Individual and Environmental Influences on Chinese Student Creativity

Primarily using self-report questionnaires and psychometric tests in a sample of 357 Chinese high school students, this study examines how both individual and environmental factors can independently predict student creativity as measured by three different methods, including two product-orientated measures (story completion and collage making), two divergent thinking measures (circle task and picture completion), and one self-report inventory on divergent thinking attitudes. Two different types of theoretical models — the cognitive approach and confluence approach — are compared and contrasted. Based on previous research, this study uses the confluence approach to investigate the influences of individual (i.e. intelligence, personality, motivation, thinking styles, and knowledge) and environmental (i.e., school and family environment) factors on creativity. The results have confirmed the major hypothesis that both individual and environmental factors play decisive roles in Chinese student creativity. Implications of these findings are discussed. This paper also calls for a serious consideration of research on environmental influence on creativity and various mechanisms of this influence.