An Empirical Review of Research Methodologies and Methods in Creativity Studies (2003–2012)

Abstract

Based on the data collected from 5 prestigious creativity journals, research methodologies and methods of 612 empirical studies on creativity, published between 2003 and 2012, were reviewed and compared to those in gifted education. Major findings included: (a) Creativity research was predominantly quantitative and psychometrics and experiment were the most frequently utilized quantitative methodologies, (b) judges were employed frequently to assess creativity and correlational techniques were utilized most widely to analyze quantitative data, (c) case study was the most frequently used qualitative methodology, (d) most mixed-methods studies were rooted in quantitative methodology, and (e) both creativity and gifted education research were dominated by quantitative methodologies, but there were less qualitative studies and slightly more mixed-methods studies on creativity. Implications of these findings were further discussed and future research directions were suggested.