The Role of Individual Values and Motivation in Creative Behavior in Micro-Domains of Literary Creativity: Prose and Poetry Writing

Abstract

According to the scientific literature on writing, poetry and prose have their own distinct characteristics. We suppose, therefore, that the value-motivational basis for being creatively active is specific and different for poetry and prose writers. On the basis of existing studies on individual values, motivation types and creative behavior, we build hypotheses about their interrelations, specifying the differences between poetry and prose writing. The research was an empirical correlational study using questionnaires for data gathering: the revised PVQ-R of Schwartz, the authors’ questionnaire to measure frequency of creative behavior and a questionnaire on the motivation of creative behavior developed on the basis of Deci and Ryan's CBI questionnaire. The sample includes 240 representatives of “little creativity”, those involved in the non-professional writing of poetry or prose during the previous year (2016). The results show that poets and prose writers have differences in values and their relations to specific creative behavior in micro-domains of literary creativity. We also found a positive relationship between specific motivation types and the main creative behavior. We identified the mediating role of autonomous motivation between values and creativity in the poets’ group. This research demonstrates that there is sense in the division of creativity into domains and micro-domains as there are differences in the values and motivation types related to creative activities in micro-domains.

Keywords: creativity, micro-domains of creativity, poetry, prose, individual values, motivation

JEL Classification: Z