been shown to be negatively related (Cheek & Stall, 1986)
Psychodynamic theory presents a viewpoint that is somewhat counterintuitive to the idea
of an inverse relationship between anxiety and creativity. This perspective suggests that certain
psychological challenges, specifically narcissistic injury, may advantage creativity. Narcissistic
injury, which results from blows to self-esteem, often arises in response to perceived personal
rejections; it is therefore a phenomenon that social phobics, by definition, should experience on a
daily basis. According to psychodynamic theorists, narcissistic injury is a foundational driving
force of creative expression. Freud proposed that creativity is a form of sublimation in which
individuals work out unconscious desires. This perspective has been expanded by more recent
psychoanalysts like Kohut (1978).
It has been suggested that anxious people experience narrowed attention, which could
inhibit creativity (Byron & Khazanchi, 2011). The practice of mindfulness might counter this
effect. Mindfulness is defined as a state of being attentive to moment-by-moment experience. It
is characterized by a wide internal attentional breadth that allows access to unconscious thoughts
and emotions. For socially anxious individuals, practicing mindfulness could be beneficial by
allowing them to work with their anxious feelings (unconscious desires in Freudian terms)
instead of fixating on maladaptive cognitions.
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 6

Perhaps it is the harnessing of psychological challenges in the right way that offers an
important linkage for the madness-genius connection in creativity. This investigation takes the
position that mindfulness may facilitate the “working out” of negative emotions through
enhanced creative expression. Furthermore, beneficial effect should be particularly pronounced
for those with higher levels of social anxiety, particularly because they are more likely to
generally experience inhibited creativity as a result of their anxiety.
Literature Review
Social Anxiety and Shyness
Social anxiety disorder, or social phobia, is defined as a “marked fear or anxiety about
one or more social situations in which the individual is exposed to possible scrutiny by others”
(American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 202). In order to be diagnosed with social anxiety
disorder, an individual must experience significant distress or impairment in one or more area of
functioning (social, occupational, etc.) as a result of the anxiety, and the symptoms must be
present for six months or longer. Social phobia first appeared as a diagnostic category in 1980
with the publication of the DSM III. In the recently published DSM 5, the condition has been
renamed “Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia)” in order to acknowledge the critical
differences between social phobia and specific phobias (Bogels et al., 2010). Accordingly, the
two terms are used interchangeably in the literature and in this paper.
Of note, the DSM IV (1994) lists two subtypes of social anxiety disorder: generalized and
non-generalized. Qualitative distinctions between the subtypes are debatable, and this specifier is
not included in the DSM 5. Unless noted, specification between generalized and non-generalized
social phobia was not present in the observed literature.
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 7

Social anxiety disorder falls under the broader DSM category of anxiety disorders, which
also includes generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobias, panic disorder and agoraphobia. Due
to the nature of anxiety disorders, cognitive- behavioral therapy (which seeks to change
maladaptive cognitions about the feared stimuli) is considered the “gold standard” for effectively
treating them (Stewart & Chambless, 2009; Hans & Hiller, 2013). According to the cognitive-
behavioral model, social phobics believe that people are critical and are likely to view them
negatively. Upon encountering a social situation, these individuals take on an “observer
perspective,” viewing themselves as they believe others are viewing them. Attention is shifted
toward the self as well as the threat of being negatively perceived. Physical, behavioral, and
cognitive symptoms serve as both internal cues of danger and external signs of negative
evaluation. The social phobic believes they are not measuring up to the standards of the
audience, which aggravates the aforementioned symptomology. Meanwhile, the narrow
attentional focus leaves less attention for relevant environmental cues related to social
performance. Negative mental representations are maintained and the cycle of social anxiety
continues (Clark & Wells, 1995; Rapee & Heimberg 1997). Successful treatments have helped
patients take external perspectives in social situations rather than focusing on themselves and
challenged the broad negative conclusions drawn by the patient as a result of “poor” social
performance (Roth & Heimberg, 2001).
While social anxiety disorder is a well-defined clinical condition, shyness is a lay term
and thus a more elusive construct. It is often considered a personality trait, although for some it
may be a temporary situational state (Turner, Beidel, & Townsley, 1990). Zimbardo (1982)
characterized shyness as “a heightened state of individuation characterized by excessive
egocentric preoccupation and overconcern with social evaluation…[consequentially]…the shy
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 8

person inhibits, withdraws, avoids, and escapes.” (p. 467-468). Those who are shy tend to
experience awkwardness, discomfort, and inhibition in social situations (Henderson & Zimbardo,
2001).
According to the most recent National Comorbidity Study, the 12-month prevalence rate
for social phobia is about 7% (NCS; Kessler, Chiu, Demler, Merikangas, & Walters, 2005),
though some cited figures are as low as 2-3% (Turner et al., 1990; Heiser, Turner, & Beidel,
2003; Grant et al., 2005). Shyness is much more common; it is estimated that 40-50% of the
population label themselves as shy (Carducci & Zimbardo, 1995; Zimbardo, 1977; Pikonis
1977), while 90% of college students report being shy at some point in their lives (Zimbardo,
Pilkonis, & Norwood, 1975).
Many researchers have sought to elucidate the nature of the relationship between social
phobia and normal shyness. The two conditions share a number of symptoms. For example, both
shy and socially phobic individuals tend to experience a fear of negative evaluation, somatic
discomfort (i.e. increased heart rate, blushing, and sweating) during interactions with others, and
avoidance of social situations (Turner et al., 1990; Henderson & Zimbardo, 2001). In terms of
personality traits, neuroticism appears to play a role in both; it is a strong predictor of social
phobia (an effect which is particularly pronounced for the generalized versus non-generalized
subtype) and is moderately correlated with shyness (Chavira, 1999; Heiser et al., 2003).
Despite the similarities between the conditions, it appears that social phobics experience
more severe symptomology than those who are (non-socially phobic and) shy. For instance, early
research showed that 85% of social phobics reported avoidance of some kind (Turner, Beidel,
Dancu, & Keys, 1986), while, in comparison, a sample of dispositionally shy college students
reported that avoidance was the least important aspect of their shyness (Pilkonis, 1977). More
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 9

recently Heiser, Turner, Beidel, and Roberson-Nay (2009) found that 96% of social phobics
reported avoiding feared social situations as compared to 50% of a highly shy group. Commonly
avoided situations included conversations, classes, meetings, and parties. The social phobics in
this study also reported more social fears, negative thoughts, and somatic symptoms than their
shy counterparts. In turn, the shy group reported more of these symptoms than the non-shy
controls.
Though shyness is often problematic for those who experience it, social phobia is more
functionally impairing and has a more chronic course (Turner et al., 1990; Heiser et al., 2009).
Turner, Beidel, Dancu, and Keys (1986) found that a respective 92%, 85%, and 69% of social
phobics suffered from impairment in occupational, academic, and social functioning. Those who
suffer from social phobia also report a lower quality of life than shy people (Heiser et al., 2009).
Some extant literature suggests that social phobia and shyness exist on a continuum
where social phobia is considered extreme shyness (Rapee & Heimberg, 1997; Stein 1999).
However, recent research indicates that the relationship may be more complex than that. Perhaps
in part because it is a lay term, shyness appears to be a more heterogeneous construct than social
phobia. (Heckelman & Schneier, 1995; Turner et al., 1990). In a study of 2200 undergraduates,
Chavira, Stein, and Malcarne (2002) found that 49% of those in a highly shy group versus 18%
of those in a normatively shy group received a diagnosis of social phobia. The spectrum model
was partially supported by these findings, but it remained unclear as to why only half of the
shyest participants were socially phobic. In a 2003 study by Heiser, Turner, and Beidel, 18% of
shy participants met criteria for social phobia, while the prevalence among non-shy participants
was only 3%. Data on distribution and variance (r
2
= 0.22) in conjunction with the fact that some
participants with social phobia were not shy, indicated that social phobia is not simply a form of
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 10

