Self-reported
Creativity, Creativity, and Intelligence
Center for Cognitive
Science, Department of
Psychology
Introduction. Is creativity
related to other constructs such as intelligence or school achievement? The
relationship between intelligence and creativity has been shown to range from
nothing to a substantial correlation (Wallach & Kogan, 1965; Sternberg, 1985b). The magnitude of the relationship still remains controversial (for a review,
Sternberg & O¡¯hara, 1999). Although the remarkable
progress has been made in understanding creativity and intelligence, the varied
definitions of the constructs kept the contribution of each research limited.
Thus we first consider the tasks used in our study. Creativity measures used
most commonly in the literature require divergent thinking whereas intelligence
or school achievement tests are most focused on convergent thinking. A word
association task asks subjects to write the associated words with the given
word. This task requires divergent thinking. Similarly, other creativity
measures such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking(TTCT)
or a word association task would not relate to either intelligence or school
achievement.
What could we expect when we
simply ask people to rate their own creativity? Would those who think of
themselves as more creative show higher performance on the standardized
creativity measures? The correlation between self-rated and standardized
measures might help further understand creativity. This study explored the
relationship among self-rated creativity, objective creativity measures,
intelligence, and school achievement.
Method. Two hundred
undergraduate students took a subtest of the TTCT and the Cattell¡¯s
culture-free intelligence test. They also rated their own creativity on a scale
and responded on a word association task. Grades from a course based on exams
and reports were used as data for school achievement. The TTCT was scored
according to the streamlined scoring guide. The TTCT produced scores for
fluency, originality, elaboration, and creative strength. We added score for
originality (called K-originality) based on responses of Korean students.
Presented at 2002 APA Annual Convention, Aug.
22-25,
Address correspondence to:
Results. None of the TTCT scores was related
either to fluid intelligence or to school achievement (see Table 1 and Table2).
The self-rated creativity was significantly correlated with the TTCT scores(originality, K-originality, elaboration, and creative
strength) except fluency. It also showed a significant correlation with the
number of word association but not with either fluid intelligence or academic
achievement. We compared the high self-rated creativity group with the low
self-rated group. The high creativity group produced more numbers of word
association and higher scores in originality, K-originality, elaboration and
creative strength than the low creativity group (t(79)=3.30, 4.94, 2.56, 3.32
respectively, all p<.05; See Table 3 for means and standard deviations).
However, the two groups showed only a marginal difference in fluency (t(79)=1.76, p=.08). They did not differ either in
intelligence (t(78)=1.62, ns) or in school
achievement(t(79)=.07, ns).
Conclusions. The findings
support the claim that creativity (regardless of self-rated or measured by a
standardized test) is not related to either intelligence or school achievement.
This study also shows that each individual can evaluate one¡¯s creativity with certain accuracy. We speculate
that creativity is an aspect of each individual which reveals itself in certain aspects of the person¡¯s behaviors/thoughts. What¡¯s interesting, intelligence shares the same
characteristic. We suggest that creativity and intelligence are different
aspects or dimensions of our behavior with little overlap.
References.
Sternberg, R. J. (1985b). Implicit theories of intelligence, creativity, and wisdom.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(3), 607-627.
Sternberg, R. J.,
& O¡¯Hara, L. J.
(1998). Creativity and intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg(Ed.), Handbook of Creativity(pp.251-272).
Wallach,
M. A., & Kogan, N. (1965). Modes of thinking
in young children: A study of the creativity-intelligence distinction.
This work was supported by
the Brain Korea 21 project in 2002.
Table 1. Means and
standard
Table 3. Performance on the measures of
Deviations of the measures
the high vs. low self-rated creativity group
|
|
Low group |
High group |
|
Fluency |
15.08(4.24) |
16.94(5.17) |
|
Originality |
11.41(3.32) |
14.09(3.93)** |
|
K-originality |
5.31(3.12) |
8.88(3.28)** |
|
Elaboration |
1.27(.50) |
1.59(.67)* |
|
Strength |
.76(1.56) |
2.19(2.32)** |
|
Intelligence |
127.94(10.99) |
132.16(12.43) |
|
School ach. |
79.68(6.49) |
79.78(8.29) |
|
Word ass. |
6.00(2.41) |
7.82(4.54)* |
|
|
Mean |
SD |
|
Self-rated. |
4.30 |
1.23 |
|
Fluency |
15.51 |
4.94 |
|
Originality |
12.31 |
4.17 |
|
K-originality |
6.96 |
3.88 |
|
Elaboration |
1.32 |
4.56 |
|
Strength |
1.34 |
1.86 |
|
Intelligence |
129.62 |
11.40 |
|
School ach. |
78.85 |
6.53 |
|
Word ass. |
6.64 |
3.34 |
N=49
N=32
N=198,
* P<.05,
** p<.01 (t-test)
Colored area: TTCT scores
School ach.=School achievement
Self-rated.=self-rated creativity
Word ass.=Word association
School ach.=School achievement
Word ass.=Word association
Table 2. Correlations among the
measures
|
|
Creativity (self-rated) |
Flu |
Ori |
K-o |
Ela |
Str |
Int |
Sch |
|
Fluency (Flu) |
.08 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originality (Ori) |
.18* |
.87** |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
K-originality (K-o) |
.27** |
.56** |
.78** |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Elaboration (Ela) |
.18* |
.08 |
.07 |
.27** |
|
|
|
|
|
Strength (Str) |
.24** |
.02 |
.21** |
.48** |
.55** |
|
|
|
|
Intelligence (Int) |
.12 |
.07 |
.11 |
.07 |
.10 |
.12 |
|
|
|
School ach. (Sch) |
-.01 |
.12 |
.12 |
.10 |
.13 |
.09 |
.06 |
|
|
Word asso. (Wor) |
.19* |
.07 |
.14 |
.24** |
.33** |
.32** |
.16* |
.08 |
School ach.= School achievement, Word asso.=Word association
* p<.05, **p<.01
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