Dr. Tromp is a Romanian-born cognitive psychologist who studies 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 СÓÅÊÓƵ, she has been the recipient of the Iorio Faculty Research Award, the Distinguished Teaching Award, several summer research fellowships, and a Mazzotti Award in Women’s Leadership.
Representative Publications
Tromp, C., Sternberg, R. J., & Ambrose, D. (2024). Constraints in Creativity. Edited book. Brill.
Tromp, C. (2025). The Mr. Plumbean approach: How focusing constraints anchor creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 37(1), 44-55.
Tromp, C., & Glăveanu, V. P. (2025). . Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 19(2), 247–256.
Tromp, C., & Baer, J. (2024). Focusing the search for creative outcomes in STEM education: The role of constraints. (Invited chapter). In D. Tillman (Ed.), Creativity loves constraints, pp. 23-38. Springer.
Medeiros, K. E., Damadzic, A., & Tromp, C. (2024). A socio-cognitive perspective on constraints and creativity. (Invited chapter). In S. T. Hunter & R. Reiter-Palmon (Eds.) Handbook of Organizational Creativity (2nd Edition). Elsevier.
Tromp, C. (2024). . Psychological Reports, 127 (4) 1818-1843.
Sternberg, R. J., Tromp, C., & Karami, S. (2022). Intelligence, creativity, and wisdom are situated in the interaction among person x task x situation. In R. J. Sternberg, J. Kaufman, & S. Karami (Eds.), Intelligence, creativity, and wisdom: Are they really distinct? Palgrave-Macmillan.
Tromp, C. (2023). . General Review of Psychology, 27(1), 41-61.
Tromp, C., & Baer, J. (2022). . Thinking Skills and Creativity, 46, 101184.
Tromp, C., & Sternberg, R. J. (2022a). . Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication.
Tromp, C., & Sternberg, R. J. (2022b). . 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:
- BBC Radio:
- CNN: More is less:
- NY Magazine:
- The Academic Minute:
- Inside Higher Ed:
Teaching
- Creativity and Innovation
- Research Methods: Organizational Psychology
- Statistics and Research Design
- Research Methods: Cognition
- Organizational Psychology
- Child Development
- Senior Seminar