extreme shyness. Heiser and his colleagues concluded that shyness and social phobia are
overlapping, related conditions, with shyness being a broader construct. This heterogeneity has
been further supported by Heiser, Turner, Beidel, and Roberson-Nay (2009); in their study, all
socially phobic subjects reported social fears in a diagnostic interview, while one-third of the
highly shy group (containing individuals who were not socially phobic) reported no social fears.
The two groups did not differ in sociability, which ruled out the possibility that shyer participants
simply preferred solitary situations. This provides further support for the conceptualization of
shyness and social phobia as overlapping yet qualitatively different conditions, where shyness is
considered a broader and more heterogeneous category than social phobia.
What Is Creativity and How Is It Measured?
Creativity has been described as an essential component of human experience
(Grossmman, 1981). According to Nageeb (2011), “…people as a whole generally have the
capacity to be creative and use this operation to varying ends in everyday life” (p. 106).
Summarily, everybody possesses some degree of creativity. Although it appears to be a
ubiquitous experience, the nature of creativity is notoriously elusive; the best conceptual
definitions generally describe creativity as a capacity to produce something new and useful.
However, the development of an acceptable, general operational-definition continues to be an
ongoing process.
Modern creativity research has been heavily influenced by the work of J.P. Guilford
(1950, 1957, 1967), who lamented its neglect in the field of psychology. Guilford’s Structure of
Intellect model, a three-dimensional theory of intelligence, served as the basis for his work on
creativity. He theorized that his basic intellectual process of divergent production was the root of
successful creative thinking. In Guilford’s conceptualization, creativity was a form of problem
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 11

solving to which four abilities –fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration– were of key
significance.
Creativity tests are currently the most popular way to measure the construct in empirical
studies (Amabile, 1996). The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), which was
developed based on Guilford’s divergent-thinking factors, is one such instrument. In the four
decades since its inception (Torrance, 1966), the TTCT has become the most prevalently used
(and the most frequently referenced) measure of creative ability and has been translated in over
35 languages. The test has two versions, figural and verbal, each of which consists of a series of
activities designed to measure creativity. Examples of these tasks include picture completion,
picture construction, formulation of unusual uses for objects, etc. Responses are scored on five
subscales: 1) fluency (the number of relevant responses); 2) originality (the rarity of expressed
ideas); 3) abstractness of title; 4) elaboration (the ability to elaborate on ideas); and 5) resistance
to closure (keeping an “open mind”) (Kim, 2006).
The study of creativity may be broken down in terms of focus on the creative process,
creativity in terms of the person, and the creative product. J.P. Guilford embraced the person
approach, which continues to play an implicitly significant role in the creativity literature.
However, it is product definitions that have the most explicit utility in empirical research
(Ludwig, 1989; Amabile, 1996).
Teresa Amabile (1996) criticized creativity tests, citing their narrow focus, questionable
construct validity, and objectification of subjective assessments. She proposed two
complementary definitions of creativity- a consensual, operational definition and a conceptual
definition applicable to a theoretical formulation of creativity. The consensual definition is as
follows:
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“A product or response is creative to the extent that appropriate observers independently
agree that it is creative. Appropriate observers are those familiar with the domain in
which the product was created or the response articulated. Thus, creativity can be
regarded as the quality of products or responses judged to be creative by appropriate
observers, and it can also be regarded as the process by which something so judged is
produced.” (p. 33)
Amabile thus discards the notion of an objective standard of creativity in favor of a
subjective conceptualization. She also assumes that creativity lies on a continuous dimension
(i.e. that some products will necessarily be more creative than others and some will be less
creative) instead of manifesting as a dichotomous variable.
Based upon her product-centered, operational definition, Amabile developed a
consensual assessment technique designed to measure individual creativity through performance
on specific tasks. An appropriate task, according to Amabile, requires three essential
components: 1) “a clearly observable response” that may be presented to appropriate judges; 2)
open-endedness that “permits considerable flexibility and novelty in response” and; 3) a lack of
dependence upon specialized skills that some participants may have had an opportunity to
develop more thoroughly than others (p. 41). Appropriate judges are those who are sufficiently
familiar with the relevant domain to the extent that they have developed an implicit sense of
criteria for creativity and other dimensions. During the scoring process, it is important that
judges evaluate products independently and without consulting one another so that reliability can
be observed. It is also critical that they judge the products relative to one another, since
“ordinary” participants would all be likely to score low on an imagined, absolute scale of
creativity.
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The consensual assessment technique of verbal creativity has successfully used the
composition of a simple 5-line poem called an “American Haiku” as the creative task. A factor
containing five of the judged dimensions –creativity, novelty of word choice, originality of idea,
sophistication, and rhythm—was labeled the “creativity cluster” based on high loadings that
ranged from.78 to .90 (Amabile, Goldfarb, & Brackfield, 1990).
Psychodynamic View of Creativity and Related Studies
According to psychodynamic theory, creativity is the result of conflict or tension between
conscious reality and unconscious drives. Freud (1958) believed that creativity was a form of
sublimation, a defense mechanism in which unconscious desires that cause psychic conflict are
expressed in a socially acceptable manner. Creativity can serve as a protective function by
providing relief to the individual as they work out these desires (Kim, Zeppenfeld, & Cohen,
2013). Expanding on Freud’s ideas, Kohut (1978) posited that the detached narcissistic cathexes
that result from injury to self-esteem enable creative expression. Two significant cases that
illustrate the psychodynamic concept of creativity arising from what is termed “narcissistic
injury” follow.
In the summer of 1895, Freud treated Irma, a close family friend suffering from a
condition diagnosed as hysterical anxiety. Soon after the treatment was discontinued, a mutual
friend, Otto, called upon Freud. When Freud inquired about Irma’s well-being, Otto replied “She
is better, but not quite well.” Freud sensed reproach in Otto’s comment and assumed his friend
was taking the side of Irma’s disapproving relatives. That night, the psychoanalyst had his now-
famous Irma dream. Afterward, he conducted an extensive analysis of the dream, characterizing
it as wish fulfillment. Otto had annoyed and offended Freud with his ostensible reproof in
regards to Irma’s health. Accordingly, in the dream, Otto became responsible for Irma’s pains. In
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 14

this manner, Freud was able to absolve himself of responsibility (and exact revenge) by
unequivocally placing the blame on his friend. (Freud, 1900/1913).
Kaplan (1984) discusses Freud’s Irma dream as an example of a narcissistically
disturbing event leading to a creative act. Freud was at a vulnerable point in his life as he
attempted to establish the credibility of his work. It is unsurprising, then, that he had a
narcissistic investment (p.373) in Irma’s treatment outcome. Otto’s comment about his patient
struck Freud as a criticism of his therapeutic practices, which deeply disturbed him. The
interpretation of his Irma dream became one of Freud’s most significant creative
accomplishments, leading to his discovery of the “Secret of Dreams.” Kaplan concludes his
paper with a statement that succinctly reflects the nature of the psychodynamic take on
creativity: “It is as though the experiencing or offering of the ‘product as a perfect self’ is used as
a counterbalance to the experiencing of oneself as inferior or flawed” (p. 376). Here, creativity is
a form of self-restoration in the face of a threat to one’s psychic integrity.
Another key example of profound creativity following narcissistic injury can be found in
Mollod’s (2008) analysis of the 19
th
century French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz and his
Symphonie Fantastique. Friends described Berlioz as moody and tortured with a penchant for
avoiding interaction with others when he felt irritable. One contemporary even complained that
the mere sight of him was “deeply depressing” (p. 465). At the age of 25, Berlioz attended two
Shakespeare plays and became enamored with the woman who played Ophelia in Hamlet. After
being romantically rejected by the actress, Berlioz fell into a severe depression. One year later, in
a quest to prove his success to the object of his obsession, the young composer wrote a five-
movement autobiographical symphony in a frenetic six-week span.
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 15

