Creativity

Introduction

Creativity is usually defined as the capacity to generate ideas that are jointly original and adaptive. Original ideas are those that have a low statistical likelihood of occurring in the population, whereas adaptive ideas are those that satisfy certain scientific, aesthetic, or practical criteria. An idea that is original but maladaptive is more likely to be considered a sign of mental disturbance than creativity, while an idea that is adaptive but unoriginal will be dismissed as mundane or perfunctory rather than creative. Although almost universal consensus exists on this abstract definition of the phenomenon, much less agreement is apparent regarding how best to translate this definition into concrete instruments or tests.

Tests

Psychologists wishing to assess individual differences in creativity have a tremendous range of instruments to choose from. Therefore, before investigators can settle on any single test or battery of tests, it is first necessary that they address four major questions:

• 1
  What is the age of the target population? Some measures are specifically designed for [Page 277]school-age populations, whether children or adolescents, whereas other measures are targeted at adult populations.
• 2
  Which domain of creativity is to be assessed? Not only may creativity in the arts differ substantially from creativity in the sciences, but also there may appear significant contrasts within specific arts (e.g. music vs. literature) or sciences (e.g. mathematics vs. invention).
• 3
  What is the magnitude of creativity to be evaluated? At one extreme is everyday problem-solving ability (‘little c’ creativity) where at the other extreme is eminent creativity that earns awards and honours appropriate to the domain (‘Big C’ Creativity, or genius).
• 4
  Which manifestation of creativity is to be targeted? That is, the investigator must decide whether creativity manifests itself primarily as a product, a process, or a person. Some instruments postulate that creativity takes the form of a concrete product, others assume that creativity involves a particular type of cognitive process, while still others posit that creativity entails a personal disposition of some kind.

Of these four questions, it is the last that is perhaps the most crucial. Assessment strategies differ dramatically depending on whether creativity is best manifested as a product, process, or person. As a consequence, the description of creativity measures that follows will be divided into three subsections.