A correlation study on divergent thinking and creative potential of college students

Abstract

Objective To investigate characteristics and psychological mechanisms of creativity of college students by using divergent thinking tasks and creativity potential test. Methods Totally 150 college students were selected and assessed with three types of open-ended divergent thinking tasks (unusual uses task, instances task, consequences task) and the Williams Scale of the Creativity Assessment Packet (CAP) in this study. The divergent productions were scored by two independent raters on fluency, originality, flexibility dimension, and the CAP results were analyzed on risk-taking, curiosity, imagination and complexity. Results (1) The results showed that scores on fluency, flexibility, and originality correlated with each other on each of the three different divergent thinking tasks (P<0.01). (2) Scores on fluency and flexibility among the three different divergent thinking tasks significantly correlated with each other (fluency: r=0.22, P<0.01; r=0.47, P<0.01; r=0.26, P<0.01; flexibility: r=0.26, P<0.01; r=0.28, P<0.01; r=0.18, P<0.05), while the correction coefficients of scores on originality among the three tasks were not significant. (3) Most scores of fluency or flexibility of different tasks were significantly correlated with risk-taking and imagination (P<0.05), while originality was correlated with different creativity potentials on each task (originality of instances task and imagination: r=0.18, P<0.05; originality of consequences task and risk-taking: r=0.26, P<0.01; originality of unusual uses task and complexity: r=0.17, P<0.05). Conclusion The results suggest that fluency and flexibility are the general characteristics of divergent thinking, which are associated with imagination and adventure, while originality is specific nature of divergent thinking, which is associated with various creative potentials according to the tasks. Key words: Divergent thinking; Creativity; Consequence task; Instance task; Unusual use task