Mollod describes how, in Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz forcefully communicated his
internal distress to the audience while using artistic maneuvers to contain his emotions and make
them less distressing to himself. He concludes that, “Berlioz—given his inability to use present-
day relationships for relief—needed his work to become a container for his affective struggles,
which influenced the style by which unconscious material was communicated via the Symphonie
Fantastique.” (p. 470).
Other, less direct support for the psychodynamic view of creativity is present in the
literature; often, it is related to death. Wirth (2003) describes creativity as a response to the
awareness of death, postulating that sorrow and awareness of life as a tragedy are necessary to
the development of creativity. He writes:
“Creativity is a non-pathological possibility of handling unsatisfied needs, dreams,
limits, losses, painful separations, and the inevitability of death… By allowing sorrow
over failure, we accept failure as an inevitable component of our lives and precisely this
process brings about creative transcendence of failure” (p. 593)
In the same vein, Grossman (1981) discusses creativity as a way of coping with the
anxiety that results from some external threat of death. For instance, during the Holocaust, a
number of concentration camp inmates created covert art in order to make sense of their
existences. For them, this art was a tangible way to chronicle the horrors experienced-- it would
survive past the inmates’ imminent deaths and provide deeper meaning that superseded
individual lives. Grossman considers the “anxiety generated by a sensing of inner dangers to
one’s psychic integrity” (p. 190) to be the clinical parallel to this. Thus creativity is a way to
create order from psychological chaos and gain control over one’s anxiety by making sense of
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 16

inner turmoil (p 191). In this respect, creative expression as relief from internal disturbance could
be considered a “survival mechanism” in the broader sense.
Similarly, recounting the outpouring of creative works after the Challenger tragedy to
illustrate his position, Torrance (1986) asserts that intense emotional experiences create both a
need for and facilitation of creativity. He posits that creativity is “one of mankind’s strongest
needs” (p. 136) and that it provides relief by allowing the creator to put things in perspective.
Furthermore, creative expression may serve the function of providing support to future
generations through knowledge.
Much work has also been done on the connection between mood states and creativity.
Despite the long-held notion that positive mood unequivocally facilitates creatively, newer
studies suggest that this is not the case. Adaman and Blaney (1995) used musical tapes to induce
one of three mood states in participants: elated, neutral, or depressed. The elated and depressed
groups scored higher on a divergent thinking task than those in the neutral condition. The
researchers proposed that either 1) intense emotion in either direction may be “worked off” by
creative expression in a process that restores psychological equilibrium or 2) that the
mechanisms in each state work differently. In this latter case, it was suggested that creativity
could have been a form of mood repair for the “depressed” participants. Similar conclusions
were drawn in Abele’s 1992 investigation—in certain conditions (tasks with a high instrumental
interest value), negative mood increased fluency in verbal creativity. She suggests that mood
repair through self-regulation may be the explanation.
In an investigation of how mood affects creativity, Kauffman (2003) found that in some
cases, positive mood actually impaired creativity. “Virtually by definition, creative problem
solving entails a modification or rejection of conventional solutions—processes that might well
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 17

be prompted by negative mood,” Kauffman wrote (p. 195). The theory that follows is based on
the idea that positive mood signals satisfaction in tasks, while negative mood indicates a
problem. Negative moods appear to be more conducive to the critical thinking stage of
innovation than a positive moods.
Carlsson (2002) discovered that high-creative participants experienced higher levels of
state and trait anxiety than their low-creative counterparts. The high-creative group also used
more defense categories in a test of defense mechanisms, namely projection and regression.
Based on the results of the study, it was suggested that creative people may have a higher basal
arousal—as well as more variability of arousal-- than their less creative peers.
Mindfulness
At its core, mindfulness involves bringing intentional awareness and attention to what is
occurring in the present moment (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). Non-judgmental acceptance of the thoughts
and feelings that arise is a key component (Baer, 2003). Rooted in Buddhist spiritual paths,
mindfulness is often practiced in meditative contexts.
Langer (1989) has outlined a unique cognitive perspective on mindfulness. Though
Langer’s social psychological construct and Kabat-Zinn’s Eastern-based definition share
commonalities, the former model involves using external material to promote active learning
rather than encouraging focus on internal awareness. Existing literature has highlighted the
importance of discerning these two constructs, as they are often inappropriately conflated
(Brown & Ryan, 2003; Bishop et al., 2004). Langer’s perspective is less relevant to the current
study and therefore will not be discussed here.
Clinical interventions based on mindfulness training have proven helpful in treating
symptoms of a variety of medical and psychological issues, including social anxiety disorder
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 18

(Brown & Ryan, 2003; Goldin & Gross, 2010). The most notable of these interventions is Kabat-
Zinn’s mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MSBR; 1990), an intensive 8 to 10-week
course that teaches mindfulness meditation in a small group setting. Mindfulness can help adjust
patterns of maladaptive thoughts and reactive responses through both the awareness and non-
judgmental acceptance of internal experiences (Bishop et al, 2004). This may be particularly
helpful in social anxiety disorder, which is characterized by negative self-beliefs and attentional
biases (Goldin & Gross, 2010).
Much of the research on mindfulness has sought to evaluate its effectiveness based upon
MSBR and similar programs. However, in order to examine short-term effects, some studies
have used brief manipulations designed to induce state mindfulness in laboratory settings. Such
mediations typically proceed as follows. A short (8 to 10-minute) audiotape guides the
participant through a brief session of mindfulness meditation. Throughout the duration of the
tape, participants are prompted to direct attention toward their current internal states while
focusing on their breathing (Zabelina, Robinson, Ostafin, & Council, 2011; Broderick, 2005;
Erisman & Roemer, 2010).
Mindfulness and Creativity. Overall, relevant literature indicates that mindfulness may
be conducive to creative expression. The very nature of the construct, which has been described
as “open or receptive awareness and attention,” (Brown & Ryan, 2003, p. 822) seems to evoke
the presence of mind that creativity seeks.
A mindful state is characterized by a wide internal attentional breadth; simply put, the
mindful individual is attuned to a large range of internal stimuli. It has been suggested, on this
basis, that mindfulness provides access to nonconscious thoughts and feelings that may not
otherwise be noticed (Dane, 2011; Dane & Pratt, 2009). Brown and Ryan (2003) found that
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 19

mindful participants displayed higher concordance between their implicit and explicit external
states, indicating that these individuals may indeed be more in tune with their unconscious
emotions. In turn, it appears that broadly allocated attention and the resultant awareness of
peripheral cues are integral to creative thinking. In one study, creative individuals demonstrated
a superior ability to take advantage of peripherally presented cues during an anagram task. It was
suggested that this use of unconscious information could facilitate creative thought processes
(Ansburg & Hill, 2003). Additionally, the wide internal attentional breadth of mindfulness
recalls Koestler’s (1964) description of the creative process as “the displacement of attention to
something not previously noted, which was irrelevant in the old and is relevant in the new
context; the discovery of hidden analogies as a result” (p. 119).
Along with facilitating receptivity to internal states, mindfulness may help combat
maladaptive tendencies likely to inhibit creative expression. Zabelina, Robinson, Ostafin, and
Council (2011) utilized a short-term mindfulness manipulation to investigate its effects on
creativity. They found that this state-induced mindfulness predicted greater creative elaboration
but only for individuals high in neuroticism. In the absence of the mindfulness induction,
neuroticism was negatively correlated with elaboration in creative performance. Both results
were consistent with the hypotheses, which were based on the notion that the self-critical
tendencies of neurotic individuals would inhibit creative performance. In line with the work of
Brown, Ryan, and Cresswell (2007), mindfulness was expected to reduce “aversive self-
consciousness experiences” (Zabelina et al., 2011, p. 244), thus facilitating creativity for those
high in neuroticism.
In the same vein, Oyan (2006) posits that mindfulness may facilitate creativity and
discusses the usefulness of this application to musicians suffering from performance anxiety.
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 20

