Career Experiences and Scientific Performance: A Study of Social, Physical, Life, and Health Sciences

Mumford, Michael D.; Connelly, Mary Shane; Scott, Ginamarie; Espejo, Jazmine; Sohl, Laura; Hunter, Samuel T.; Bedell, Katrina E.

doi:10.1080/10400419.2005.9651474

Cited by 27 publications

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“…One implication of this observation is that caution is called for in generalizing our findings to people working in these fields who have substantially greater expertise (Ericsson & Charness, 1994; Weisberg, 2006). It is, in fact, possible that different patterns of skill application might emerge as a function of further experience given the long period of career development that characterizes the sciences (Mumford et al, 2005). Moreover, it should also be recognized that level of experience comparisons were necessarily made within a relatively narrow range of experience – comparison of first-year to third- and fourth-year doctoral students.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Apparently, doctoral level education has little effect on gains in scientist’s creative thinking skills. Given the importance of creative thought to performance in the sciences (Mumford et al, 2005), the failure of these skills, especially field-relevant skills, to evidence growth during doctoral education is troublesome – although it might be attributed to a focus on doctoral students’ acquisition of declarative, factual, knowledge rather than acquisition of the procedural, strategic, knowledge underlying more effective execution of creative thinking processes. Nonetheless, this pattern of findings suggests that more emphasis should be given to the development of creative thinking skills in doctoral education.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The basis for this comparison was three general fields in the sciences – health sciences, biological sciences, and social sciences. These sciences were selected as the basis for this investigation, in part, because it has already been established that work in these fields calls for creative thought (Feist & Gorman, 1998; Mumford, Connelly, Scott, Espejo, Sohl, Hunter, & Bedell, 2005; Simonton, 2008), and, in part, because the work demands made in these scientific fields are reasonably well understood (Dunbar, 1995; Zuckerman, 1977). Moreover, in the course of this effort, we examined how early experience working in a field contributed to development of creative thinking skills.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Cross-Field Differences in Creative Problem-Solving Skills: A Comparison of Health, Biological, and Social Sciences

Mumford

Antes

Caughron

et al. 2010

Creativity Research Journal

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In the present study, 258 doctoral students working in the health, biological, and social sciences were asked to solve a series of field-relevant problems calling for creative thought. Proposed solutions to these problems were scored with respect to critical creative thinking skills such as problem definition, conceptual combination, and idea generation. Results indicated that health, biological, and social scientists differed with respect to their skill in executing various operations, or processes, involved in creative thought. Interestingly, no differences were observed as a function of the students' level of experience. The implications of these findings for understanding cross-field, and cross-experience level, differences in creative thought are discussed. Keywords creativity; creative processes; field; experience Students of creativity have long been interested in potential cross-field differences with regard to creative achievement and the characteristics held to influence creative thought (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999;MacKinnon, 1962). For example, Lehman (1953;1966) examined cross-field differences in the timing of eminent achievement finding that peak periods for productivity occurred later in applied than theoretical fields (Mumford & Gustafson, 1988). Other work, by Feist (1999), compared the personality characteristics of creative scientists to creative artists. His findings indicated that characteristics such as emotional viability, nonconformity, and rebelliousness distinguished creative artists from creative scientists. However, other characteristics such as openness, drive, and autonomy were found to be shared by creative people working in the arts and sciences. Findings of this sort led Csikszentmihalyi (1999) to call for research examining cross-field differences in the nature of creative work.Clearly, many variables including personality (e.g., Feist, 1999), motivation (e.g., Eisenberger & Rhoades, 2001;Mumford, Decker, Connelly, Osburn, & Scott, 2002), climate (e.g., Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & Herron, 1996;West, 2002), and work conditions (e.g., Amabile & Mueller, 2008;Tierney & Farmer, 2004) might contribute to cross-field differences in creativity and creative achievement. Creativity, although influenced by multiple attributes, ultimately requires the generation of new ideas and the translation of these ideas into viable products (Ghiselin, 1963). Recognition of the importance of creative thought has led to a steady stream of studies examining the influence of knowledge (e.g., Weisberg, 2006), divergent thinking (e.g., Runco & Okuda, 1988), creative thinking processes (e.g., Ward, Smith, & Finke, 1999), and strategies for effective execution of these processes (e.g., Scott, Lonergan, & Mumford, 2005).Correspondence should be addressed to Michael D. Mumford, Department of Psychology, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019 or mmumford@ou.edu.. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptCreat Res J. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 February 1. Published in final edited fo...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cross-Field Differences in Creative Problem-Solving Skills: A Comparison of Health, Biological, and Social Sciences

Mumford

Antes

Caughron

et al. 2010

Creativity Research Journal

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“…More specifically, we wished to examine the relationship between creative thought and ethical decision-making among scientists. Our interest in scientists was based, in part, on the fact that creative thought is considered critical to eminent achievement in this arena (Feist & Gorman, 1998; Mumford et al, 2005). And, in part, our interest was based on the fact that ethical conduct is considered a critical aspect of performance in the sciences (Steneck, 2006).…”

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Creativity and Ethics: The Relationship of Creative and Ethical Problem-Solving

