The Creative Personality

1
The Creative Personality

• September 8, 2005

2
Overview

• Course Administration
• Discuss innovation papers
• Discuss team assignments for term paper
• Creative Personality
• What are the traits associated with creative
  versus average individuals?
• Hand out personality test results.

3
Creativity Intelligence

• Major question Are creative people just really
  smart?
• Intelligence defined as (1). That which
  qualified observers define as intelligence on
  the basis of repeated observations of behavior in
  many situations. (2) the entire domain of human
  cognitive abilities, (3) That which IQ tests
  measure.
• General focus on IQ.

4
Being Smart Isnt Enough

• Creative adult artists, scientists,
  mathematicians and writers score high on tests of
  general intelligence.
• Creative people are often perceived to be more
  intelligent than less creative people even in
  samples were tests revealed that no such
  correlation exists.
• Yet, correlations between IQ and creative
  achievement in these samples are not very
  significant (r -05 to .31). Why?
• IQ matters up to about 120 beyond which
  intelligence does not matter.

5
In Search of the Creative Personality

• 3 major categories of people are described as
  being creative.
• People who are generally recognized to have
  produced something of cultural value.
• Low base rate in the population therefore
  difficult to study and to predict in advance.
• People designated as creative because they
  performed well on a task or a test.
• Give responses that are original and appropriate.
• People identified as creative because of their
  lifestyle and attitudes.
• Traits associated with creative as opposed to
  average individuals.

6
Enormous number of studies!

• Populations tested
• Art Pre-school children, elementary school
  children, high school students, undergraduates,
  students in art school, architecture students,
  professional architects, undergraduate
  cinematographers.
• Literature Elementary school children, high
  school students, college students, professional
  writers.
• Science Technology Elementary school children,
  high school students, undergraduates, young
  adults, graduate students, psychologists,
  inventors, mathematicians, chemists, engineers,
  research scientists.

7
Converge on several key traits

• Socially Positive Traits
• 1. Broad interests.
• 2. Attraction to complexity
• 3. High energy
• 4. Independence of judgment
• 5. Preference for autonomy
• 6. Self confidence

8
Creative Personality Traits

• Socially Neutral Traits
• 1. Individualistic
• 2. Rebellious
• 3. Able to accommodate conflicting traits in
  ones self concept (psychological androgyny).

9
Creative Personality Traits

• Socially Negative Traits
• Egotistical
• Snobbish
• Cynical
• Impulsive

10
Differences by Field

• Creative Scientists More emotionally stable,
  venturesome and self assured than the average
  individual.
• Creative writers and Artists Less stable, less
  venturesome and more guilt prone than the average
  individual.

11
Specific Traits

• Adaptor versus Innovator Doing things better
  versus doing things differently.
• Openness to Experience Subscale of the OCEAN
  personality taxonomy.
• Inquisitive when faced with novel situations.
• Readily adapt to change.
• Creatively solve complex problems.
• Tolerance of Ambiguity Propensity to view novel
  situations as either threatening or desirable.
• Intolerance of ambiguity associated with anxiety
  related problems, panic disorders.

12
Interpreting the Results

• Highest Scores
• Gough Personality Inventory Jose Armenta
• Openness to Experience Chris Whitcomb
• Tolerance of Ambiguity Nick Peone
• Questions
• Any surprises?
• Any objections?
• Next weekHow do creative people think?