Morning and evening types and creative thinking

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Abstract

This exploratory study investigates the relationship between morning and evening types and creative thinking as defined by Guilford’s factorial hypothesis. The research was carried out on a sample of 120 subjects, 52 males and 68 females aged between 19 and 76. The data show that evening-disposition is correlated with the ability to apply divergent thinking strategies to visual content. There was no significant difference between men and women but many differences were found with respect to age group. These findings suggest the need for in-depth studies to investigate morning and evening types and their relationship with creative thinking.

Introduction

The morning type, also called “lark”, wakes up early and refreshed, he is active in the morning and goes to bed early in the evening. Larks are considered conscientious, trustworthy and emotionally stable.

The evening type, or “owl”, wakes up with difficulty and is still tired, he is inactive during the morning and stays awake late at night. Owls are described as creative, emotionally unstable and have difficult social and familial relations. While among morning types liveliness and good mood decrease along the day, the opposite pattern occurs with evening personalities. Nocturnal types show psychological and stress-bound disorders more frequently and intensely than diurnal types and they have more problematic environmental and social demands (Mecacci & Rocchetti, 1998). Evening types show greater behavioural troubles, low academic performances, higher stress rates in their family lives and more difficulties in social adaptation (Achilles, 2003). The relationship between the occurrence of cognitive failures and morning and evening dimensions has also been explored: among extreme morning types cognitive failures can occur especially during the evening hours, whereas in extreme evening types the occurrence of cognitive failures are uniformly distributed throughout the day (Mecacci, Righi, & Rocchetti, 2004).

Some physiological data sets concerning variability in circadian periodicity show the difference between morning and evening disposition. With regards to temperature, we observe that both types show an acrophase during the second part of the day: in morning types around 6:00 p.m. and in evening types around 8:00 p.m. (Horne & Östberg, 1976). Adernalin production (Patkai, 1971), electro-cortical activity, some cardiovascular parameters (Kerkhof, Willesme, Geest, Korving, & Rfietveld, 1980) and cortisol levels in saliva have higher values during the first hours of the day (Bailey & Heitkemper, 1991) among morning subjects. Specific hormones secretion is linked to the sleep–wake phases (e.g. growth hormone) while the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system is correlated with REM sleep cycles. As already observed (Follenius, Krnauth, Saini, & Brandenberger, 1992), the time of waking up affects the secretion of aldosterone. A relationship between circadian and acrophase types was found too, counting melatonin rhythm which is significantly advanced in morning subjects (Gibertini, Graham, & Cook, 1999).

The inclination towards morning and evening types may vary throughout life. For people aged from 20 to 50, a small number of studies have pointed out the following percentages: 15% diurnal, 70% intermediate, 15% nocturnal – taking into consideration age and job differences (Ishihara et al., 1992, Mecacci et al., 1986). Among university students we can observe an inclination towards evening disposition that accounts for 20–30%. The rhythmicity of the circadian system among people over 50 shifts increasingly towards the morning types (Åkerstedt & Torsvall, 1981).

As far as gender differences are concerned, different studies (Tankova, Adan, & Buela-Casal, 1994) have assessed an inclination towards morning-disposition among women although they did not reach statistical significance.

The two different types of personality emphasize different approaches concerning social relations (Cofer et al., 1999). Evening people often have greater difficulties at school, higher school failure rate, they are less open and interactive within the family, they have a low level of appetite in the morning and are not pro-active in getting ready for school. Furthermore evening types smoke and drink more coffee than morning types, especially during the evening. The only personality trait associated with caffeine intake is Venturesomeness; highly Venturesome people, as measured on I7 (Eysenck, Pearson, Easting, & Allsopp, 1985) take less caffeine throughout the day and women usually drink more evening caffeine than men (Wilson, 1990).

Differences in the time or frequency of meals, in alcohol and caffeine consumption and in smoking habits were analyzed by Ishihara et al. (1985) on a sample of 1500 students of Japanese university using a Japanese version of the Horne and Östberg Questionnaire (Ishihara, Saitoh, Inoue, & Miyata, 1984) and the Life Habits Inventory. Significant differences between two groups, morning and evening types, were found for all the examined habits (e.g. night meal, caffeine, smoke, alcohol). Evening types have frequent night meals, consume more caffeine and alcohol, and smoke more cigarettes than morning types. Concerning mealtimes there were no significant differences between the two types, however, 34.8% evening type students of the whole sample usually skipped breakfast, contrary to morning type students (only 5.5%).