Practicing mindfulness should allow individuals to accept and work with debilitating anxiety and
arousal. By harnessing rather than fixating on anxiety, creative performance is expected to
flourish.
Hypotheses
This investigation’s hypotheses regarded a prearranged poetry writing task—an event in
which participants were asked to write an American Haiku and told that their creations would be
judged by a group of talented poets. The participants were not informed of the nature of the task
prior to the event.
H1: It was expected that the investigation could identify and recruit unique items from
across two different measures of social anxiety and one measure of shyness by a crosswalk
procedure and be able to extract two oblique factors in a factor analysis. This finding would
establish instrumental support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the two factors: (1)
social anxiety and (2) shyness.
H2: It was asserted that an independent variable of “induced mindfulness” could be
manipulated through instruction to test its effect on the levels of creativity in the poetry writing
task. It was expected that participants receiving the instruction would exhibit higher levels of
creativity than those not receiving the instruction.
H3: It was expected that the participants’ levels of social anxiety would moderate the
effects of the “induced mindfulness” instruction. Specifically, whereas the group receiving the
instruction would exhibit increasing levels of creativity as social anxiety increased, the group not
receiving the instruction would exhibit decreasing levels of creativity as social anxiety increased.

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 21

Methods
Participants
A pilot study recruited 107 participants to help resolve questions about the choice of
appropriate survey items for measuring social anxiety. The pilot participants were all adult
undergraduates from the University of Southern California; they were recruited through USC’s
Psychology Department Subject Pool.
Following the pilot study, the principal investigation recruited a separate sample of 157
participants, 28 of whom also volunteered to participate in a second, experimental part of the
investigation for an extra incentive. All participants in the sample were currently attending or
had graduated from the University of Southern California. 153 were undergraduates, 2 were
graduate students, and 2 were alumni. 110 (70.1%) were female, 46 (29.3%) were male, and 1
(0.6%) declined to state. Participants ranged from 18-38 years of age, and the median age was
20. Of the 28 who volunteered to participate in the experimental part of the investigation, 25
were undergraduates, 2 were graduate students, and one was an alumnus; 17 (60.7%) were
female and 11 (39.3%) were male. They ranged from ages 18-30, with a median age of 20. 12 of
the students were recruited through USC’s Psychology Department Subject Pool, 11 were
recruited from summer psychology courses, and five additional participants emailed the
researcher in response to fliers posted around campus. Those who took part in the experimental
part of the investigation were compensated with cash ($10-$20) and/or subject pool credit or
extra credit in a particular class. The specific amount of offered compensation varied according
to the total amount of resources available as well as the minimum amount of money reasonably
necessary to attract participants at the time of recruitment.

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 22

Instruments and Materials
Social Anxiety/Shyness. A 7-item short form scale for measuring Social
Anxiety/Shyness was developed for this investigation. It was comprised of items and modified
from (1) the Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale (RCBS; Cheek & Buss, 1981; Cheek &
Melchoir, 1985) (2) the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS; Mattick & Clarke, 1998) and (3)
the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN; Connor et al., 2000). High levels of internal consistency have
been found for each of these scales. The respective alpha coefficients for the RCBS, the SIAS,
and the SPIN have been reported as .94, a range of .88-.94, and .82-.94 (Melchior & Cheek,
1990; Mattick & Clarke, 1998; Connor et al., 2000).
Self-Efficacy. The General Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995) is a 10-
item measure of personal confidence regarding one’s ability to deal with stressful situations.
Upon visual inspection of the scale, one item was eliminated due to the fact that it did not seem
have good content validity with the other items. The reported alpha coefficients for the scale
have ranged from .76-.90. The scale was not a component of the hypotheses but was included as
a set of distractor items in the survey instrument.
Relationships with Parents. The Remembered Relationship with Parents scale
(Denollet, Smolderen, van den Broek, & Pedersen, 2007) measures remembered parental
alienation and control. The scale includes two sets of the same 10 questions- one for each the
maternal and paternal relationships. The alpha coefficients for the two factors of the scale ranged
from .83-.86. The scale was not a component of the hypotheses but was included as another set
of distractor items in the survey instrument.
American Haiku Poetry Task. Each participant was provided a standard instruction
sheet that contained information about the general purpose of the study and the basic nature of
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 23

the poetry writing task (see Appendix A). The instructions informed the participants that their
haikus would be judged by a team of talented poets, a statement that was included in order to
make the effects of social anxiety as salient as possible. Each individual was provided a unique
identification number in case he/she wanted to follow up regarding his/her score. The
instructions also specified compensation, provided assurance of confidentiality, and offered
information whereby the participants could contact the principal investigator, her faculty advisor,
and/or the Institutional Review Board if they so desired.
In addition to the standard instructions noted above, there were two separate versions of
instructions provided on how to go about creating an American Haiku. The control condition
version (see Appendix B) presented a simple, brief description of the poetry form and line-by-
line instructions on how to write an American Haiku along with a sample poem for reference. A
second version (the induced mindfulness condition; see Appendix C) presented these same
instructions along with the specific prompt that, when composing the poem, one should pay
attention to his or her mood and use current emotions to guide their work.
The participants were provided a blank, 8.5x11 inch sheet of lined notebook paper as a
medium for creating the poem. After completing the haiku, they were administered a reflection
sheet that instructed them to describe how they felt upon being told that their haiku would be
“judged by a team of talented poets” (See Appendix D). The participants were also supplied a
standard No. 2 pencil with which to compose their haiku and offer their reflections.
Procedures
Pilot Study – Measurement of Social Anxiety. A crosswalk was performed by visually
inspecting the 57 combined original items from the Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale (20-
item), the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (20-item) and the Social Phobia Inventory (17-item).
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 24

A pilot study was executed using the 45 items that had been retained from the crosswalk. Each of
the retained items was unique; items were included only a single time in the new scale if they
were repeatedly found in more than one of the three original scales.
The pilot study was Internet based and employed Qualtrics survey software. Each
participant’s time-to-complete the survey was recorded and examined. This strategy was utilized
to help identify possible problems with some participants’ inattention to both the survey
instructions and the survey items themselves (i.e. basic non-compliance issues). The distribution
of participant completion lengths was wide; some lengths were observed to be outside normal
range. Participants who took unreasonably short or long amounts of time to complete the survey
were eliminated from the analysis. The same methodology was used for the principal
investigation, which also utilized Internet-based Qualtrics software. 107 participants were
retained for the pilot sample, and 157 participants were retained for the principal investigation
sample.
An exploratory factor analysis of the pilot data identified three dimensions of social
anxiety; each dimension was substantively interpretable. The dimensions included: (1) fear of
criticism/judgment, (2) somatic symptoms, and (3) lack of social confidence. The four highest-
loading items on each factor were selected to create a 12-item short-form questionnaire for social
anxiety.
Mundfrom, Shaw, and Tian (2005) suggested that a sample size of 110 participants
would be needed to reliably extract four or fewer factors from 28 or more variables. Since the
pilot sample for this investigation consisted of 107 participants, caution dictated that four factors
would be at the upper range of the number that could be reliably identified among the 45 items in
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 25

