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GUIDED IMAGERY AND ITS ROLE IN CREATIVITY AND EXPRESSION IN THE ART WORK OF ADOLESCENTS
Abstract
The normal course of development in art usually reaches a plateau in adolescence beyond which further expansion of creative expression rarely takes place. The essential causes of this plateau are generally considered to be related to increasing self-consciousness in adolescents caused by growing awareness of societal and/or peer influences and expectations regarding their visual expressions, and increasing reliance upon logical modes for thinking and verbal means for communicating. Thus, earlier productions characterized by creative schemas synthesizing color, line and shape are replaced by unimaginative, stilted and stereotypical reproductions. This study is an approach to altering the adolescent plateau in art development via a device which attempts to alter accepted modes of perceiving, knowing, and depicting, and to stimulate latent, creative imaging. The vehicle used is Guided Imagery Technique (GIT), a process by which suggestions, offered by one individual, alter and/or direct the images fantasized, processed and produced by another. GIT is characterized by general relaxation of participants, and reduction of external and internal stimuli considered to impede creative processing. A stratified sample based on reading scores involved 10 "high" and 10 "low" 7th grade students in drawing a garden during three treatments presented via taped instructions over four-week intervals. Passive exposure to instructions of "Draw a Garden" (Stage 1) was followed by informal goal directed instructional "Draw a Make-Believe Garden" (Stage 2) and then GIT for Stage 3 drawings. Quantitative and qualitative measures were used to analyze results, including self-questionnaires, blind judging of drawings for creativity, direct observations, and personal interviews. Findings indicate that drawings from Stage 3 (GIT) showed a significant gain in creativity in both groups compared to other stages. The "high" group experienced a larger gain than the "low". A group difference in progression through stages was also noted. Students reported involvement with GIT enhanced their imagination, vivified imaging, freed them from conventional restraints, thus facilitating creative drawing, and served as an experience they wished to repeat. Marked changes occurred in degree and type of student involvement during Stage 3 (GIT) over other stages.
Subject Area
Art education
Recommended Citation
LEFF, ROBERTA ELLEN, "GUIDED IMAGERY AND ITS ROLE IN CREATIVITY AND EXPRESSION IN THE ART WORK OF ADOLESCENTS" (1982). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI8210347.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8210347