Psychological Reports, 1996,79,51-56. 0 Psychological Reports 1996

LONELINESS AND CREATIVITY IN ADOLESCENTS '

NOREEN E. MAHON THOMAS J. YARCHESKI

College of Nursing Deparfment of Professional Management Rufgers, The State University of New Jersey Sf . Thomas Universify

ADELA YARCHESKI

College of Nursing Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Surnmay.-Samples of 107 early, 81 middle, and 112 late adolescents responded to the UCLA Loneliness Scale and The Creativity Scale of the Adjective Check List. Contrary to the hypothesized direction, statistically significant inverse correlations (-.I9 to -.33) were Found between scores on measures of loneliness and creativity in all chree adolescent samples. Findings are interpreted within the conceptualizations in which the relationship between Ionelmess and creativity were proposed.

Prominent writers on loneliness have put forth theoretical propositions suggesting a positive relationship between loneliness and creativity. As early as 1959, Frornrn-Reichmann briefly discussed the relationship between con- structive loneliness and creativity, indicating that creative persons may be lonely during their involvement in the creative processes and that loneliness may continue until their creative works are accepted by others. For Fromm- Reichmann, constructive loneliness is often temporary, possibly voluntary, and clearly different than the disintegrative loneliness of the mentally ill. Ln her dscussion, Fromrn-Reichmann sometimes used the concepts of construc- tive loneliness and constructive aloneness interchangeably. When discussing the experience of lonehess, Moustakas (1961) suggested that loneliness per se is a creative experience (p. 43) and then stated that "the creative person must ohen experience a desolate and lonely existence" (p. 44). Hartog (1980) theorized that one type of voluntary loneliness contributed to the cre- ative process, and he further stated that both lonehess and creativity con- tain a quahty of expectation and anticipation. Hartog, however, does not provide a cogent explanation for the relationship between lonehess and cre- ativity, and he also used the rerms of both voluntary solitude and voluntary loneliness as necessary for some h d s of creative work (pp. 23-24). Sadler and Johnson (1980) suggested that some forms of loneliness can be a stimu- lus to creativity (p. 35). They viewed loneliness as a universal experience that

'Please address correspondence to Noreen E. Mahon, 97 West llch Street, Bayonne, New Jersey 07002. e-mad: Mahon@nightingale.rutgers.edu

52 N. E. MAHON, ET AL.

is sometimes "a healthy indicator of human lunitations" (p. 57) , and they indicated that anecdotal evidence suggested that lonehess can be a source of creativity. In his thesis on the relationship between lonehess and creativ- ity, Landau (1980) emphatically stated that "loneliness is, or can be, an im- portant ally. . . to all creative people, and to the creative process in general" (p. 486).

Several authors who write about creativity also have expounded on the positive relationship between creativity and loneliness. Niederland (1976) sug- gested that creativity is a solitary activity and, as such, engenders some lone- liness. He indicated that creative people withdraw from complex emotional involvements with the external world and thus are prone to experiencing loneliness. Tick (1988) explicitly stated that "the creative person must strug- gle with loneliness as an a priori condition of creativity" (p. 131), meaning that to be creative, people must first experience lonehess. He added that creative individuals must learn to manage loneliness so they do not embitter their creativity. When discussing the roots of creativity, Shainess (1989) clear- ly expressed the notion that, early in Me, individuals must develop the ca- pacity to tolerate aloneness and loneliness to realize their creative potential.

Although the causal order of the concepts across the above theoretical propositions varies, it is clear that lonehess and creativity are strongly M - ed in the literature. Moreover, the direction of the relationship proposed is consistently positive; that is, individuals who experience greater loneliness are more creative or vice versa. For the most part, authors cited in the above literature focus on the concept of lonehess in relation to creativity. Al- though they occasionally introduce other terms for lonehess such as soli- tude (Hartog, 1980) and aloneness (Fromm-Reichmann, 1959), l o n h e s s is clearly the dominant concept discussed relative to creativity.

