Creative potential: assessment issues and the EPoC Battery / Potencial creativo: temas de evaluación y batería EPoC

Abstract

Creative potential can be conceptualized as an ability to produce original ideas that have value in their context. This ability can be measured in three different ways, namely by examining (a) accomplishments or (b) ingredients (abilities and traits) underlying creativity or (c) through contextualized tasks that simulate real-world creative work. The Evaluation of Creative Potential (EPoC) Battery offers a contextualized measure of divergent-exploratory and convergent-integrative thinking processes applied in several content domains (visual art, verbal-literary, social, scientific, maths, music and body movement). The domain specificity of creative ability is represented by a profile of scores. Creative giftedness can be detected using this type of battery. The assessment of creative potential provides an opportunity for identification, orientation, individualized educational programmes and analyses of the effects of creativity training programmes.     

高二理科生物理问题创造性解决的表象特征研究

物理问题创造性解决是一个发散思维和聚合思维交替运行的过程,而表象对问题的创造性解决具有重要作用。本研究通过自编的物理问题对天津市某中学109名高二理科学生进行物理问题创造性解决测验,探讨高中理科学生物理问题创造性解决中的表象特征。验证了表象与物理问题创造性解决中的发散思维具有显著的正相关,与聚合思维无显著相关。对109名高二理科学生K聚类分析发现：物理问题解决过程中,高创造性和中等程度创造性的学生人数较少,而低创造性的学生人数较多;表象丰富性很高和较高的学生较少,表象丰富性较低的学生较多。     

Assessment of the Long Term Effects of the Master of Science Degree in Creative Studies on its Graduates

This article will report the results of a study that was conducted to determine the long-term impact of the Master of Science Degree in Creative Studies, at Buffalo State College, on the personal and professional lives of the program graduates. A questionnaire designed to assess how graduate study in creativity has impacted graduates' personal and professional lives was sent to all program graduates. Analysis of the responses of the 38 Creative Studies graduates who completed the questionnaire indicated that study in creativity has significantly influenced their lives and is an integral part of their personal and professional activities. The authors would like to thank the following individuals for their valuable assistance in the development of this study: Scott Isaksen, Mary Murdock, Donald Treffinger, E. Paul Torrance, Ruth Noller, Sidney Parnes, Andrew Joniak, Gerard Puccio, K. Brian Dorval, and graduates of the Master of Science Degree in Creative Studies at Buffalo State College.     

The Creative Mode of Being

Because of misperceptions about the nature of creativity, many creative children are misunderstood in and out of their classrooms. Based on a close association with creative adults and childrenn, the authors postulate that creativity is a state of being that is challenged by the socialization process in Western civilization. The authors envisage two differing states of being namely, an essential and a conventional. These states represent end points on a continuum. Creative adults speak of their struggle to try and regain something of their original state of being. Understanding creative children who are closer to the essential state is important for their emotional well-being and the nurturing of their creativity.     

Environmental and Psychological Factors that Influence the Creative Excellence of Brazilian and Portuguese Women

There is increasing recognition of the importance of creativity for social development. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there were differences among Brazilian and Portuguese women recognized for their creative excellence in relation to the psychological and environmental factors that might impact their achievements. The sample was composed of 33 women; 18 who were socially recognized for excellence in creativity in different areas (nine Brazilian, nine Portuguese) were compared to 15 who were not recognized (nine Brazilian, six Portuguese). The instruments used were the Biographical Questionnaire of Creative Women, a semi‐structured interview guide, and the Creative Production Analysis Guide. Non‐parametric tests indicated significant differences in environmental factors and personal cognitive characteristics between the creative and non‐creative women when compared within each country. However, no significant differences among Brazilian and Portuguese creative women were found, thus indicating that they present similar psychological profiles.     

Cultural Influence on Creativity: The Relationship between Asian Culture (Confucianism) and Creativity among Korean Educators

Creativity is a very complex interaction among a person, a field, and a culture (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988). People vary in their native capacity for creativity; however, an individual's interaction with the macrocosm can foster creative expression. East Asian cultures, which include Korean culture, are based upon the principals of Confucianism. The impact of Confucianism on creativity is reviewed and the relationship between Confucianism and creativity was explored in the present study. The study involved comparing 184 Korean educators' scores on a measure of Confucianism (Eastern‐Western Perspective Scale) with their scores on a measure of creativity (Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking‐Figural). The results indicate that Confucianism is negatively related to creativity. Specifically, some elements of Confucianism, Unconditional Obedience, Gender Inequality, Gender Role Expectations, and Suppression of Expression, may present cultural blocks to creativity. Further, Confucianism was found to be negatively related to Adaptive creative type and Creative Streangths, but not Innovative creative type, which indicates that Adaptive creative type may be more sensitive to, and thus more influenced by, culture.     

