A synthetic review of evaluation expectation and its effects on creativity

One of the key roles of an educator or manager is to provide feedback to students and direct reports, but what effect does this expectation of evaluation have on the creativity of the individuals who receive it? This synthetic review examined 20 published, peer-reviewed journal articles on the topic of evaluation expectation and its effects on creativity. The research in this area comes from the diverse fields of education, psychology, and organizational behavior, and therefore it approaches the question from many different points of view. However, a broadly similar methodological approach was observed among the surveyed articles. The review identified four creativity domains that have been used in these studies—creative writing, visual arts, creative problem-solving, and scientific creativity—as well as domain-general approaches focused on “divergent” and “convergent” thinking. To synthesize the information in this literature, findings of the prior studies were examined through the lens of self-determination theory, an outlook on motivation and personality in social contexts that views motivation as being either of a controlling or autonomous nature. The componential theory of creativity, which holds that there are specific intrinsic and extrinsic factors that shape creative variance in the population, was also used to organize and interpret the prior findings. The results of the literature review generally supported the self-determination theory, but they also indicate a need for stronger methodological approaches in this area to improve our understanding of the mediating and moderating roles of internal and external variables. Recommendations are provided for applying these findings to teaching and management, along with suggestions for future research.