Is Academic Risk-Taking a Trait and Is It Distinct From Need for Cognition?

• In Event: 72.050 - Poster Session 17
  In Poster Session: 72.050-6 - Giftedness and Creativity

Abstract

Academic risk taking describes students’ willingness and comfort with trying new or challenging tasks and their ultimate engagement with such tasks. Within the creativity literature, academic risk taking is commonly cited as a laudable for promoting creativity (Cremin, Burnard, & Craft, 2006; Sawyer, 2015). In fact, risk taking is considered essential to creative activity (Budge & Clarke, 2012), despite the potential for some undesired consequences. In the current study undergraduate students (N =212) completed a questionnaire designed to measure three dimensions of Academic Risk Taking as well as a measure, which assesses enjoyment of effortful cognitive processing (Need for Cognition). Results from confirmatory factor analyses demonstrate that academic risk taking strongly correlates with trait like qualities of enjoying effortful processing.

Authors

• Kira Joy Carbonneau, Washington State University - Pullman

• Sara A. Abercrombie, Northern Arizona University

• Carolyn J. Hushman, University of New Mexico