Influence of Psychological Safety and Group Cohesiveness on Creativity in University Seminars : A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Approach

The purpose of this study is to examine how the creativity of seminar students is affected by psychological safety and group cohesiveness in university seminars. Although there is considerable research that attributed the source of creativity to individual traits and psychological factor, there is evidence that some group-specific traits are the main determinants of creativity rather than individual factors. In this study, a sample of 197 students and 41 seminars obtained from a questionnaire survey administered to a total of 230 third-year students belonging to 20 national and private universities in Japan is included in the analysis. The following two findings were revealed through the results using a hierarchical linear model : First, the creativity of seminar students was higher in seminars where the level of psychological safety was higher. Second, there was no statistically significant relationship between group cohesiveness of the seminar and the creativity of the seminar students. These findings suggest that, in seminars conducted in a professional education context, just increasing cohesiveness is insufficient and it is essential to provide educational support to create a psychologically safe group environment where seminar members can honestly and frankly exchange opinions. This supports seminar students to formulate their own ideas and solve problems creatively and autonomously.