Personality and biological markers of creativity

The aim of the present study was to test (i) Eysenck's theory that psychoticism (P) should be related to creativity, (ii) whether testosterone (T), due to its association with P claimed in the literature, can be identified as a biological marker of creativity, and (iii) whether the SEEK dimension of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) was also related to creativity and to testosterone due to its relationship to Sensation Seeking. In a sample of N = 48 male and female subjects, test scores on figural, verbal, and numeric creativity were compared between high and low P‐scorers as well as between high and low SEEK‐scorers. Effects were controlled for fluid intelligence as measured by Cattell's CFT‐3 and crystallized intelligence as assessed by the Structure‐of‐Intelligence‐Test (Intelligenz‐Struktur‐Test, I‐S‐T 2000 R). Neither a main effect of P or T nor an interaction effect P×T on creativity could be obtained. Instead, SEEK was related to all components of creativity and explained more than 15% of the variance of total creativity. Moreover, significant differences in SEEK could be explained by differences in T, independently of gender. Furthermore, 39% of the variance of SEEK could be explained by the two uncorrelated indicators testosterone and creativity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality,creativity and latent inhibition

The current study set out to investigate the relationship between creativity, multi‐dimensional schizotypy and personality more generally. This was achieved by analysing scores on a range of personality scales and measures of creativity, where it was found that the creativity measures were more closely related to asocial‐schizotypy than positive‐schizotypy. The study also sought to test Eysenck's prediction ( 1993 , 1995 ) that, given the putative relationship between creativity and psychosis‐proneness, high psychosis‐prone scoring individuals and high creativity scoring individuals would demonstrate the same cognitive style of ‘overinclusiveness’ on latent inhibition. However, the results failed to demonstrate any evidence of a shared ‘widening of the associative horizon’ between high creativity and high psychosis‐prone scorers. The findings are discussed in relation to multi‐dimensional schizotypy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality and intelligence as predictors of creativity

Participants completed the Big Five NEO-FFI (Costa & McCrae, 1992) as a personality measure, the Wonderlic Personnel Test (Wonderlic, 1992) as an intelligence measure, and four measures of creativity: Guilford’s (1967) unusual uses divergent thinking test; the Biographical Inventory of Creative Behaviours; a self-rated measure of creativity; and the Barron–Welsh Art Scale to measure creative judgement. Extraversion was significantly related to all four measures of creativity. Intelligence failed to add any incremental variance in predicting the creativity scores. Multiple regression indicated that up to 47% of the variance in divergent thinking scores can be accounted for by the Big Five personality traits. Personality correlates to creativity vary as a function of the creativity measure.     

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire scales and paper-and-pencil tests related to creativity

Pearson correlations for scores on scales of the 1975 version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire with measures of schizotypy, hypomania, and creative traits are reported for 625 undergraduates. The Psychoticism scores are correlated .30 with Hypomanic traits, .25 with Perceptual Aberration, and .20 with the How Do You Think, a test of attitudes and activities related to creativity. Extraversion is also related to creativity-relevant scores. Results support a broad and nonspecific role for the Psychoticism scale in relation to both creativity and subclinical symptomatology.     

Personality correlates of creativity among a sample of Jamaican adolescents

This exploratory research was designed to investigate personality correlates of creativity among a sample of 275 Jamaican adolescents, selected randomly from the fifth forms of eight high schools. A battery of 19 measures—8 tapping creativity and 11 tapping personality—was administered to this sample. Correlational analysis showed a number of significant relationships between the creativity and personality variables for the entire sample and few differences in the pattern of relationships when comparisons were made between the sexes. The outcomes of the investigation were in many ways supportive of international trends in creativity research.     

Personality and creativity in realistic,investigative, artistic,social, and enterprising college majors

Despite much research on how interests are related to personality and creativity, comparatively little work has focused on how different college majors as categorized by the RIASEC model compare on these constructs. In this study, 3295 college students (207 Realistic, 1945 Investigative, 447 Artistic, 480 Social, and 216 Enterprising) completed a five-factor personality measure, a brief self-report of creativity, and the Compound Remote Associates Task (CRAT). Investigative and Artistic majors scored higher on openness and self-assessed creativity than Realistic and Social majors, and Investigative majors were much more agreeable than other majors.     

Psychoticism and creativity

Eysenck and Eysenck (1976) cited a number of studies showing that creativity and originality are associated with high scores on their Psychoticism factor, P. In this study, we examined the generality of this claim by using a different set of creativity measures, scales from the Comprehensive Ability Battery (Hakstian & Cattell, 1976) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975), with a sample of 173 students. No appreciable overlap was found between the creativity scales and P. A number of possible explanations for this result are discussed, and we concluded that this finding may cast doubt on the generality of the link between creativity and P.     

易之"生"意与理学的生生之学

"生生之谓易"既是哲学家对宇宙相状的揭示,也是"易"本身的性质。从"天地之大德日生"到"易简"之善和"复其见天地之心",贯穿的都是同一个"生"意。理学继承前人又广加扩展,天地生物之心既是静与动的综合集成,又是天地生物与仁德流行的统一。从静体到动用,从"动之端"到"动之机",现象存在虽有生死显微,"生"之理却通贯不息。     

Psychic bisexuality and creativity

This contribution is complementary to a previous publication (Ferraro, 2001), which examined the role of bisexuality in psychopathology. This second article concentrates on the relationship between psychic bisexuality and creativity. After a brief clarification regarding the relationship between psychic bisexuality and option of gender, the author takes up two meanings of the bisexuality concept, both of which are of pre-eminent significance to him. The first is psychic bisexuality as a quality of the self related to the feminine and masculine as pure elements; the second is psychic bisexuality as an expression of identification with both parents, mother and father. The author presents the thoughts of various authors who have examined the link between psychic bisexuality and creativity, based on the same foundation, and then puts forward the hypothesis that in some blocks of creativity an alteration to psychic bisexuality can be traced. This hypothesis is illustrated through two clinical cases that focus on the dynamics impeding creative capacities and illustrate how these dynamics are gradually overcome. In the first more detailed case, he presents a lack of masculine elements, while in the second, using a brief part of an analysis, he presents a predominant lack of feminine elements.     

Humour and creativity*

‘He laughed to free himself from his mind's bondage’ (James Joyce). ‘It is very strange that I never get any encouragement from psychiatric audiences when I want to talk about art or humour’ (Gregory Bateson). ‘Let us not always assume that a sense of humour is always mocking. It could be loving’ (Gregory Bateson).