Identification of Personality and Cognitive Indicators of Creative Potential

DS 86: Proceedings of The Fourth International Conference on Design Creativity,Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

Year: 2016
Editor: Julie Linsey, Maria Yang, and Yukari Nagai
Author: Barry, Kudrowitz; Aaron, Free; Leaetta, Hough
Series: ICDC
ISBN: 978-1-904670-82-7

Abstract

In this study, we explore the relationships between select cognitive assessments of
creativity, self-assessment of creativity, personality traits, and a series of “real-world” creative
challenges. A group of 105 students received the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT),
the Alternative Uses Test (ALT), the Remote Associates Test (RAT) and a newly developed
personality test, the Innovation Quest Tool Characteristics Checklist (IQTCC). The selfassessment
of creativity showed a very strong statistically significant positive correlation with
the IQTCC Creativity Scale. When comparing these assessments to the “real-world” creative
outcomes, an individual’s creative personality traits are a better predictor than cognitive tests of
their abilities with an everyday creative task such as creating a new type of cookie. There was no
obvious relationship between any of the assessments and a client-based creativity task invoking
the possibility that different underlying individual difference characteristics relate to creativity as
compared to innovation.

Keywords: creativity, innovation, assessment, personality, TTCT