Shining Lights or Lone Wolves? Creativity and Self‐image in Primary School Children

Abstract

The relationship between self‐image and creativity was studied in primary school children. Earlier research points in two directions. Some researchers describe the creative child as well adjusted. Others provide a more nuanced picture in which less well‐behaved children can also be creative. Three different measures of creativity were used in this study: the Unusual Uses Test, an activity questionnaire and a perceptual test (the Creative Functioning Test). A self‐image inventory was used to measure participants' perceptions of their own skills, physical self, psychological health and relationships to others. The results showed no self‐image differences between children with high and low creativity. The creativity measures were significantly related, with the exception of the flexibility dimension of CFT. One possible explanation is that CFT measured another aspect of creativity. This was illustrated in a cluster analysis in relation to self‐image.

Teachers Are Not Always Right: Links between Teacher Ratings and Students' Creativity Scores, Self-Images and Self-Ratings in School Subjects

“…However, different creativity tests or assessments generally do show some agreement. Hoff and Carlsson [2] demonstrated that the three creativity tests used in this study were significantly associated. Why were the teachers and the creativity measurements so mismatched?…”

“…Parts of the results have been reported in another study [2] which was the first wave of data collection for this study. The second data collection was the teachers' assessments taking place approximately one year after the initial testing session (due to practical reasons) and these have not been reported elsewhere.…”

“…The items on this measure that probe creative activities and hobbies have been shown to be related to the Creative Functioning Test [25], and the entire Activity Questionnaire was related to the Alternate Uses test (r = .34, p = .05 in Hoff [24]; rs = .44, p = .01 in Hoff and Carlsson [2]. Homogeneity testing for the questionnaire as a whole gave a Cronbach Alpha of .64 [2]. [25] is a measure of cognitive flexibility, operationalized as the ability to shift flexibly between imaginative and rational thought.…”

“…Most creativity researchers agree that an operational definition of creativity must include the making of a product that is both novel and appropriate [1]. We also assume that creativity is a productive or generative, novel way of experiencing reality, including individuals' own selves [2,3].…”

Interactive Effects of Multicultural Experiences and Openness to Experience on Creative Potential

“…The test measures the assessee's ability to generate a large number of ideas and to devise different strategies of using a common object (Torrance, 1974). The assessee is required to think of the uses of a common object, such as the use of garbage bags, cardboard boxes, or a brick (Bolen & Torrance, 1978;Glover, 1976;Hoff & Carlsson, 2002;Lissitz & Willhoft, 1985). Following the usual procedures in the previous studies, we instructed the participants in the current study to list as many uses for garbage bags as possible.…”