Subclinical inclination toward manic-depression and creative performance on the Remote Associates Test

An experiment examined manic-depressive inclination in college students as an influence on creativity. The Bipolar: Manic Disorder scale of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory determined manic-depressive inclination or its absence. The Remote Associates Test was the basis for assessing creativity. The experiment was a 2×2 factorial design with manic-depressive inclination (presence or absence) as the first factor, and a mood-enhancing experience as the second. The mood-enhancing experience required that students write an essay about an activity they once had performed superbly well. Students assigned to the control condition wrote an essay about how they organized and sequenced activities in an ordinary day. As hypothesized, students with high Bipolar scores who wrote about a peak performance obtained especially high Remote Associates Test scores in comparison with students in other conditions of the experiment (p<0.02). High Bipolar scores did not result in high Remote Associates Test scores in the control condition, suggesting that mood enhancement is a necessary prerequisite for manic-depressive inclination to potentiate creative performance.