Mumford

Waples

Antes

et al. 2010

Creativity Research Journal

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Students of creativity have long been interested in the relationship between creativity and deviant behaviors such as criminality, mental disease, and unethical behavior. In the present study we wished to examine the relationship between creative thinking skills and ethical decision-making among scientists. Accordingly, 258 doctoral students in the health, biological, and social sciences were asked to complete a measure of creative processing skills (e.g., problem definition, conceptual combination, idea generation) and a measure of ethical decision-making examining four domains, data management, study conduct, professional practices, and business practices. It was found that ethical decision-making in all four of these areas was related to creative problem-solving processes with late cycle processes (e.g., idea generation and solution monitoring) proving particularly important. The implications of these findings for understanding the relationship between creative and deviant thought are discussed. Keywords creative thinking; processes; ethics; decision-makingCreative ideas are held to be reflected in original, and useful, problem solutions (Ghiselin, 1963;Mumford & Gustafson, 1988). The originality apparent in creative ideas involves a departure from normative behavior (Stokes & Balsam, 2003). This observation, in turn, has led many scholars to ask whether creativity is related to other forms of deviant behavior. For example, although controversial (Ramey & Weisberg, 2004), Jamison (1993) has argued that creativity may be linked to bipolar disorder. Similarly, Sass and Schuldberg (2001) have suggested that creativity may be linked to schizophrenia. Other scholars (Brower, 1999;Eisenman, 1999) have provided evidence indicating that at least certain forms of creative thought may be linked to criminal behavior -a form of deviance. Still other investigations have examined the relationship between creativity and moral, or ethical, behavior (Runco & Nemiro, 2003) noting that the relationship obtained between measures of moral reasoning and creative thought have been inconsistent (Andreani & Pagnin, 1993).In the present effort we examined the relationship between creative thinking processes (Mumford, Mobley, Uhlman, Reiter-Palmon, & Doares, 1991) and ethical decision-making in a specific domain (Baer, 2003). More specifically, we wished to examine the relationship between creative thought and ethical decision-making among scientists. Our interest in scientists was based, in part, on the fact that creative thought is considered critical to eminent achievement in this arena (Feist & Gorman, 1998;Mumford et Correspondence should be addressed to Michael D. Mumford, Department of Psychology, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019 or mmumford@ou.edu.. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptCreat Res J. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 February 1. Published in final edited form as:Creat Res J. al., 2005). And, in part, our interest was based on the fact that ethical conduct is considered a critical...

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“…Thus, event exposure in the course of a student’s day-to-day work can be seen as one factor contributing to the growth of professional expertise (Ericsson & Charness, 1994; Weisberg, 2006). The acquisition of professional expertise has been shown to have a pervasive influence on the performance and behavior of people working in a variety of professions — including the sciences (Mumford et al, 2005). People appear to abstract from these work events both procedural (how to) and declarative (concepts) knowledge.…”

Section: Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to Unethical Career Events: Effects on Decision Making, Climate, and Socialization

Mumford¹,

Waples²,

Antes³

et al. 2009

Ethics & Behavior

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An implicit goal of many interventions intended to enhance integrity is to minimize peoples' exposure to unethical events. The intent of the present effort was to examine if exposure to unethical practices in the course of one's work is related to ethical decision-making. Accordingly, 248 doctoral students in the biological, health, and social sciences were asked to complete a field appropriate measure of ethical decision-making. In addition, they were asked to complete measures examining the perceived acceptability of unethical events and a measure examining perceptions of ethical climate. When these criterion measures were correlated with a measure examining the frequency with which they had been exposed to unethical events in their day-to-day work, it was found that event exposure was strongly related to ethical decision-making, but less strongly related to climate perceptions and perceptions of event acceptability. However, these relationships were moderated by level of experience. The implications of these findings for practices intended to improve ethics are discussed. Keywordsethical decision-making; career experiences; integrity; scientists Ethics is integral to the success of the scientific enterprise (National Research Council/National Institute of Medicine, 2002;Steneck, 2006). In fact, ethical breeches in the sciences not only distort the research record, they also have tangible consequences -in some cases, dramatic consequences such as data fabrication and the death of study participants (Resnick, 2003). Although dramatic breeches such as data fabrication and the death of participants have received much attention, it appears that less dramatic aspects of scientific misconduct, for example, data trimming, authorship misallocation, and protocol violations, are more frequent (Martinson, Anderson, & De Vries, 2005). Although less dramatic, these instances of misconduct may represent a noteworthy trend undermining the success, and credibility, of the sciences (Steneck, 2004).Recognition of this point has led to the development of a number of interventions intended to minimize scientific misconduct. For example, many professional societies have established codes of conduct (Tereskerz, 2003). Training in the responsible conduct of research has become widespread (Bashe, Anderson, Handelsman, & Klevansky, 2007; Chen, 2003). Journals have begun requiring articles to take ethical practices in account (Sigmon, Boulard, & WhitcombSmith, 2002). Additionally, institutions have implemented new practices for monitoring study conduct (Gunsalus, 1993).Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Michael D. Mumford, Department of Psychology, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019 or mmumford@ou.edu.. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptEthics Behav. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 September 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptOf course, the primary goal of all these interventions is to minimize incidents of misconduct. Implicit in these efforts, however,...

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Career Experiences and Scientific Performance: A Study of Social, Physical, Life, and Health Sciences

Cited by 27 publications

References 0 publications

Cross-Field Differences in Creative Problem-Solving Skills: A Comparison of Health, Biological, and Social Sciences

Cross-Field Differences in Creative Problem-Solving Skills: A Comparison of Health, Biological, and Social Sciences

Creativity and Ethics: The Relationship of Creative and Ethical Problem-Solving

Exposure to Unethical Career Events: Effects on Decision Making, Climate, and Socialization

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