Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2011
Capstone Advisor
Kevin S. Masters, Ph.D
Honors Reader
Leonard S. Newman, Ph.D
Capstone Major
Psychology
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
yes
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Subject Categories
Psychology | Social Psychology
Abstract
The relationship between creativity and overall health has not been widely examined, as researchers have previously focused mainly on the association between creativity and mental illness. Certain aspects of the creative personality (i.e. high physical energy, intelligence, passion, and self-discipline) may predict engagement in healthy behaviors. Creativity has been shown to positively relate to self-esteem, which also has been linked to general health. In addition, both athletes and creative individuals tend to experience flow. This study examined self-esteem and flow as possible mechanisms to partially account for the relationship between creativity and general health. Community participants (N = 83) completed self-report measures of creativity, flow, self-esteem, health behaviors, and general health and then wore an accelerometer for three consecutive days as an objective measure of physical activity. Path analysis was used to analyze relationships among variables. Results indicated that creativity and self-esteem were significantly positively related, with self-esteem also being related to general health and health practices. While flow and creativity were shown to be significantly and positively related, neither was related to objective
physical activity. Self-esteem in creative individuals served as a better predictor of health than the experience of flow. The results supported the hypothesis that creative individuals tend to exhibit high self-esteem, which predicts report of engagement in healthy behaviors and improvements in general health and health related quality of life.
Recommended Citation
Siwula, Molly, "Is Creativity Related to Physical Health? The Relationships Between Creativity, Flow, Self-Esteem, Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life" (2011). Honors Capstone Projects - All. 295.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/295
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
