Motivating Civil Engineering Students’ Creativity: Actor–Partner Interdependence Approach

Abstract

Creativity is an important characteristic for civil engineering professionals and students when facing innovation challenges associated with construction engineering projects. Previous studies have not examined the temporary group context when conducting research on creativity. Drawing on the social cognitive theory and the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) approach, this study explored two questions related to how psychological cognitive factors (i.e., intrinsic motivation and creative self-efficacy) motivate creativity, and whether the motivation process is influenced by others. Using a class experiment and a pre and posttest questionnaire survey completed by civil engineering students that performed an idea generation task, this study applies an APIM approach to distinguish the positive actor effects of students’ innovation motivation and task motivation on their own creativity, instead of the negative or nonsignificant influences from a partner. Creative self-efficacy—as a mediator—plays an indirect positive actor role between students’ intrinsic motivation and their own creativity, but an indirect negative partner role in affecting partners’ creativity. The findings contribute to an in-depth understanding of the componential model of creativity, including the creative source of intrinsic motivation and the motivational path from interest to belief. The study also provides a broader interdependence perspective to motivate an individual’s creativity in engineering and educational practice.