Conditions are examined under which the imposition of an extrinsic constraint upon performance of an activity can lead to decrements in creativity. Female college students worked on an art activity either with or without the expectation of external evaluation. In addition, subjects were asked to focus upon either the creative or the technical aspects of the activity, or they were given no specific focus. Finally, some subjects expecting evaluation were given explicit instructions on how to make their artworks. As predicted, subjects in the evaluation groups produced artworks significantly lower on judged creativity than did subjects in the nonevaluation control groups. The only evaluation group for which this pattern was reversed had received explicit instructions on how to make artworks that would be judged creative. A possible reconciliation of these two disparate results is proposed. (Author)