Several researchers suggested that lonehess is a serious and pervasive problem during adolescence (Brennan, 1982; Ostrov & Offer, 1980) when there is an extensive reorganization of the affective system of attachment with significant others (Weiss, 1973). LLkewise, Shaw (1981) suggested that creativity flourishes during adolescence, when youngsters begin to imagine and crystallize their future careers and Me goals. Surprisingly, however, re- searchers have not examined the relationship between lonehess and creativ- ity in adolescents. The intent of this study is to examine this relationship in early, middle, and late adolescents since research suggested that lonehess varies across the three phases of adolescent development (Mahon, 1983; Mar- coen, Goossens, & Caes, 1987). Based on the theoretical propositions stated above, a positive relationship was hypothesized between loneltness and cre- ativity in all three samples.

LONELINESS AND CREATMTY IN ADOLESCENTS 53

METHOD

Sample All three samples of adolescents participated in a larger study in which

the present data were collected (Yarcheslu & Mahon, 1995). Completed data for both loneliness and creativity were available for 107 early, 81 mid- dle, and 112 late adolescents. The sample of early adolescents included 55 boys and 52 girls 12 to 14 years of age ( M = 13.06, SD= .63); 79 students were Caucasian, while the remaining 28 represented varied minority groups. The sample of middle adolescents included 30 boys and 51 girls 15 to 17 years of age ( M = 15.98, SD= .77); 66 students were Caucasian, while the re- maining 15 represented varied minority groups. The sample of late adoles- cents, who were college students, included 56 men and 56 women 18 to 21 years of age (M=20.03, SD= .91); 74 students were Caucasian, while the re- maining 38 represented varied minority groups.

Scales The UCLA Lonehess Scale is a 20-item summated rating scale that

measures the subjective experience of loneliness (Russell, Peplau, & Cut- rona, 1980). Scores can range from 20 to 80 with higher scores indcating greater loneliness. Evidence of concurrent and discriminant v&dity has been reported for college students (Russell, et al., 1980). Construct validity has been established on the instrument for early adolescents (Mahon & Yar- cheski, 1990) and for adolescents aged 12 to 21 years (Mahon, Yarcheski, & Yarcheski, 1995). Acceptable alpha reliabhties ( > .80) have been reported for a variety of adolescent samples (Mahon, 1994; Mahon & Yarchesh, 1990, 1992; Mahon, et al., 1995). In this study, the coefficients alpha were 39 , .88, and .90 for early, middle, and late adolescents, respectively.

The Creativity Scale of the Adjective Check List was used as a measure of creativity (Gough & Heilbrun, 1983). The scale measures the extent to which individuals describe thelnselves as possessing characteristics indicative of creativity such as imaginative and complicated. Yonge (1975) extracted the 19-item scale for creativity from the Adjective Check List. Yarcheski and Mahon (1991) deleted two adjectives, cynical and unconventional, based on expert opinion that most early adolescents would not comprehend their meaning. For purposes of consistency, these two adjectives were deleted from the present analysis for all three samples. Scores on the scale can range from O to 17 with higher scores in&cating more creativity. Construct v&dity has been reported by Yonge (1975), who also reported a KR-21 reliabhty of .83 among college students. Yarcheslu and Mahon (1991) reported KR-20 reliabihties of .70, .78, and .80 for early, middle, and late adolescents, re- spectively. The KR-20s for early, middle, and late adolescents in this study were .70, .76, and .80, respectively.

