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Name: Alexandra Trani
Dissertation Proposal Meeting
Date: December 10, 2019
Time: 3:00 pm
Location: J.S. Coon Building, Room 217
Advisor:
Paul Verhaeghen, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)
Thesis Committee Members:
Paul Verhaeghen, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)
Eric Schumacher, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)
Keaton Fletcher, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)
Christ Stanzione, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)
Erica Briscoe, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech Research Institute)
Title: Creativity, Depression, and Rumination
Abstract:
Among creative professionals, affective vulnerability and diagnosed mood disorders
are higher than would be expected in the general population (Ludwig, 1995). The relation-
ship between creativity and depression may be mediated by rumination (Trani, submitted;
Verhaeghen, Joormann, & Aikman, 2014; Verhaeghen, Joormann, & Khan, 2005; Ver-
haeghen, Trani, & Aikman, 2017)– that is, a broad class of thoughts that recur regardless
of context or task and are centered around a common theme or idea (Leonard L. Martin &
Tesser, 1996). Recently I proposed a model in which adaptive and maladaptive ruminations
differentially influence creativity and mood (Trani, submitted). Essentially, rumination,
maladaptive or otherwise, enhances associative processing by sustaining the activation of
concepts within memory. Adaptive rumination supports creative associative processing by
allowing concepts in memory to remain active despite being unrelated to present tasks or
environments. In much the same way, maladaptive rumination works to sustain depressive
symptoms across environments by sustaining activation of negative affect and related con-
cepts in memory which would impair a person’s ability to distract themselves from negative
moods. The present proposal seeks to test the hypothesized relationships between creativ-
ity, rumination, and depression using structural equation modeling. Roughly 350 students
enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology will complete an online battery of creativity,
rumination, personality, and affective vulnerability measures. Additionally, I will explore
differences in these relationships with state and trait rumination.
