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Originality is a necessary part of creativity, but creative things are more than just original. They also solve a problem, or more generally are somehow fitting or appropriate. Yet previous research found an inverse relationship between ratings of originality and ratings of appropriateness. The present investigation employed a different methodology — it focused on the generation of ideas instead of judgments about them — to reexamine the relationships between originality, appropriateness, and creativity. Undergraduate students (N = 170) from two large universities received either realistic or unrealistic divergent thinking tasks. These were given with one of four types of instructions. These asked them to give (a) as many ideas as possible (which is the standard type of instruction for these kinds of tests), (b) only original ideas, (c) only appropriate ideas, or (d) only creative ideas. Brief definitions of originality, appropriateness, or creativity were also provided. Comparisons of the four groups indicated that there were significant differences between the different kinds of tasks, with the realistic set eliciting more appropriate ideas than the unrealistic, but the unrealistic tasks eliciting more original and varied (flexible) ideas. There was an interaction indicating that the magnitude of the impact of the instructions varied across tasks. Correlational analyses indicated that the correlation between the originality and appropriateness scores was the lowest among all possible inter‐index relationships (only 7% shared variance). Future research and practical implications are explored.

The effects of type and level of personal involvement on information search and problem solving were investigated in a laboratory setting. Participants were given a problem eliciting high value involvement, high outcome involvement, or low involvement. Before providing a solution to the problem, participants had the opportunity to search for additional information about the problem using a computer. The amount of information searched and the time spent searching were measured, as was the quality of problem solutions. Results showed that increases in information search resulted in more original and more appropriate problem solutions. Results also revealed that solution originality and appropriateness were highest among participants who were involved because the problem's outcome was relevant to them and lowest among participants who were involved because the problem affected their values and morals. The results of this study indicate that high involvement may not be universally beneficial to the generation of high-quality problem solutions.

personal values, beliefs, destructive leadership, ethical decision making,

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