Reiter-Palmon Named Recipient of the Arnheim Award for Outstanding Achievement in Psychology and Creativity

Roni Reiter-Palmon, Ph.D., is a psychology professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and serves as the director of UNO’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology graduate program. She has also done a great deal of psychology research that focuses on creativity and team decision-making.

Her accomplishments in this field of research have earned the respect of her colleagues in the American Psychological Association (APA), and they awarded her with a lifetime achievement award, the Rudolf Arnheim Award for Outstanding Achievement in Psychology and Creativity.

Reiter-Palmon feels truly honored to be recognized by her peers in the national organization.

“It means that my peers believe that the work that I'm doing is important, is meaningful, and contributes to the field. Which as a researcher is amazing, definitely.”

When discussing her research, she is particularly excited about studying the thought processes that lead to creative ideas and solutions. She shared that while much of the research you will find in this area discusses generating ideas and brainstorming, she is much more interested in what happens before that and after ideas are generated.

Reiter-Palmon explained, “So, how do people identify a problem to solve? How do they evaluate ideas and choose the one that they think is the right solution or the creative solution?”

She also studies creativity within a team, and how each person’s different thought processes are brought together to make a collaborative decision. Organizations can use this research to better develop workplaces that foster creative thinking in their teams.

Looking ahead to new developments in the field, she said, “AI (artificial intelligence) is changing the game. I'm interested, for example, in how people perceive AI in relation to creativity. I think sometimes people expect AI to be able to develop these creative ideas, and it just can't, given the way it's programmed.”

While Reiter-Palmon is proud of her body of work and excited for new work around the corner, she emphasized that she did not get to this point alone. She encouraged those interested in pursuing a similar career to realize that she has had mentors, colleagues, and students who she learned from and worked with.

“Collaborations make it more interesting and more meaningful, but also allow you to test your approaches and have people to consult when you reach a bump in the road,” she said.

She advised that it is equally important for students and new researchers to listen to their gut and pursue the things that interest them.

“Think of what you're passionate about and what you care about. When I started doing research in the creativity domain, there were people who I respected that said, ‘You shouldn't be studying this.’ And I just didn't listen to them. I did what I thought was right. Well, fast-forward a few years, and organizations do care about creativity and innovation. It's that balance of listening to other people because they do have good feedback to give you, but also listening to yourself.”