An interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to creativity and innovation: Evaluation of the EMCI ERASMUS intensive program

The present study evaluates the immediate and sustained effect of a two-week intensive program (IP) applying an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to increase creative self-efficacy (CSE) and creativity level of college students. Participants were 75 college students (59% females. Mage = 24.98) from nine1 different countries and four study fields (psychology, education, business, and engineering). Among these students, 66 participated in the posttest and 33 the one year follow-up study. Multilevel analysis of the pre- and posttests indicates the positive effect of the IP after controlling for gender, age and cohort of the students. The follow-up study revealed different developmental patterns of CSE and self-reported creativity (SRC) between the student and young professional groups: (1) the CSE of the young professional group showed further growth, whereas that of the student group dropped significantly; (2) for both groups, the high SRC was retained one year after the IP. Results were interpreted and discussed from a social cognitive perspective with an emphasis on how the environmental context may have fostered or constrained the effect of the IP.