The Relationship between Creativity and Psychological Distress

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CEATIVITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS Submitted by Dr. Balbinder Singh and (Prof. ) Dr. Navdeep Singh Tung, Department of Psychology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Creativity has been into research since long for its relationship with mental health i. e. psychological wellbeing and psychological illness. Creativity has basic wide perspectives - healthy and unhealthy. Research indicates that participation in creative activities enhances the psychological wellbeing and health of the individual. Creativity involves cognitive, emotional and social factors and it is directly related to openness to experience, flexibility, autonomy, and playfulness, quest of taking risk, and continuity and tolerance. Present study focuses on the relationship between creativity and psychological distress. The data was collected on a sample of fifty students (N=50, all students of G. N. D. U. Amritsar, both male and female). The tests used in the present study are Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (figural part only) (Torrance, 1961) and PGI Health Questionnaire, Psychological Distress only (Verma et al. , 1985). The results indicate that there is a negative significant correlation between creativity and psychological distress.