Frenzy: A psychological distance account of rumination, mood, and creativity

Abstract

A reflective style of ruminative response to negative mood, as opposed to a brooding style, is linked to creativity (Verhaeghen, Joormann, & Aikman, 2014), especially when indecision is high (Cohen & Ferrari, 2010). In order to examine potential links between creativity and styles of ruminative response to positive mood (Feldman, Joormann, & Johnson, 2007), I adapted the Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS; Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991)--a widely used measure of negative mood responses--to address positive mood responses (Positive Rumination Scale; PRS). Following tenets of psychological self-distance theory (Ayduk and Kross, 2008), I characterized Reflection and Brooding styles of negative mood response on the RRS as self-distant and self-immersed, respectively, and I characterized Interpreting and Basking (Martin & Tesser, 1996) styles of positive mood response on the PRS as self-distant and self-immersed, respectively. Whereas previous researchers found that a self-distanced response to negative mood predicts creativity, only a self-immersed response to positive mood predicted creativity when indecision was high in the present sample.