Positive correlations were found between evening personality and rebellious, non-conformist and irresponsible behaviours tending to be unpredictable (McCutcheon, 1998). Cimbalo and Hughey (1986) discovered that evening types have some characteristics that associate them with Zuckerman’s “sensation seekers”; subjects attracted by novelty and risk.

The ability to identify possible alternatives to codified rules as a characteristic of creative thinking led us to investigate possible relationships between evening-disposition and creativity.

Personality and mood and their relationship with the Horne and Östberg Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (1976) have been studied by Matthews (1988) who used the MEQ, 16PF (Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970), EPI (1964) and EPQ (1975) with a sample of three groups of subjects: 40 Cambridge University students, 60 University of Wales student and 100 Aston University students. He showed that MEQ scores were related to personality traits associated with trait anxiety in males and psychoticism in females and MEQ score was related to extraversion only in females. For all subjects he showed that the strongest negative correlations between MEQ and 16PF were on radicalism and self-sentiment; however, a number of 16PF factors were significantly correlated with MEQ score in one sex only, notably: in males with Ego Strength (positively), Guilt Proneness and Ergic Tension (negatively), in females with Dominance, Surgency and Venturesomeness (negatively) and Superego Strength (positively). Data from the University of Wales sample showed that MEQ and Extraversion were significantly negatively correlated in females only (r = .−44; p < .05); MEQ was also significantly negatively correlated with Psychoticism (r = .−49; p < .001) for females. A direct comparison of EPI Impulsivity and Sociability as predictors of MEQ score was carried out in the Aston university student group and showed a significant negative correlation only in the female group (Impulsivity: r = .− 49; p < .001; Sociability: r = .−49; p < .001). The negative correlations between the MEQ score and Psychoticism suggests a more general association between mild psychopathology and Eveningness.

Wilson (1990) found that the correlation between Extraversion and Morningness reached positive significance (r = .23; p < .005), and between Psychoticism and Morningness negative significance (r = −.31; p < .005). Adan and Almirall (1990) made an adaptation and standardization of a Spanish version of the Horne and Östberg Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire and pointed out that extraversion correlated negatively with Morningness (r = −0.163; p < .0001) and Neuroticism attained no significance. Monk et al. (1991) studied circadian and personality characteristics as measured by the Horne and Östberg Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire, the Circadian Type Questionnaire by Folkard, Monk, and Lobban (1979) and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) by Eysenck and Eysenck (1964) and found that Neuroticism consistently failed to correlate with Morningness.

In a study by Larsen (1985) which examined 74 undergraduate students, Morningness as measured on the MEQ and Extraversion as measured on the EPQ were negatively correlated (r = −.27; p < .05); Morningness measured by the MEQ and Extraversion measured by the 16PF were negatively correlated at the same level. Sociability, as a subfactor of Extraversion, and Morningness were also examined in this study and were significantly correlated using the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) by Eysenck and Eysenck (1964) (r = −.23; p < .05), EASI III by Buss and Plomin (r = −.39; p < .01), and the 16PF by Cattell (r = −.29; p < .05).

Torsvall and Åkerstedt (1980) studied correlations between personality dimensions and Morningness–Eveningness using a short Morningness–Eveningness scale (DTS, Diurnal Type Scale) and the EPQ and observed a low but significant correlation between Morningness and Neuroticism (r = −.17; p < .01), while no correlation between Morningness and Extraversion was found.

In a research concerning the construction of a predictive test of adjustment to shift work by Folkard et al. (1979), Morningness measured by the Circadian Type Questionnaire (CTQ) and Extraversion measured by the EPI were negatively correlated (r = −.34; p < .02).

It has been shown (Mecacci et al., 1986) on the EPQ that compared to nocturnal types, diurnal types have higher scores on Neuroticism, while nocturnal types have higher Psychoticism scores.

Personality traits and their relationship with creativity have been reported in the recent literature, mainly with respect to the dimensions of neuroticism, psychoticism, extraversion, impulsivity, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience.

A study by Kwang and Rodrigues (2002) explored the relationship between two creative types (adaptors and innovators) and the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience and neuroticism). Adaptable persons were significantly more conscientious than innovators while the latter were significantly more extraverted and open to experience than adaptable persons.

