Dr. Tromp is a Romanian-born cognitive psychologist whose research aims to elucidate the role of constraints in creativity. After a Ph.D. from Princeton University, she worked for a hedge fund and co-owned a recruiting firm in Manhattan before pursuing an academic career. At Rider University, she has been the recipient of a Distinguished Teaching Award, several summer research fellowships, and a Mazzotti Award in Women’s Leadership.
Representative Publications
Tromp, C. (2023). Integrated constraints in creativity: Foundations for a unifying model. General Review of Psychology, 27(1), 41-61.
Tromp, C., & Glăveanu, V. P. (2023). A model of creative aging (MOCA): Unlocking the potential of constraints for creativity in older adults. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication.
Tromp, C., & Baer, J. (2022). Creativity from constraints: Theory and applications to education. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 46, 101184.
Tromp, C. (2022). Creativity from integrated constraint exploration and exploitation. Psychological Reports. Advance online publication.
Tromp, C., & Sternberg, R. J. (2022a). How constraints impact creativity: An interaction paradigm. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication.
Tromp, C., & Sternberg, R. J. (2022b). Dynamic creativity: A Person × Task × Situation interaction framework. Journal of Creative Behavior, 56(4), 553-565.
Haught-Tromp, C. (2017). The Green Eggs and Ham hypothesis: How constraints facilitate creativity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 11(1), 10-17.
Haught-Tromp, C., & Stokes, P. D. (2017). Constraints, competency and creativity in the classroom. In R. Leikin & B. Sriraman, Eds., Creativity and Giftedness: Advances in Mathematics Education, pp. 105-116. The Netherlands: Springer Science and Business.
Haught-Tromp, C. (2016). Facilitating creative thinking in the 21st century: When constraints help. In D. Ambrose & R. J. Sternberg, Eds., Creative Intelligence in the 21st Century: Grappling with Enormous Problems and Huge Opportunities, pp. 107-117. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Haught-Tromp, C. (2016). Creativity and constraint: Friends, not foes. In J. C. Kaufman and J. Baer, Eds., Creativity and Reason in Cognitive Development, 2nd Edition, pp. 211-225. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Haught, C. (2015). The role of constraints in creative sentence production. Creativity Research Journal, 27 (2), 160-166.
Haught, C. (2014). Spain is not Greece: How metaphors are understood. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 43, 351-356.
Haught, C. (2013). A tale of two tropes: How metaphor and simile differ. Metaphor and Symbol, 28, 254-274.
Glucksberg, S., and Haught, C. (2006). Can Florida become like the next Florida? When metaphoric comparisons fail. Psychological Science, 17, 935-938.
Broader Dissemination Of Research
- BBC Ideas: How limits can boost your creativity
- BBC Radio: The digital human
- CNN: More is less: The case against 280-character tweets
- NY Magazine: Introducing the Green Eggs and Ham hypothesis of creativity
- The Academic Minute: Constraint and creativity
- Inside Higher Ed: Constraint and creativity
Teaching
Recipient of the Rider University Distinguished Teaching Award (2016).
- Creativity and Innovation
- Research Methods: Organizational Psychology
- Statistics and Research Design
- Research Methods: Cognition
- Organizational Psychology
- Child Development
- Senior Seminar
- Independent Study in Psychology