More dialectical thinking, less creativity? The relationship between dialectical thinking style and creative personality: the case of China

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 9;10(4):e0122926. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122926. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

People use dialectical thinking to be holistic, reconcile contradictions, and emphasize changes when processing information and managing problems. Using a questionnaire survey, this study examined the relationship between dialectical thinking and creative personality in the Chinese culture, which encourages a holistic and collective thinking style. Undergraduates majoring in different subjects and adults in different professions were surveyed. The results showed that 1) compared with undergraduates majoring in art and adults from the design industry, undergraduates majoring in other disciplines significantly showed the least creative personality; 2) the highest score for dialectical thinking was found in the group of undergraduates who majored in other disciplines, followed by the adult group, and the undergraduates majoring in art had the lowest score; and 3) A negative relationship between dialectical thinking and creative personality was found mostly in the UMA group. The limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • China
  • Creativity*
  • Culture*
  • Humans
  • Personality / physiology*
  • Students
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Thinking / physiology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the 2011 youth research fund of social sciences and humanities sponsored by Chinese Ministry of Education, Grant number: 11YJC190031; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Grant number: 13wkpy39; and the 985-3 Research Program of Sun Yat-Sen University, Grant number: 90026-3284000. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.