the data. However, extraction of more than three substantially interpretable factors from the set
of variables was not expected.
Principal Investigation. The principal investigation was primarily interested in
participant scores on the American Haiku creativity task and the Social Anxiety/Shyness Scale.
The creativity task will be explained below.
The Social Anxiety/Shyness Scale was initially comprised of the 12 social anxiety items
that had been identified in the pilot analysis. These 12 items were combined in a single survey
instrument along with multiple distractor items. Some of these items were newly constructed as
semantic-differential type items to break the pattern of other Likert type response sets in the
survey. Other items originated in the General Self-Efficacy Scale and the Remembered
Relationship with Parents Scale. Some demographic information was collected at the beginning
of the survey, and students were asked to provide their email address if they were interested in
participating in a second component of the study.
Experimental Component. Participants from the principal investigation sample who
volunteered to participate in the second, experimental part of the study were emailed and those
who responded were scheduled in 40 minute timeslots. Working around student schedules was
necessary in order to maximize participation. Because of this, some individuals came alone while
others were scheduled in groups of two or three participants. To try and offset this, the students
who participated with others were seated as far away as possible from one another. In these
group settings, as in the individual settings, each set of instructions was read out loud once by the
researcher as all participants in attendance followed along.
Upon arrival, each participant was presented with an information sheet and instructed to
follow along while the researcher read it out loud. One section of the information sheet notified
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 26

students that their haikus would be “judged by a team of talented poets.” A unique identification
number was subsequently provided in case students wanted to follow up with the researcher
regarding their poetry ratings.
Haiku instruction sheets were then handed out and read out loud by the researcher, while
students followed along. Consistent with Teresa Amabile’s procedures, both conditions received
line-by-line instructions about how to compose an American Haiku. Participants were required to
use the word “Spring” for the first and last lines of the haiku, leaving 3 lines to generate. They
were allowed to keep the haiku instruction sheets to reference while composing their poem; no
memorization was necessary. Each individual was given a pencil and a sheet of lined notebook
paper with an ID number in the corner, along with the reiterated instruction that they had 20
minutes to complete their poem. However, as stipulated, they were allowed to alert the
researcher if they were finished before the time was up. The researcher sat in at a table in corner
with her back to the student (s) working on a computer. 10-minute, 5-minute, and 1-minute
countdowns were announced, though the majority of students took less than half the time to
complete the task. After composing the poem, each participant was given a sheet of paper with
the typed, open-ended question: “How did the disclaimer that your haiku would be judged by a
team of talented poets affect you?” They were instructed to write as little or as much as they
wanted in their response. They were thanked for their time and accordingly compensated with
cash.
As part of their haiku instructions, individuals in the induced mindfulness condition were
given the verbal and written specification that poets use their inner feelings to guide their work
and that they should do the same. This special instruction was give twice—once before the
format of the haiku was explained and once after.
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 27

Poetry Judging Task
A recruitment email sent out by USC’s English department sought students who would
be interested in “assist[ing] with an important task in a psychological study.” The email briefly
explained the job and stated that judges would be paid 75 dollars for approximately three hours
of work. Four applicants were chosen from a pool of 15 interested candidates. The selected
judges were all published poets with extensive experience in reading and writing poetry. One
was a Creative Writing and Literature Ph.D. student who had previously received an MFA. The
other three were undergraduate creative writing majors, all of whom were editors of literary
magazines at USC.
After the selection process, a time and location for the judging session was set up
between the researcher and the selected applicants. Amabile’s procedures were followed as
closely as possible. The session began with approximately 10 minutes of training, during which
the basics of the poetry writing task and guidelines on how to judge the haikus were explained in
verbal and written form. Copies of the standard instruction sheet and the control version of the
haiku instruction sheet were provided to the judges, read out loud by the researcher, and left for
reference during the task.
The scoring sheets contained areas for each of Amabile’s five dimensions from her
“creativity” factor (creativity, novelty of word choice, originality of idea, sophistication, and
rhythm) with 25-point continuous scales for each dimension (see Appendix E). A sheet
containing verbatim definitions of these five dimensions was provided and displayed
prominently for reference during the task (see Appendix F). Each judge was to rate each haiku
on each of the five dimensions, thus using one sheet per poem. Judges were told that they were
allowed to mark an “X” anywhere along each continuous scale. They were instructed not to
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 28

discuss the poems during the task. Additionally, they were told rate the poems relative to one
another by reading all of the poems before judging. A sheet that reiterated all of these rules (and
included the researcher’s cell phone number with the instruction to call when done) was left for
the judges’ reference (see Appendix G). They were then presented with the anonymous (ID
numbered) haikus and left alone. The task took approximately 45 minutes, after which they
called the researcher to indicate that they were done. The materials were collected and the judges
were compensated in cash.
The four students were later contacted about judging the remaining 16 poems from the
study for compensation of $50 each. All agreed to do so, and another session was subsequently
arranged. The brief training for the second session followed the same methodology as the first.
However, this time, each judge was also provided with a 24-page, stapled packet containing 1)
copies of all 12 poems from the first session and 2) copies of their individually completed
judging sheets for each of those poems. Each criteria sheet was located behind the respective
poem for ease of reference. The judges were instructed to read through the packet of previously
evaluated poems, as well as the 16 new haikus, so that the new set could be rated relative to the
whole sample of poems.
Results
The results of this investigation suggest, first of all, that there are at least two separate
dimensions in the Social Anxiety spectrum: Social Anxiety vs. Shyness. This finding emerged
initially from a pilot study that examined 57 items from the Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness
Scale, the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, and the Social Phobia Inventory. Twelve items were
identified in that pilot to characterize differences in social anxiety in this college-student sample.
Following that, a factor analysis was executed with a different sample in the principal
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 29

investigation; this clarified the interrelationships among the items and provided support for the
belief that Social Anxiety is independent of Shyness. Secondly, the mindfulness induction
instruction was found to positively affect creativity. And lastly, though the moderating effect of
mindfulness induction on the relationship of creativity to social anxiety was not statistically
significant, there was a trend in the data that suggests the negative effects of increase in social
anxiety can be buffered and perhaps reversed by mindfulness techniques.
Pilot Study of the Measurement Model
125 individuals completed the pilot survey. Using the ideas explicated in the Methods
section (see above – Pilot Study—Measurement of Social Anxiety), it was determined that
participants could not have been reading and responding conscientiously if they took less than
2.5 minutes to complete the survey. Approximately 8% of the survey-takers were eliminated
from the lower bound using this figure. When the same 8% trimming objective was applied to
the upper bound, it was determined that 10 minutes represented the length of time beyond which
participants were not likely giving their full attention to the questionnaire. Therefore, participants
taking longer than 10 minutes were also eliminated as non-compliant.
An initial principal component, exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation was
executed across the 45 items, utilizing pairwise exclusion and an extraction criterion of
eigenvalues greater than one. Ten factors were extracted. However, the resulting rotated factor
structure did not align the variables into separate, interpretable dimensions. A scree plot of the
factor eigenvalues suggested that three to six factors might provide better solutions.
A three-factor principal component, exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation
was then executed across the 45 initial items, utilizing an extraction criterion that specified a
three factor solution. This three-factor rotated solution accounted for 47% of the variance
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 30

amongst all the variables. The factors were meaningful and conceptually consistent with the
following constructs: (1) fear of criticism/judgment, (2) somatic symptoms, and (3) lack of
confidence in social interactions. With this solution, a visual examination of the rotated factor
structure was conducted to identify which variables were most highly correlated with each factor
while simultaneously not correlated with the other two factors. The four best conforming
variables on each dimension that met these selection criteria were selected for further analysis.
Inter-item reliability analyses supported the expected convergent validity of the items on
each dimension. The four selected items that constitute Criticism Factors obtained a Cronbach’s
alpha of .80, the Somatic Responses items obtained a Cronach’s alpha .74, and Social
Interactions items obtained a Cronbach’s alpha of .73.
A principal component, exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation was executed
across the 12 selected items, utilizing pairwise exclusion and an extraction criterion of
eigenvalues greater than one. A three factor solution that accounted for 61% of the variance
amongst all 12 variables was obtained. Each factor in the rotated solution separately accounted
for approximately 20% of the variance amongst the 12 variables. The rotated factor solution,
with its manifest items and their loadings, is shown in Table 1. The rotated factor structure in the
pilot analysis emerged as expected, with one exception: the item, “I feel tense when I’m with
people I don’t know well,” was anticipated to primarily indicate Somatic Responses, but instead,
approached an equivalent indication of Social Interactions as well.
Principal Investigation of the Measurement Model
The compliance procedures for the principal investigation were determined by the first
wave of 166 participants. Those who took less than 4.5 minutes were believed to be non-
compliant. As such, approximately 8.5% of survey-takers were eliminated from the lower bound.
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 31

Using same standards for the upper bound, those taking over 15 minutes were also excluded.
This left the principal investigation with 139 participants. 21 additional participants were
obtained in a second wave of participant recruitment, three of whom were eliminated by the
established time-to-complete criteria. Of the total 187 volunteers, 30 were found to be non-
compliant according to these standards; 157 were retained.
A series of principal component, exploratory factor analyses with Varimax rotation were
executed across the 12 social anxiety items, utilizing pairwise exclusion. Several solutions were
examined with different trial numbers of factors. This examination determined that five of the
original 12 items were cross-loading across multiple factors. These cross-loading items were
removed from the analysis. Seven items were then entered into the final step of the analysis. A
principal component extraction method was again utilized, this time with an extraction criterion
of eigenvalues greater than one. Two factors were identified in this last step and analyzed via
Varimax rotation. The result was seen to approximate simple structure where there were no
strong cross-loading coefficients. All items in the scale exhibited high loadings on only one
factor with coefficients approaching zero on the other factor (see Table 2). The two dimensions
were characterized as measuring “Social Anxiety” (3 items) and “Shyness” (4 items). Their alpha
coefficients demonstrated high levels of internal consistency; for the 3-item Social Anxiety
dimension, the Cronbach’s alpha was .72 and the 4-item Shyness dimension yielded a
Cronbach’s alpha of .84. Factor scores for the two constructs, Social Anxiety vs. Shyness, were
then derived by calculating unity-weighted averages of the salient items on each of the factors.
Experimental Component in Mindfulness Induction
Consensual Assessment Technique. Scheduling conflicts prevented the judges from
being able to gather after the initial creativity scores were declared. Because of this, they were
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 32

unable to discuss discrepancies in their scoring and adjust scores where they thought appropriate
through consensual agreement. No scoring adjustments were made after the original judges’
scores were pronounced. Instead, the original scores were examined for inconsistencies. This
examination indicated that one judge’s set of scores differed from the other three; for this reason,
that judge’s scores were set aside. Inter-rater reliability analyses were then executed for each of
the five evaluation dimensions using the scores from the three remaining judges. The alpha
coefficients for Creativity, Novelty, Originality, Sophistication, and Rhythm were respectively
found to be .75, .64, .81, .61, and -.12. Because rhythm did not constitute a primary dimension in
the instructions for writing an American Haiku, rhythm was dropped as a characteristic of the
judging criteria. Average scores, across the three judges, were calculated for each dimension.
When Rhythm was excluded, Cronbach’s alpha for the remaining four, separately averaged
dimensions was .91. The four separate averages for Creativity, Novelty, Originality, and
Sophistication across the three judges’ scores were then summed to create an American Haiku
Total Creativity score for each participant.
Mindfulness Induction Effects. A hierarchical multiple regression was executed with
the American Haiku Total Creativity Score as the dependent variable to determine whether the
mindfulness induction instruction predicted levels of creativity. There were three steps in the
analysis: (1) levels of Mindfulness Induction entered as a single predictor, (2) levels of
Mindfulness Induction and Shyness entered as predictors, and (3) levels of Mindfulness
Induction, Shyness and Social Anxiety entered as predictors.
The results suggested that the first step was significant: F(1,26) = 5.01, p = .03, R
2
= .16.
The second step was marginally significant: F(2,25) = 2.86, p = .08, R
2
=.19. The third step was
not significant: F(3, 24) = 1.84, p = .17, R
2
= .19. In each step’s regression equation, the beta for
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 33

mindfulness induction levels was significant, with p values ranging from .04 to .03. The
standardized beta in each model approximated .4; thus holding all else constant, the change in
mindfulness induction increased units of creativity levels by .4. The findings suggest support for
the second hypothesis.
Mindfulness as a Moderator of Social Anxiety. A hierarchical multiple regression
analysis was executed with the American Haiku Total Creativity Score as the dependent variable
to determine whether the effect of Social Anxiety levels is moderated by levels of Mindfulness
Induction. First, both predictors were centered to their means as a precaution against potential
multicollinearity problems. Second, the interaction term was created by cross-multiplying the
mean-centered Social Anxiety and Mindfulness Induction scores. Lastly, a hierarchical multiple
regression was executed with three steps in the analysis: (1) levels of Mindfulness Induction
entered as a single predictor, (2) levels of Mindfulness Induction and Social Anxiety entered as
predictors, and (3) levels of Mindfulness Induction, Social Anxiety, and the cross-multiplied
interaction term entered as predictors.
The results suggested that the first step was significant: F(1,26) = 5.01, p = .03, R
2
= .16.
The second step was not significant: F(2,25) = 2.41, p = .11, R
2
=.16. The third step showed that
the overall model was marginally significant: F(3, 24) = 2.31, p = .10, R
2
= .22. The beta for the
interaction term failed to achieve significance on its own (p = .18). However, it did act as a
suppressor to elevate the contribution of social anxiety; this is one explanation for why the
overall model improved. At each step, only the beta for mindfulness induction instruction was
significant, with p values ranging from .04 to .03. The standardized beta in each model
approximated .4. A suggestion of support for the hypothesis can be found in graphing the
relationships (see Figure 1). One can see trends in the figure that show that, in the presence of the
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 34

mindfulness instruction, increases in social anxiety were related to increases in creativity. When
there was no mindfulness instruction, increases in social anxiety were related to decreases in
creativity. The findings do not suggest support for the third hypothesis; ; however, the figure
indicates trends that may become significant in larger samples where there would be greater
power to find significance.
Post Hoc. The following analysis was not an a priori hypothesis. Instead it was
implemented as a post hoc notion to examine whether shyness is moderated differently by
mindfulness induction than that which was seen with social anxiety. A hierarchical multiple
regression analysis was executed with the American Haiku Total Creativity Score as the
dependent variable to determine whether the effect of Shyness levels is moderated by levels of
Mindfulness Induction. First, both predictors were centered to their means as a precaution
against potential multicollinearity problems. Second, the interaction term was created by cross-
multiplying the mean-centered Shyness and Mindfulness Induction scores. Lastly, a hierarchical
multiple regression was executed with three steps in the analysis: (1) levels of Mindfulness
Induction entered as a single predictor, (2) levels of Mindfulness Induction and Shyness entered
as predictors, and (3) levels of Mindfulness Induction, Shyness, and the cross multiplied
interaction term entered as predictors.
As expected from the analyses above, the results suggested that the first step was
significant: F(1,26) = 5.01, p = .03, R
2
= .16. The second step was marginally significant: F(2,25)
= 2.87, p = .08, R
2
=.19. The third step showed that the overall model was not significant: F(3,
24) = 1.88, p = .16, R
2
= .19. As before, at each step, only the beta for mindfulness induction
instruction was significant, with p values ranging from .04 to .03. The standardized beta in each
model approximated .4. A suggestion that shyness may interact differently with mindfulness
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 35

