Human systems are changing rapidly and entering novel, complex futures. Human resource personnel must evolve new understandings of problem-solving and holistic methods of analytical and creative problem-solving to deal with future, unique, and uncertain problems which are not manageable with problem-solving strategies that have worked well in the past. / This study tested the effects of Problem-Solving Strategy and Outcome Expectancy Cueing on creative task performance within a 3 x 2 fixed-effects, post-test only factorial design with a sample of 222 undergraduate business students. Three strategy levels were operationalized: Creative-Imaginal, Analytical, and Non-Treatment Control groups. Two levels of Outcome Expectancy were used: Specific Answer Expectancy and Non-Specific Answer Expectancy related to tasks subjects undertook. Five performance outcomes were extracted from three performance tasks: ideational fluency (two measures), flexibility, originality, and convergent production. The Alternative Uses Test (SPS, 1985), the Paired Identification Task, and an Analogy Task comprised the instrumentation set. / MANOVA, Two-Way Analysis of Variance, Bonferroni and Newman-Keuls post hoc tests, and correlational methods were used to evaluate performance outcomes. Results suggest that subjects cued to use a Creative problem-solving strategy performed significantly better on divergent tasks than Analytical or control group subjects. No significant difference was found between strategy groups on the Analogy Task. Outcome Expectancy had minimal impact on performance except in significant interaction effects with the Creative strategy on two divergent outcomes. Strong, positive correlations were found between the divergent outcomes, although the association between divergent and convergent outcomes remains unclear. Results suggest that congruence between one's problem-solving strategy and the nature of a problem tends to increase problem-solving performance. It appears that cognitive and contextual sets can and do influence task performance. Implications are specified for research in problem-solving and creativity, training and therapy, and problem-solving theory. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1711. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76134 |
| Contributors | MADDOX, E. NICHOLAS., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 371 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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