Personality traits and behavior characteristics related to creativity in highly intellectually able students.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a cluster of personality traits and behavior characteristics could be identified that were related to creativity as defined by the subscales on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking - Verbal Form B (TTCT).Children used in the study were 78 volunteers (ages 16-18), from a special residential school for high achieving students. There were 38 females and 40 males 3 black, 55 white, 4 Hispanic, 13 Asian, one Native American, and 2 who listed their ethnicity as "other."The TTCT was used to assess creative potential. The Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) - Self-Report of Personality (SRP-A) and Parent Rating Scale (PRS-A) were used to assess personality and behavior traits. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) was used to assess the subjects' patterns of behavior along the broad dimensions of introversion and extroversion.Multiple regression analyses indicated that for Fluency and Creativity Average Score, locus of control, withdrawal, and extroversion contributed significantly to the variability when in combination with each other. For Flexibility and Originality, multiple regression analyses revealed locus of control and withdrawal contributed significantly to the variability when in combination with each other.The addition of SAT scores to the model revealed that for Fluency and Flexibility, the Verbal SAT score (VSAT), locus of control and extroversion contributed significantly to the variability when in concert with each other. For Originality, Verbal SAT (VSAT), Math SAT (MSAT) and locus of control contributed significantly to the variability when in combination with each other. For the Creativity Average Score (CAS), VSAT and locus of control contributed significantly to the variability when in concert with one another according to multiple regression analyses.Two personality traits, extroversion from the EPQ, and locus of control from the SRP-A, and one behavior characteristic, withdrawal from the PRS-A were found to be significantly related to creativity. These variables cluster in particular ways for subjects dependent on their subscale scores on the TTCT.