An Investigation of the Factor Structure of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

Abstract

Measuring creative abilities of individuals is an increasingly important area in education. The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) are most commonly used test of divergent thinking to serve this purpose (Plucker & Renzulli, 1999, p. 39). Devised by Torrance and his colleagues (Torrance, 2008), the TTCT has more than 35 language translations available (Millar, 2002) and are enormously popular (Runco & Acar, 2012, p. 67). The TTCT has attracted the attention of many researchers investigating its psychometric features and focusing on the structure of creativity (e.g., Clapham, 1998; Heausler & Thompson, 1988; