Research has often described the gifted as creative due to superior intellectual capabilities, problem finding skills and internal task motivation, endowing them with what one may describe as special “creative competencies” (Winner, 2000; Knight, 1995; Monks & Mason, 1993; Sternberg & Lubart, 1993; Runco, 1987; Renzulli, 1986). This study looks at the role of implicit theories of creativity in the display of creative competencies in gifted and non-gifted adolescents. Gifted adolescents from an enrichment camp and gifted and non-gifted students from several schools completed generative and divergent thinking tasks, implicit theory adjective checklists, measures of locus of control and personal efficacy, and questionnaires of self-reported creativity and entity/incremental views of creativity. These students were also given a survey on participation in creative hobbies. Results indicated that for both gifted groups, greater endorsement of positive personal implicit theories of creativity was significantly predictive of creative hobby participation beyond performance on creativity measures or locus of control. However, creative test performance seemed to be the biggest predictor of hobby participation in the non-gifted group. Furthermore, examining the structure of such implicit theories of creativity in the self and other, gifted individuals from either sample had similar implicit theories including adventurousness and an energetic nature as key components of their beliefs about their own and others' creativity. There were also several similarities noted between the gifted and non-gifted school samples with both performing similarly on the measures of divergent thinking and holding similarly more external locus of control as compared with the gifted camp sample. Sample differences and their impact on the content of implicit theories of creativity as well as the role those theories play in creative performance is discussed.
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