Creativity,Loss, and Character. Balakirev: The Man Who Had at One Time All of Music in His Hands,But…

For many centuries, the professional literature has discussed the complicated relationship between creativity and psychopathology. Creative people reproduce their feelings using their creative skills, and it is only natural that one's mental state may influence art. This article describes a special type of creativity that is associated with early loss and bereavement. In this form, creative work plays an important role in coping with loss, especially traumatic loss, in early development. Those who are bereaved, especially when young, may use creative work as a transitional object linking them to a deceased loved one, usually a parent or sibling. This article also describes the life, creativity, character, and illness of one of the most famous Russian musicians of the late 19th century: Miliy Balakirev. Balakirev's use of musical creativity as a method of coping with the loss and the consequent effects on his psychological state during his lifetime is apparent in his letters, friend's memories, and biographies.     

Can Creativity Beat Death? A Review and Evidence on the Existential Anxiety Buffering Functions of Creative Achievement

The relationship between creativity and symbolic immortality had been long acknowledged by scholars. In a review of the literature, we found 12 papers that empirically examined the relationship between creativity and mortality awareness using a Terror Management Theory paradigm, overall supporting the notion that creativity plays an important role in the management of existential concerns. Also, a mini meta‐analysis of the impact of death awareness on creativity resulted in a small‐medium weighted mean effect. We examined the existential anxiety buffering functions of creative achievement as assessed by the Creative Achievement Questionnaire in a sample of 108 students. It was found that at high, but not low, levels of creative goals, creative achievement was associated with lower death‐thought accessibility under mortality salience in comparison to controls. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical report of the anxiety buffering functions of creative achievement among people for whom creativity constitutes a central part of their cultural worldview. The current findings support the notion that creative achievement may be an avenue for symbolic immortality, particularly among individuals who value creativity. Implications for understanding death‐related creativity motivations and their impact on individuals and society and for the promotion of creative achievement and creative motivation are discussed.     

Identity and Creativity

Emerging adulthood is a period for exploration of identity aspects including occupational identity, and creative activity may contribute to or result from this exploration. Grounded in several conceptions of identity, particularly that of Erik Erikson, this research tested the prediction that identity processes predict creativity. In 2 studies (N = 250), university students completed measures of identity (Berzonsky's Identity Styles Inventory; Cheek's Aspects of Identity Questionnaire), plus creative potential (Creative Personality Scale), accomplishments (behavior checklist and open-ended listing), and products (drawings, stories). In keeping with prediction, these findings demonstrated that those who are information-seeking in style and emphasize their personal identity have the greatest potential creativity and evidence the greatest number of creative accomplishments in their young lives, whereas those emphasizing normative or collective identities evidenced fewer accomplishments. These identity variables contributed over and above the effects of gender and verbal ability. Results fit well with past findings in the creativity literature but represent a new direction for identity research and theory.     

开发儿童创造力的实验研究

采用吉尔福特的智力结构模型,结合现代心理学对创造力的研究观点,编出一套实验教材,为学生开设每周２课时的创造活动课,对学生进行创造力的全面培养。研究结果表明,创造活动课促进了学生智力和创造力的发展,同时也促进了学生其它学科的学习。     

Evaluating the Distorting Effects of Inattentive Responding and Social Desirability on Self‐Report Scales in Creativity and the Arts

Inattentiveness and social desirability might be particularly problematic for self‐report scales in creativity and arts research. Respondents who are inattentive or who present themselves favorably will score highly on scales that yield positively skewed distributions and that assess socially valued constructs, such as scales measuring creativity and arts knowledge. A total of 204 undergraduates completed an online survey with several self‐report measures (the Creative Achievement Questionnaire, the Biographical Inventory of Creative Behavior, and the Aesthetic Fluency Scale). Many metrics of inattentiveness were included, such as directed response items, self‐reported attentiveness, and scales to catch inconsistent and patterned responses. The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding measured facets of social desirability. We found high rates of inattentive responding. A latent class analysis indicated that around 25% of the sample was potentially inattentive, and inattentive respondents received higher scores on the creativity and arts scales. Excluding problematic participants increased the effect sizes of interest, consistent with the coarsening effect of careless participants. Social desirability, in contrast, had essentially no relationship with the creativity and arts scales. These findings suggest that social desirability is probably less of a problem than researchers fear, but that inattentiveness is an underappreciated threat. Some practical guidelines are suggested.     

Creative Personality and Anticreative Environment for High School Dropouts

The study examined the possible roles that creativity plays in students dropping out of high school. It used data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88), the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS: 2002), and 87 high school students from a low income area in southeastern Michigan. NELS and ELS questions related to creative personality and anticreative school environment were selected and asked of students. The students’ responses were compared to their scores on measures of creativity (Runco Ideational Behavior Scale, Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, & Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students). The NELS respondents who showed creative personality were identified and examined whether their creativity related to dropping out. The results of logistic regression analyses indicated that the questions selected from NELS and ELS that showed anticreative school environment have a negative correlation with the scores on the creativity measures, which affect students’ dropping out. An understanding of these students and their behavior will help promote creative students’ academic and lifelong success through appropriate classroom restructuring.     

