Psychology · Ch 1 — Variations in Psychological Attributes
Creativity and Intelligence
Creativity and Intelligence
The Relationship Between Creativity and Intelligence
A central question in psychology is whether creativity and intelligence are the same thing. The textbook clarifies this through a simple contrast.
Consider two students. Sunita is the model student: she follows instructions, grasps concepts quickly, reproduces answers accurately, and scores the highest grades. Yet she rarely produces an original idea of her own. Rita, on the other hand, is average in her studies and does not get top marks consistently. She prefers to learn independently, improvises new ways to help at home, and comes up with fresh approaches to her assignments. Sunita is seen as highly intelligent; Rita is seen as creative.
This example makes a key point: a person who learns fast and reproduces accurately is considered intelligent, but not necessarily creative — unless they also devise new ways of learning and doing.
What Research Shows
The pioneering work of Lewis Terman in the 1920s found that people with very high IQs were not necessarily creative. Creative ideas could come from individuals who did not have a very high IQ. In fact, follow-up studies of children identified as gifted showed that not one of them became well-known for creativity in some field as an adult.
Further research confirmed that both high and low levels of creativity can be found in highly intelligent children, and also in children of average intelligence. The same person can be both creative and intelligent, but it is not necessary that someone who is intelligent in the conventional sense must also be creative. Intelligence, by itself, does not ensure creativity.
The relationship between creativity and intelligence is positive, but only up to a point. A certain minimum level of intelligence is required for any creative act — you need the ability to acquire knowledge, comprehend, retain, and retrieve information. For example, a creative writer needs facility with language, an artist must understand the effect of a painting technique, and a scientist must be able to reason. Beyond this threshold, however, intelligence does not correlate well with creativity.
The Nature of Creativity Tests
Creativity tests were developed to assess the potential for creativity, in contrast to intelligence tests. Their most general feature is that they are open-ended. They allow a person to think of different answers to questions or problems, based on their own experiences. This encourages the individual to go in different directions. There are no specified correct answers, so there is freedom to use one’s imagination and express it in original ways.
Creativity tests primarily measure divergent thinking — the ability to produce a variety of ideas. They assess abilities such as:
- The ability to produce a large number of ideas (fluency) …