54 N. E. MAHON, ET AL

Procedure Samphng took place in Grades 7 and 8 of an urban elementary school

and Grades 10 through 12 of a high school system. A state university pro- vided the sample of late adolescents. Parental consent was obtained for par- ticipating elementary and high school students, and students agreeing to par- ticipate signed a written informed consent. Subjects completed the instru- ments and a demographic data sheet in classrooms.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 1 presents the Pearson product-moment coefficients between

scores on the loneliness and creativity measures for early, middle, and late adolescents. Because all of the correlations between scores on lonehess and creativity measures were inversely related, none of the hypotheses was sup- ported in any of the three samples. Of note, however, the correlations were weak to moderate in magnitude though statistically significant ( p < .05) be- tween the two sets of scores in the early ( r = -.22), middle ( r = -.19), and late (r = - 3 3 ) adolescent samples.

TABLE 1 P m n s o ~ COWIAT~ONS: SCORES ON THE UCLA LONELINESS SCALE WITH THE

CFWATMTY SCALE FOR 107 EARLY. 81 MIDDLE. AND 112 LATE ADOLESCENTS

Measure Creativitv . . -. - - . --- - - -

Early Adolescenrs Middle Adolescents Late Adolescents r 34 SD r M SD r M SD

Lonehess -.22* 37.01 10.38 -.19* 35.31 9.68 -.33t 35.59 9.45 Creativitv 8.10 3.22 8.23 3.61 9.23 4.04

"For a one-tailed test of signzicance: p< .05. t p < .O1.

In the present study, loneliness was measured by the UCLA Loneliness Scale which operationalized loneliness defined as a general, global, and sub- jective experience (Russell, et a/ . , 19801, which is probably due to a deficit in meaningful relationships (Sisenwein, 1964). These views of loneliness proba- bly fit most of the conceptualizations of loneliness mentioned earlier from which the propositions and subsequent hypotheses tested regarding loneli- ness and creativity were derived (Landau, 1980; Moustakas, 1961; Nieder- land, 1976; Shainess, 1989; Tick, 1988). Therefore, the positive relationship expressed between loneliness and creativity in the work of Landau (1980), Moustakas (1961), Niederland (19761, Shainess (19891, and Tick (1988) needs to be rethought and evaluated by researchers in light of the inverse relation- ships found between loneliness and creativity in early, middle, and late ado- lescents in the present study.

Sadler and Johnson (1980) suggested that some forms of loneliness fos- ter creativity, but they did not make clear what constitutes these forms of

LONELINESS AND CREATMTY IN ADOLESCENTS 55

lonehess. Therefore, it is unclear whether or not the UCLA L o n h e s s Scale measured loneliness as viewed by these authors. Also, it is questionable whether the UCLA Lonehess Scale measured voluntary or constructive lone- h e s s as discussed by Fromm-Reichmann (1959) and Hartog (1980). Clearly, however, the instrument used to measure lonehess in the present study did not measure constructive aloneness or voluntary solitude, terms sometimes used interchangeably with lonehess by either Frornm-Reichmann (1959) or Hartog (1980). A number of authors have emphasized that lonehess is not synonymous with either aloneness (Peplau & Perlman, 1982; Moustakas, 1972) or solitude (Moustakas, 1972; Rubenstein & Shaver, 1982). Thus, it is altogether possible that the concepts of either aloneness or solitude would be positively related to lonehess. Researchers need to study these relation- ships using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Clearly, the present findings indlcate that early, middle, and especially late adolescents who score higher on loneliness have lower scores on creativ- ity, or conversely the findings indicate that early, middle, and especially late adolescents who score higher on creativity have lower scores on lonehess. From the perspective of loneliness, it is possible that the perceptual and mo- tivational energies of lonely adolescents are organized in the service of find- ing remedles for their lonehess, as suggested by Weiss (1973), leaving little time and energy for them to cultivate creative characteristics. From the per- spective of creativity, adolescents who rate themselves h ~ g h on creative char- acteristics do not, as suggested by Niederland (19761, w~thdraw from com- plex emotional involvements with the external world; rather they may have the emotional and social relationships necessary to offset lonehess. Because the present findings were contrary to expectation, they need to be replicated in adolescents and in other age groups.

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Accepted May S, 1996.