The creative spectrum of authors of fantasy¹

Creativity, Intelligence, and Personality

“…For example, investigators have reported and commented upon different patterns of results for males and females related to creative working styles (Helson 1967b(Helson , 1968a and products (Helson 1977); relationship of DT test performances to indices of psychological androgyny (Jones, Chernovetz & Hansson 1978); personality characteris tics associated with barrier resourcefulness in preschool children (Block, Block & Harrington 1975); personality correlates of artistic achievement and status (Schaefer 1969b, Barron 1972, Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi 1976); cognitive-perceptual correlates of artistic achievement (Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi 1976); correlations among creative activity-achievement checklist scores (Hocevar 1976); correlations between imagery and cre ativity indices (Forisha 1978b); correlates of RAT scores (Gall & Mendel sohn 1967, Mendelsohn & Covington 1972, Mendelsohn 1976); validities of divergent thinking test scores (Vernon 1972b); behavioral correlates of DT test scores among kindergarteners (Singer & Rummo 1973); correlations between defensiveness and DT scores in children (Wallach & Kogan 1965, Kogan & Morgan 1969; reliabilities of DT test scores (Kogan & Pankove 1972, Torrance & Alliotti 1969; correlations between biographical inven tory scales of creativity and indices of openness to experience and sensation Annu. Rev.…”

“…Led by the pioneering efforts of Ravenna Helson (1966aHelson ( ,b, 1967aHelson ( ,b, 1968aHelson ( ,b, 1970Helson ( , 1971Helson ( , 1973aHelson ( ,b, 1974Helson ( , 1977Helson ( , 1977Helson ( -1978Helson ( , 1978a, many cre ativity investigators turned their attention to the psychology of creativity in women, to the possibility that different stories must be told about creative men and creative women, and to the possible roles played by such con structs as "psychological masculinity," "matriarchal consciousness," and "psychological androgyny." STUDIES OF CREATIVE WOMEN Studies and reviews of creative women focused on women engaged in art (Nochlin 1971(Nochlin , 1979Greer, 1979); writing (Olsen 1970(Olsen , 1978Spacks 1972;Showalter 1971;Helson 1973b); art and literature (Anastasi & Schaefer 1969;Schaefer 1969aSchaefer ,b, 1970bSchaefer , 1971bSchaefer , 1972bSchaefer ,c, 1973Bachtold & Werner 1973); science (Walberg 1969b;Bach told & Werner 1972); mathematics (Helson 197 1); psychology (Bachtold & Werner 1970); elementary school teaching (Torrance, Tan & Allman 1970); college teaching (Groth 1975); and other assorted activities (Helson 1966a(Helson ,b, 1967a(Helson , 1968bTorrance 1972a;Suter & Domino 1975;Yu 1977;Blaubergs 1978;…”

“…LITERATURE Investigators studied personality characteristics associated with creative writing among elementary school children (Milgram et al 1977); high school students (Schaefer & Anastasi 1968, Holland & Baird 1968, Anastasi & Schaefer 1969, Schaefer 1969a; college students (Korb & Frankiewicz 1979); and professional writers (Helson 1970,b, Bachtold & Werner 1973, Helson 1977.…”

Cognitive style and literary regression A study of student writers1

“…The success of the present investigation recommends further investigations of possible mechanisms underlying regression in the service of the ego. As Helson (1977) observed, such investigations might best proceed by employing actual creative products as the source of the criterion variables, as opposed to "tests" of creativity (Mednick, 1962) or "works" created in the laboratory (Pine & Holt, 1960).…”

“…Martindale's (1975) adaptation of Holt's (1978) coding scheme was followed to specify various indicators of primary process cognition-primitive, illogical, drive-dominated thought. Martindale (1975) profitably employed a rigorous word-count procedure in analyzing poems, but the present research used a judgmental procedure (Helson, 1970(Helson, , 1977 in which an entire work was classified as regressive or nonregressive with respect to a given technique. As Martindale (1975, p. 139) himself observed: "Of course, many aspects of such thought [regressive thought] do not exhibit themselves in a manner that would be picked up from simple word counts.…”