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Institute of Personality Assessment and Research

The Institute of Personality Assessment and Research (IPAR) was where the study of personality characteristics related to creativity emerged as a major topic in the 1950s, samples of highly creative individuals were then intensively assessed, and many aspects of creative personality have been studied. This entry describes IPAR's origins and main contributions to creativity research.

Origins and Early Years

IPAR was founded at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949 to study leadership, originality, soundness, and other kinds of effective functioning using empirical techniques of the relatively new field of personality psychology. The first director, Donald MacKinnon, had studied with Henry Murray at Harvard and headed one of the stations of the Office of Strategic Services in World War II. MacKinnon brought together a talented staff with ...

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