ABSTRACT
A growing body of research indicates that positive affect is associated with greater cognitive flexibility and improved creative problem solving across a broad range of settings. This relationship has been found with both induced and naturally occurring positive affect (or “positive affectivity”) and not only with college student samples, but also in organizational settings, in consumer contexts, in negotiation, in the literature on coping and stress, in a sample of practicing physicians asked to solve a diagnostic problem, and among children and young adolescents (e.g., Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; Carnevale & Isen, 1986; Estrada, Isen, & Young, 1997; Estrada, Young, & Isen, 1994; Fiske & Taylor, 1991; George & Brief, 1996; Greene & Noice, 1988; Hirt, Melton, McDonald, & Harackiewicz, 1996; Isen, 1987, 1993; Isen & Baron, 1991; Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987; Isen, Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985; Isen & Williams, 1988; Kahn & Isen, 1993; Mano, in press; Showers & Cantor, 1985; Staw & Barsade, 1993; Staw, Sutton, & Pelled, 1994; Taylor & Aspinwall, 1996).