小学儿童家庭环境、创意自我效能与创造力的关系

该文采用问卷法对473名小学五、六年级儿童的家庭环境、创意自我效能与创造力（创造性个性倾向和创造性思维）的关系进行调查,运用SPSS、AMOS等软件,进行数据的处理与分析。结果表明,家庭环境的知识性、创意自我效能与创造力之间显著正相关。创意自我效能在家庭环境、创造性个性倾向间,家庭环境的知识性与创造性思维的独创性间,家庭环境的知识性与创造力间起完全中介作用。     

Physical Activity Benefits Creativity: Squeezing a Ball for Enhancing Creativity

Studies in embodied cognition show that physical sensations, such as touch and movement, influence cognitive processes. Two studies were conducted to test whether squeezing a soft versus a hard ball facilitates different types of creativity. Squeezing a malleable ball would increase divergent creativity by catalyzing multiple or alternative ideas, whereas squeezing a hard ball would increase convergent creativity by facilitating only a single correct response. In Study 1, participants squeezed either a hard ball or a soft ball while completing the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), a divergent creativity test. The same procedures were used in Study 2 except that the TTCT was replaced with the Remote Associates Test, a convergent creativity test. Participants who squeezed a soft ball generated more original and diverse ideas (Study 1), whereas participants who squeezed a hard ball were better at coming up with a single correct answer (Study 2).     

Creativity and Lawbreaking

Lawbreaking and creativity are often conceptualized as alternative, almost competing, expressions of the general psychological disposition of deviance. Where the 2 occur together, they are mainly discussed in terms of lawbreaking by acknowledged creative people that is irrelevant to their creativity or is a byproduct of outspoken, reckless, or unbridled creativity. The deliberate application of creativity in the direct service of intentional lawbreaking is rarely discussed, possibly because of the positive connotations associated with creativity. In fact, although psychological studies mainly conceptualize it in terms of deficits, some lawbreaking involves generation of highly effective—even admirable—novelty, and some lawbreakers display psychological characteristics typically associated with creative individuals, so that a deficit model is inappropriate. Creative lawbreakers and law enforcers can be conceptualized as competitors in much the same way as businesses are competitors, and this suggests a fresh way of looking at law enforcement.     

Shining Lights or Lone Wolves? Creativity and Self‐image in Primary School Children

The relationship between self‐image and creativity was studied in primary school children. Earlier research points in two directions. Some researchers describe the creative child as well adjusted. Others provide a more nuanced picture in which less well‐behaved children can also be creative. Three different measures of creativity were used in this study: the Unusual Uses Test, an activity questionnaire and a perceptual test (the Creative Functioning Test). A self‐image inventory was used to measure participants' perceptions of their own skills, physical self, psychological health and relationships to others. The results showed no self‐image differences between children with high and low creativity. The creativity measures were significantly related, with the exception of the flexibility dimension of CFT. One possible explanation is that CFT measured another aspect of creativity. This was illustrated in a cluster analysis in relation to self‐image.     

Unfolding the Measurement of the Creative Personality

Gough's Creative Personality Scale (CPS) is a self‐report personality inventory for creativity assessment. We investigated the undimensionality and the response process on the CPS from an ideal point (unfolding) perspective. The Graded Unfolding Model (GUM) was used to model binary responses and participants were 228 engineering students who completed a Greek version of the CPS. Results support the undimensionality of the CPS construct and suggest that unfolding measurement models may provide new insights to the assessment of creativity.     

The Influence of Openness to Experience and Organizational Justice on Creativity

Creative performance is a desired organizational outcome that can be influenced by individual differences and contextual factors. An empirical investigation was conducted to study perceptions of organizational justice, an important situational variable, and its influence on individual creative performance. Literature suggests that organizations look to hire individuals who have individual differences that make them more inclined to produce creative outputs; thus, this investigation also sought to determine how openness to experience, a construct known to have a positive relationship with creative performance, might interact with justice perceptions. This investigation uncovered a main effect relationship between procedural justice and creativity, as well as provided evidence that openness to experience moderates the relationship between distributive justice and creativity.     

The Enhancement of Creativity*

Upon submission of this article, Dr. Hughes wrote the following acknowledgement: “With gratitude, I wish to record my debt to the Director of the Creative Science Program at New York University and my longtime friend, Myron A. Coler, who first made me aware of the importance of creativity.”     

Creativity and Intuition Revisited

This study used the recently revised Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and a variety of validated creativity measures to replicate a classic finding — that sensing‐intuition predicts creativity — and to evaluate whether the other MBTI scales add to the prediction of creativity. 94 undergraduates completed the MBTI (form M self‐scorable) and criterion measures including the Creative Personality Scale, an abbreviated Creative Behavior Inventory (self‐reported past accomplishments) and the Test of Creative Thinking‐Drawing Production (creative product ratings using consensual assessment). Results showed that intuition predicted all three criteria but that, contrary to expectation from past research, judging‐perceiving did not add to the prediction model. Thinking‐feeling emerged as a possible suppressor variable. We suggest that judging‐perceiving predicts creativity as an artifact of its relation with intuition and that the combination of intuition and feeling best characterizes high scorers on a composite creativity measure.