Cultural differences in creative reactions to an ambiguous stimulus

Abstract

Art therapy has been used in the Czech Republic since the 1950s, and the only thing that has changed over the course of time has been the target group to which art therapy is applied. Art therapy is currently used in three key areas: psychology, social work, and education, or, more precisely, special education. The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate the specific cultural differences during the use of art therapy procedures in the field of education, specifically during work with creativity. The target group for the research consisted of university students from Poland and the Czech Republic. The students were all presented with the same ambiguous stimulus, to which they were to respond artistically. The individual artistic responses were then classified into specific categories, and cultural differences were subsequently evaluated and described.