Creativity researchers have long paid careful attention to individual creativity, beginning with studies of well-known geniuses, and expanding to personality, biographical, cognitive, and social-psychological studies of individual creative behavior. Little is known, however, about the everyday psychological experience and associated creative…

What are the personal characteristics that distinguish the creative scientist from the less creative scientist? This study used the concept of implicit theory in a four-part study of scientists and graduate students in science. In the first part, we collected 1382 adjective words that describe the personal characteristics of the creative scientist…

Analysis of personality traits of eminent persons (1450-1850) revealed four very common traits: intelligence, questioning, curiosity, and a strong desire to excel. (CL)

A study examined the distinguishing characteristics of 37 successful creative problem-solving (CPS) facilitators. Common traits included flexibility, ability to lead a CPS session successfully, confidence in the process, involving the right people, listening to the client and resource members, and interpersonal and group-dynamic skills. (Author/CR)

Using 50 psychology undergraduates, an attempt was made to find positive correlations between transliminality (psychological material crossing thresholds into or out of consciousness) and creative personality and figure-complexity preference. Only the correlation between transliminality and creative personality was significant. (Contains…

A study of 452 inventors found that inventorship is a form of creativity with definitions and criteria and with quantitative measures, inventors with high rates of inventiveness more often have outstanding achievements, and a majority of inventors exhibit a random pattern of inventivity (rate of production of patents by an individual inventor).…

In the first study of the term "genius", 349 undergraduates nominated three geniuses in 1984, 1991, 1993, 1994, and 1997. Einstein was regarded as a stereotypical genius, while other nominees were subjective and transitory. In the second study, nominated geniuses were agreed to on only 26.2 percent of possible occasions. (Contains…

The paper points out research showing that entrepreneurs can be described as mildly sociopathic. It argues that further empirical research in this area is needed and outlines a proposal to survey 300 entrepreneurs and a control sample to further understand the nature of entrepreneurial behavior. (JDD)

This article discusses characteristics of creative people (problem sensitivity, idea fluency, originality, and flexibility); the importance of managers appreciating the work styles of creative people; and seven characteristics of an organizational climate that encourages creativity. (DB)

In this study, 143 creativity researchers completed a survey to rate the importance of various traits and developmental influences on creative achievement. Behaviors in the Motivational Composite were rated as most important for recognized creative achievement, followed by problem finding and questioning skills, and traits reflecting adaptive…

This article presents a model to evaluate the imagination and creativity of strategic planners. Characteristics recommended for strategic planners include the cognitive styles of extroverted, intuitive, feeling, and perceptive; marginal personality orientation, which allows for an open-minded viewpoint with integrative skills; internal locus of…

A Likert style questionnaire consisting of 60 adjectives was administered to 451 undergraduates from Beijing, Guangzhou, Taipei, and Hong Kong. Results show the core characteristics of creativity that were identical in all the samples are originality, innovativeness, thinking and observation skills, flexibility, willingness to try, self…