An Improved Taxonomy of Creativity Measures Based on Salient Task Attributes

Abstract

The assessment of creativity presents major challenges. The many competing and complementary ideas on measuring creativity have resulted in a wide diversity of measures, making it difficult for potential users to decide on their appropriateness. Prior research has proposed creativity assessment taxonomies, but we argue that these have shortcomings because they often were not designed to (a) assess the essential assessment features and (b) are insufficiently specified for reliably categorizing extant measures. Based on prior categorization approaches, we propose a new framework for categorizing creativity measures including the following attributes: (a) measurement approach (self-report, other-report, ability tests), (b) construct (e.g., creative interests and attitudes, creative achievements, divergent thinking), (c) data type generated (e.g., questionnaire data vs. accomplishments counts), (d) prototypical scoring method (e.g., consensual assessment technique; CAT), and (e) psychometric problems. We identified 228 creativity measures appearing in the literature since 1900 and classified each measure according to their task attributes by two independent raters (rater agreement Cohen’s kappa .83 to 1.00 for construct). We provide a summary of convergent validity evidence and psychometric shortcomings. We conclude with recommendations for using the taxonomy and some psychometric desiderata for future research.