The Role of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Need Frustration and Emotional Well-Being in Everyday Creativity: A Daily Diary Approach

Playing music, writing poetry, or even experimenting with new recipes can be powerful tools for personal growth. Engaging in these everyday creative activities can help us explore our interests and talents, form relationships, and gain new perspectives on the world around us. The purpose of this study was to examine day-to-day changes in everyday creativity and to determine the extent to which between-person and within-person predictors explained these daily variations. Each day for 2 weeks, participants (N = 134, graduate students in an educational psychology program) provided daily reports on their perceived creativity levels, and described their emotional well-being, need satisfaction, and need frustration. Multilevel modeling analyses suggested that within-person fluctuations were more strongly associated with changes in everyday creativity than between-person differences. Specifically, robust linkages were observed between daily positive affect and creativity. Greater positive affect on a given day corresponded with increased creativity on the same day and the subsequent day. Experiences of daily autonomy satisfaction, autonomy frustration, and competence satisfaction positively influenced everyday creativity.