Effects of Social Reinforcement Contingent on Conventional or Unconventional Responses on Generalized Creativity by Older Adults in Residential Care

• Published in: The Psychological record Vol. 62; no. 4; pp. 631 - 644
• Main Authors: Polenick, Courtney Allyn, Flora, Stephen Ray
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.10.2012; Southern Illinois University Carbondale; The Association for Behavior Analysis International; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult Learning; Adults; Age; Aging (Individuals); Assisted living facilities; Behavior; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Correlation; Creative Activities; Creativity; Data Collection; Elderly people; Environmental conditions; Generalization; Management; Nursing; Nursing Homes; Older Adults; Older people; Positive Reinforcement; Praise; Problem solving; Psychology; Quality of life; Reinforcement; Reinforcement (Psychology); Research Committees; Research Methodology; Residential Care; Responses; Social aspects; Social psychology; Social Reinforcement; Task Analysis; United States; older adults; learned industriousness theory; residential care; creativity; generalization; social reinforcement
• ISSN: 0033-2933; 2163-3452
• DOI: 10.1007/BF03395825

The effects of social praise contingent on either usual (conventional) or unusual (unconventional) responses during an object uses task were assessed on measures of generalized creativity in two novel, unrelated tasks. Participants were 20 older adults, ages 63 to 89 years ( M = 80.90), who were recruited from a joint skilled nursing and assisted living facility. In a counterbalanced within-subjects design, participants completed both experimental conditions across two sessions separated by 6 to 10 days. Consistent with learned industriousness theory, social praise contingent on unconventional responses during the initial task was associated with increases in both objective and subjective measures of creativity in subsequent tasks. These findings indicate that social praise contingent on creative responses functioned as reinforcement and can increase generalized creativity in older adults living in a residential care setting.