Motivation in Design as a Driving Force for Defining Motives of Design - Principia Designae: Pre-Design, Design, and Post-Design - page 77

The cognitive model in which the CO theory is grounded proposes that the
process of development of the motivational disposition is unconscious and
unintentional, and not necessarily rational. Previous studies assessing CO motiva-
tions embracing a broad range of behaviours and domains of application showed the
validity of CO measures of motivational tendencies (Kreitler and Kreitler 1987a , b ,
1988a , 1994 ) . Further predictions provided by the application of the CO theory
were also confirmed for cognitive acts such as planning and problem solving
(Arnon and Kreitler 1984 ; Kreitler and Kreitler 1987a , b , 1988b ).
6.3.1 The CO Questionnaire: Assessing Motivation
in Design Creativity
The motivational disposition can be assessed by means of a CO questionnaire.
A questionnaire of this kind is constructed on the basis of a matrix which includes
four columns representing the four belief types and rows representing the themes or
the groupings of the themes, so that each cell presents a statement that is a belief
referring to a particular theme. The CO questionnaire consists of statements, each
with four response alternatives: very true, true, not true, and not at all true. The
participant is requested to check one of these responses in regard to each statement.
In the CO questionnaire all the items referring to each belief type are presented
consecutively, in random order. The Cognitive Orientation Questionnaire of
Creativity (COQ-CR) assessing the motivation for creativity includes 384 items
which are classified into four parts, each dealing with one of the four types of belief
(i.e., 98 items for beliefs about self, 91 for general beliefs, 98 for beliefs about
norms and 97 for beliefs about goals). The items referred to 79 themes that were
identified in prior studies as representing attitudes related to creativity in different
domains (e.g., Not satisfied with any achievement but seeking more; Creating
something personal; Devoting time and effort to society; Curious to learn a lot
about every domain). A shorter version of the COQ-CR has been recently finalized.
The COQ-CR was developed and applied in a number of studies that centred on
creativity, such as devising innovative uses for energy (Margaliot 2005 ) , solving
engineering problems (Casakin and Kreitler 2009 ), and architectural problems
(Kreitler and Casakin 2009 ) . Applying the COQ-R questionnaire in design has
several advantages. The major ones are that (i) it was constructed on the basis of a
theoretically-driven procedure that supports the assumption that the themes are
appropriate for creativity; (ii) it covers a broad range of contents that represent a
profile of creativity; (iii) it has been tested empirically in domains demanding
creative thinking; (iv) it is not subject to rational and conscious considerations on
the part of the respondents; and (v) it has a wide applicability in regard to creative
tasks in various domains.
Assessing the relations of motivational predisposition to design creativity rep-
resents a challenge, and has important implications for practice and education. Such