Publication Date

4-1986

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Doris Redfield, Carl Martray, Robert Simpson

Degree Program

Department of Psychology

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare oral and written expressions of creative thinking which took the form of prose, e.g. stories. The Prose Quantification System (PQS) was the instrument of comparison. The PQS is an instrument developed to predict teachers' ratings of the creative quality of written prose. The study investigated the following: (a) interjudge agreement and intrajudge stability for oral and written stories, (b) Teacher Ratings of Story Creativity (TRSC) of oral and written stories, (c) alternate mode (i.e., oral vs. written) equivalence and (d) criterion validity of the PQS.

PQS story-starters (unfinished opening lines to a story) were administered to 87 fifth-grade students enrolled in four classes in two schools located in Nashville, Tennessee. Each student received two story-starters about the same content or object (i.e., box) but in different contexts (usual vs. unusual settings). Students were asked to complete one story orally and the other in written form.

Thus, a total of 174 stories were collected. The stories were then (a) blindly rated by eight teachers according to the creativity level of the stories using a seven point Likert Scale and (b) scored by five judges who were selftrained in the use of the PQS using the PQS Scoring Manual (Redfield and Martray, 1984b).

Interrater agreement and intrajudge stability were comouted using an average correlation coefficient and percent agreement, respectively. Both interrater agreement and intrajudge stability were computed separately for the oral and written language samples. Results indicated that the PQS for oral and written language samples, used by judges self-trained with the Scoring Manual, is reliable across judges and over specified periods of time.

Eight 2 x 2 x 2 ANOVAs were used to determine whether PQS judges and teachers allowed storv-starter context (usual vs. unusual setting), order of requested response (oral first vs. written first) and mode (oral vs. written) to influence their scores and ratings. Results indicated a main effect for mode for TRSC and the following PQS scores: elaboration, originality, organization, and total score. TRSC of written stories were significantly higher than TRSC of oral stories; PQS elaboration, organization and total scores of oral stories were significantly higher than PQS elaboration, organization and total scores of written stories; PQS originality scores for written stories were significantly higher than PQS originality scores for oral stories. ANOVAs indicated the following significant interaction effects: (a) PQS ideational fluency scores of written stories in a usual setting were significantly higher than PQS ideational fluency scores for oral stories in an unusual setting; (b) PQS associational fluency scores for written stories in an unusual setting were significantly higher than PQS associational fluency scores for oral stories in a usual or unusual setting and for written stories in a usual setting; and (c) PQS originality scores were significantly higher for written stories in either a usual or unusual setting than PQS originality scores for oral stories in a usual setting. Therefore, the PQS judges viewed the oral stories to be more creative overall than the written stories while the teachers viewed the written stories to be more creative overall than the oral stories.

Multiple regression analyses were used to investigate the relationship (a) between the PQS (subscale and total scores) and TRSC of oral stories and (b) between the PQS (subscale and total scores) and TRSC of written stories. These stepwise multiple regression ?rocedures indicated that PQS total scores of oral stories are the best predictors of oral TRSC and PQS total scores of written stories are the best predictors of written TRSC. Therefore, the PQS is an accurate predictor of TRSC of oral and written stories.

Results of this study indicated that (a) the PQS is a reliable instrument when used as a measure of the creative quality of oral and/or written language samples by judges self-trained with the PQS Scoring Manual, (b) oral and written expressions of creative thinking differ, and (c) the PQS is an accurate predictor of TRSC of oral and/or written stories. It is suggested that future research include (a) reexamination of alternate mode equivalence of the PQS and (b) investigation of the reliability of TPSC.

Disciplines

Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

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