The individual stylistic variations of creative potential and conceptual tempo were investigated by Broberg and Moran (1987) who found no difference between reflective and impulsive persons on the ideational fluency measure. However, greater originality scores were evidenced among fast/accurate and slow/inaccurate groups. The relationship between reflection-impulsivity and creativity was examined through a study on primary-school children with impaired and unimpaired hearing; respectively 26 and 16 children (8–13 years old). Anderson (1983) administered the Matching Familiar Figures Test and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Correlation coefficients were calculated to examine the relationship between impulsivity scores and four creativity dimensions (fluency, flexibility, elaboration, originality). For hearing children, as expected, more impulsive responding was generally associated with greater creativity. However, no significant relationships between creativity and impulsivity were found for the deaf Ss.

Eysenck (1983) reviews his own and others’ findings on psychoticism, neuroticism, and introversion personality traits and their relationship with creativity and originality. Findings showed a correlation between artistic creativity and Introversion, Neurotic behaviour and higher scores on psychoticism. In a study by Wakefield and Goad (1981), creativity is discussed with Eysenck’s personality theory. Creative persons are characterized by introversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, and moderate or high intelligence.

A study by Walker (1995) compared neurotic and depressive personality characteristics in autobiographies of creative achievers (n = 30) versus eminent but non-creative achievers (n = 18). California Q-Set ratings assessed the five personality factors of neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Creative achievers were rated significantly higher on neuroticism, depressive style, and impulsivity.

In our study, we referred to the factorial orienting by Guilford (1967), where creativity is defined as the ability to produce valuable solutions to problems in an innovative way.

According to Guilford when talking about creative thinking it is fundamental to make the distinction between convergent and divergent thinking. Within convergent thinking new information is consequentially produced responding to a precise situation and considering a correct or better answer. Divergent thinking provides multiple possibilities and freely produces new information. Through this way of thinking, according to Guilford, creativity is expressed. In divergent thinking fluidity of association and ideas, originality, flexibility, sensitivity towards new problems and ability to redefine and restructure involved elements play a crucial role.

The Torrance Creative Thinking Test (1989) is based on this theoretical construct and will be used in this study. The instrument was elaborated from the definition of creativity as a process. According to the author, the creative process is stimulated by sensitivity to problems, missing elements and discordance. It includes research and experiment of hypotheses regarding the nature of identified problems (Torrance, 1989).

Visual Series of the test were used; they evaluated, according to Guilford’s model, the principal factors of creativity which have been proved to be independent: flexibility, fluidity, originality and elaboration.

Our hypothesis is that lower scores on r-MEQ and lower inclination towards morningness leads to a stronger creative disposition.

In this exploratory study, we have not considered variable “time of day” (e.g. the relationship between time of the day and creativity) which could be explored further by future research.

Section snippets

Subjects

The sample was composed of 120 subjects, 52 (43.3%) men and 68 (56.7%) female. Their age was between 19 and 76 and the average age was 43. The subjects were divided into two age groups: 19–52 years old (79 ss; 65.8%); 53–76 years old (41 ss; 34.2%). This division was chosen with reference to different studies which showed that people tend towards the morningness dimension with increasing age (Mecacci et al., 1986, Wilson, 1990). Tankova et al. (1994) suggested that subjects who are over-fifty

Results

Table 1 reports frequency distribution for r-MEQ scores on the whole sample (M = 15.1, SD = 2.9).

The distribution of the composite ranges between 6 and 20 (possible range is 4–25). High scores indicate a high degree of morningness.

Using One-Way ANOVA we found no significant difference between females (M = 15.2, SD = 2.9) and males (M = 14.96, SD = 2.8) though we did find a significant difference between subjects aged 19–52 (M = 14.6, SD = 2.8) and subjects over 52 (M = 16.1, SD = 2.8). Subjects from the first age

Discussion

The general hypothesis predicted a negative correlation between scores on morningness–eveningness personalities and creative thinking evaluated by Torrance’s Test of Creative Thinking, Visual form.

Although exploratory, these data are nevertheless promising.

Subjects inclining towards the nocturnal dimension had higher scores in those components of creative thinking such as fluidity, flexibility and originality.

We may suppose that evening types tend to conceive many ideas, hypotheses and memories

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