induction can be found in graphing the relationships (see figure 2). One can see trends in the
different figures that show, whereas with increases in social anxiety, the relationship with
creativity changed direction depending on whether mindfulness was induced or not, but with
increases in shyness, the relationship remained parallel.
The findings of this post hoc analysis do not suggest significant differences. Nonetheless,
the trends in the data provide further support for the idea that shyness and social anxiety are
separate constructs.
Reflection Responses
A qualitative analysis was executed on the reflective responses written by the
experimental participants. The number of words written, statements mentioning the anonymous
nature of the task, self-critical statements, and statements regarding the subjectivity of the task
were visually examined with regards to condition and social anxiety grouping. Separate
independent sample t-tests were employed to aid with observations. The most striking finding
was that almost half of the participants in the induced mindfulness condition (43%) made
statements about the subjective nature of poetry (one illustrative example was “I wrote about the
way that I think about spring, so I think that has to do more with my opinion than theirs”), while
none of the participants in the control condition made similar assertions. The other examined
variables did not appear to be significantly different with regards to either condition or social
anxiety grouping.
Discussion
The hypotheses of the investigation were not fully supported, but even where they were
not, there were interesting indications that supported the direction of the hypotheses.
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 36

The results supported the expectation that social anxiety and shyness are, indeed,
independent but related constructs. A commonly held belief in the literature is that there exists
one continuous dimension on which social anxiety represents an extreme form of shyness. The
present investigation supports the notion that the two constructs are qualitatively different, a
finding which is in line with the work of Heiser et al. (2009). This idea was further supported
upon the examination of figures 1 and 2. Though neither graph was significant, a visual
comparison indicated that social anxiety and shyness may interact with mindfulness induction in
different ways. Future work may be able to establish significant support for this interpretation.
It is important to note that, in the exploratory factor analyses, there were some indications
of the three factors extracted from the pilot study. However, a three-factor structure presented as
unwieldy and difficult to substantially interpret because of the cross-loadings. A two-factor
model made far more sense. However, it is worth considering the potential existence of this
three-factor model in future work.
As hypothesized, mindfulness induction predicted increased levels of creativity. Taking
into account that the present induction was brief and subtle, it would be interesting to utilize a
more involved mindfulness induction strategy-- the archetypal 10-minute mindfulness meditation
tape employed by Zabelina et al. (2011), for example-- in future studies. Based upon the results
of the present investigation, one would expect to find an even stronger relationship between
mindfulness induction and creative performance in the presence of a more intensive
manipulation.
Though the findings pertaining to the third hypothesis were not significant, figure 1
indicates a trend that could conceivably be supported in the context of a larger sample. The
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 37

current sample size was smaller than desired, so the power to detect the effect was low. Further
studies are needed to determine whether the trend could be meaningful.
One explanation for the findings relates to the fact that college students as a whole would
be expected to experience a high amount of stimulation and stress on a daily basis. Perhaps, in
the mindfulness induction helped participants cope with their anxiety and relax enough to focus
on the task, regardless of social anxiety level. Results from the participants’ reflection sheets
partially reflect this. All of those in the induced mindfulness condition who mentioned the
subjective nature of poetry concurrently expressed less stress over the judgmental aspect of the
task. The psychodynamic concept of sublimating psychic conflict through creativity may also be
applicable in the context of the anxiety caused by everyday stress. The inclusion of a measure of
general stress and anxiety experienced on a daily basis would be helpful in future research.
Limitations
The most significant limitation in this investigation involved the difficulty of recruiting
participants for the experimental component. Ideally, a sufficient number of participants would
have been recruited so as to allow for the experimental isolation of those who scored particularly
high or particularly low in social anxiety. Since the experimental investigation was only able to
recruit 28 participants due to limited time and resources, every participant’s data was needed to
conduct an acceptable analysis.
Another issue relating to the difficulty of obtaining participants for the American Haiku
task was that some individuals participated alone and some participated with one or two other
people. In an ideal situation, especially considering the nature of the constructs being studied,
group size would have been controlled. However, in order to be able to work with the low
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 38

response rate, it was necessary to be flexible in accommodating everyone who expressed interest;
this involved working around specific schedules.
Though the exclusion of rhythm could be perceived as a limitation, it makes some sense
that the alpha coefficient of rhythm prevented its use in the analysis. When Amabile was
developing the consensual assessment technique for verbal creativity, rhythm was the lowest
loading of the five “creativity cluster” dimensions (Amabile, Goldfarb, & Brackfield, 1990).
Given the simple and highly guided structure of the American Haiku, the inclusion of rhythm as
an important aspect of creativity did not make sense. The choice to exclude it thus seems
justifiable. In future research, it would be prudent to use items from Amabile’s style and
technical clusters for the sake of factor comparison.

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 39

References
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SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 47

Table 1.
Rotated factor structure of 12-item pilot-study measurement of Social Anxiety.

Items
Social Anxiety
Criticism Somatic Interactions
I am afraid of people in authority .586 .362
Being criticized scares me a lot .842
I would do anything to avoid being criticized .857
Being embarrassed or looking stupid are among my worst fears .703
I feel tense when I’m with people I don’t know well .522 .479
I am tense while mixing in a group .737 .300
Heart palpitations bother me when I am around people .681
Trembling or shaking in front of others is distressing to me .791
I am at ease meeting people at parties, etc. .809
I do not find it hard to talk to strangers .628
I am usually a person who initiates conversation .736
I feel relaxed even in unfamiliar social situations .363 .701

Note: The factor structure in this table was obtained by a Principal Component exploratory factor analysis with
Varimax rotation. All unrepresented loadings are less than .30 absolute value.
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 48

Table 2. Factor structure of the Social Anxiety/Shyness scale

Items Social Anxiety Shyness
Being criticized scares me a lot .842
I would do anything to avoid being criticized .853
I am afraid of people in authority .665
I am at ease meeting people at parties, etc. .848
I do not find it hard to talk to strangers .808
I am usually a person who initiates conversation .839
I feel relaxed even in unfamiliar social situations .764

Note: All missing loadings are smaller than .3 as an absolute value.

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 49

Figure 1. Relationship between creativity and social anxiety in the mindfulness induction
condition (2) versus the control condition (1)

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 50

Figure 1. Relationship between creativity and shyness in the mindfulness induction condition (2)
versus the control condition (1)

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 51

Appendix A

University of Southern California
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
Department of Psychology

INFORMATION/FACTS SHEET FOR NON-MEDICAL
RESEARCH

PERSPECTIVES ON THE SOCIAL SELF

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The investigation is being conducted in order to examine the effects of various social
characteristics and influences on verbal creative output. It is being conducted as part of a thesis
for the Master of Arts in Psychological Science program.

PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT

Each participant will be asked to compose a certain type of poem called an “American Haiku.”
Both verbal and written instructions about how to compose an American Haiku will be given
immediately prior to the task. Subsequently, each student will be allotted 20 minutes to compose
his or her poem. During this process, the participants will not be recorded by camera or by audio
recorder in any manner. The only record of the event will be the completed poem. The composer
of each haiku will remain confidential. Only a randomly generated identification number will
used to identify the author. Each haiku will be judged by a team of talented poets. Participants
will be able to follow-up and obtain the judges’ comments on the poem by tracking the randomly
generated identification number. Your identification number is [insert identification number].

PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION

Each student will be granted one credit for participation in the USC Psychology Subject Pool.
Additionally each participant will be entered into a lottery to win one USC Bookstore gift
certificate in the amount of one hundred dollars. The winner of the gift certificate will be notified
via e-mail by 6pm on Tuesday April 30
th
and, depending on the preference of the winner, will be
personally delivered by the primary investigator. [*]

[*Compensation differed for each wave of participants. This is the compensation from the first
wave]

CONFIDENTIALITY
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 52

There will be no identifiable information obtained in connection with this study. No personal
details will be collected from you.

The members of the research team and the University of Southern California’s Human Subjects
Protection Program (HSPP) may access the data.

The HSPP reviews and monitors research studies to protect the rights and welfare of research
subjects.

INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION

Principal Investigator:
Sophia Rabiee
913-271-2100
rabiee@usc.edu

Faculty Advisor:
Dr. William Breland
805-985-0676
wbreland@usc.edu

IRB CONTACT INFORMATION

University Park IRB, 3720 South Flower Street #301, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0702, (213) 821-
5272 or upirb@usc.edu

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 53

Appendix B

THE AMERICAN HAIKU
Definition
A simplified form of unrhymed poetry consisting of 5 lines

Structure
Line 1: A single noun
*For your haiku, please use the word “Spring”*
Line 2: Two adjectives describing the noun
Line 3: Three verb forms relating to the noun
Line 4: Any number of words (a phrase or sentence about the noun)
Line 5: Repeat the single noun of Line 1

Sample poem
Spring
Glorious green
Melt forgive renew
She opens her palms again
Spring

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 54

Appendix C

I would like you to write a special type of poem today—it’s called an “American Haiku” and it
has a unique form. While you are composing your poem, I want you to keep in mind that poetry
is a mode of personal expression. Poets use their inner feelings to guide their work. Keeping this
in mind, be aware of your feelings as you write your poem and try to express the way you are
feeling right now.
THE AMERICAN HAIKU
Definition
A simplified form of unrhymed poetry consisting of 5 lines

Structure
Line 1: A single noun
*For your haiku, please use the word “Spring”*
Line 2: Two adjectives describing the noun
Line 3: Three verb forms relating to the noun
Line 4: Any number of words (a phrase or sentence about the noun)
Line 5: Repeat the single noun of Line 1

Sample poem
Spring
Glorious green
Melt forgive renew
She opens her palms again
Spring

Remember... Poetry is a mode of expression, and poets use their inner feelings to guide their
work. Be aware of the way you are feeling right now and try to express this through your poem.

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 55

Appendix D

ID #: [insert identification number]

How did the disclaimer that your haiku would be judged by a team of talented poets affect you?

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 56

Appendix E
Poem ID #: _____

Creativity:
| - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - |
Low Medium High

Novelty of word choice:
| - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - |
Low Medium High

Originality of idea:
| - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - |
Low Medium High

Sophistication:
| - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - |
Low Medium High

Rhythm:
| - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - | - - - - - |
Low Medium High
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 57

Appendix F
Definitions of Dimensions

Creativity:
The degree to which the poem is creative, using your own
subjective definition of creativity

Novelty of word choice:
The degree to which the word choice is novel

Originality of idea:
The degree to which the thematic idea is original

Sophistication:
The degree to which the expression of the poem is
sophisticated

Rhythm:
The degree to which rhythm is used effectively in the
poem

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 58

Appendix G
Notes:
-Please do not discuss the poems or the judging task until the session is completed.
-Please judge the poems relative to one another rather than on an absolute scale. To achieve this,
please read all through all the poems before making any judgments.
-Call Sophia at 913-271-2100 with any questions.

SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 59

Author’s Note:
The following notes regard the Remembered Relationship with Parents (RRP10) and the
General Self-Efficacy (GSE) scales. There were no a priori hypotheses regarding these scales,
but the researcher was interested in examining their structure and relationship to social anxiety.
The conclusions do not fit into the structure of this thesis, but the exploration proved interesting
and noteworthy
In a confirmatory factor analysis, a six factor simple structure model proved to be the best
fitting model for the RRP10 scale. The six factors were: (1) guilt from father, (2) guilt from
mother, (3) overprotective father, (4) overprotective mother, (5) distance from father, (6)
distance from mother. Each factor demonstrated a high level of internal consistency. The
discovery of these six factors is particularly interesting in light of the fact that the RRP10 was
originally developed as a 2-factor model measuring alienation and control (Denollet et al., 2007).
A regression analysis was executed to examine which dimensions of Relations with
Parents might predict Social Anxiety. All six dimensions of Relations with Parents were entered
into the analysis. The model was significant, F(6, 142) = 4.43, p < .001, with the predictors
accounting for 16% of the variance. Only Guilt.Father (p = .03), Distant.Father (p = .01), and
Guilt.Mother (p<.001) were significant predictors in the model. The standardized betas were:
Guilt.Father, β = -.27; Distant.Father, β = .33; and Guilt.Mother, β = .42. This suggests that as
guilt-from-fathers increases (holding the other predictors constant) then social anxiety decreases.
On the other hand, as distance-from-fathers and guilt-from-mothers increase (separately
considered as other predictors are held constant), then social anxiety increases.
A regression analysis was executed to examine which dimensions of Relations with
Parents might predict Shyness. All six dimensions of Relations with Parents were entered into
SOCIAL ANXIETY AND VERBAL CREATIVITY 60

the analysis. The model was significant, F(6, 143) = 4.43, p = .04, with the predictors accounting
for 9% of the variance. Only Distant.Mother (p = .02) was a significant predictor in the model.
However, Overprotect.Mother as marginally significant (p = .09). The standardized betas were:
Distant.Mother, β = .26; and Overprotect.Mother, β = -.19. This suggests that as distance-from-
mothers increases (holding the other predictors constant) then shyness increases. On the other
hand, as overprotection-from-mothers increases (holding the other predictors constant), then
shyness decreases.
A regression analysis was executed to examine which dimensions of Relations with
Parents might predict General Self-Efficacy. All six dimensions of Relations with Parents were
entered into the analysis. The model was not significant, F(6, 141) = .52, p = .80. This suggests
that the six dimensions of Relations with Parents are all unrelated to self-efficacy.
For each of these analyses, multicollinearity diagnostics were executed. There were no
indications of problems for any of the analysis. The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) coefficients
for the six predictors ranged from 1.9 to 2.6 for both Social Anxiety and Shyness and 1.9 to 2.7
for General Self-Efficacy. In each case, the residuals were plotted against normality percentiles
to check for violations of the regression assumptions of residual normality and no violations
were apparent in any of the three analyses.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract There is a distinct lack of literature regarding the relationship between anxiety disorders and creativity. This investigation explored how levels of social anxiety related to creativity in the context of a mindfulness induction. It was hypothesized that (1) social anxiety and shyness would be two independent constructs, (2) a brief mindfulness induction would increase scores on a verbal creativity task, and (3) those in the induced mindfulness condition would display increasing levels creativity as social anxiety increased, while those in the control condition would display decreasing levels of creativity as social anxiety increased. Evidence supported the first two hypotheses. Support was not found for the third hypothesis, but trends in the elicited graphs indicated that future studies with larger samples may produce significant results that support the model.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Rabiee, Sophia J. (author)

Core Title The relationship between social anxiety and verbal creativity in the context of induced mindfulness

School College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Psychology

Publication Date 08/07/2014

Defense Date 08/07/2014

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag creativity,mindfulness,OAI-PMH Harvest,shyness,social anxiety

Format application/pdf (imt)

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Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Breland, William M. (committee chair), John, Richard S. (committee chair), Farver, Jo Ann M. (committee member), Walsh, David A. (committee member)

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Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-455692

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