Creativity and Life Satisfaction in Spanish University Students. Effects of an Emotionally Positive and Creative Program
Identifiers
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12020/1360ISSN: 1664-1078
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.746154
Date
2021Document type
articleÁrea/s de conocimiento
Ciencias de la EducaciónAbstract
There is an increasing demand by society that university students demonstrate
competitive skills to enable them to achieve greater success when entering
the workplace. Creativity and life satisfaction correlate positively with academic
performance, productivity, and excellence in the working environment. The presence of
creativity and emotional intelligence in the curriculum and teaching methods in Spanish
universities, however, is surprisingly lacking. Studies that examine gender differences in
these variables provide conflicting results. The purpose of our research is to analyse
the changes produced in both creativity and life satisfaction in university students by
a positive emotional and creative intervention and explore individual differences by
gender. The methodology used was a quasi-experimental pre- test/post- test design
with experimental/control groups. Three hundred university students (23% men and
77% women) from the Community of Madrid (Spain) completed three exercises that
evaluated creativity and life satisfaction. The results show significantly higher results in
creativity and life satisfaction in women, who continued to achieve high results after
the intervention. Finally, we discuss the need for emotional and creative education in
universities and focus on the employability and the guarantee of equal opportunities
through the development of these competencies.