Commitment and Creativity

Division 10: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts Commitment involves how a person invests resources in a work role over time. Creativity is a novel, appropriate variation embraced by a field of gatekeepers that transforms the domain. What role does commitment play in the careers of 36 writers with different levels of creative influence? For the least creative, commitment compensates. They invest in the craft of writing to improve their social standing within the field. For experimentalists, commitment defies. They twist traditions to yield new meanings, which gains them increased control over their self-expression. For the most creative domain transformers, commitment impassions. They trust some beloved aspect of literature, such as a character or poetic form, to convert new minds to the wonders of the domain.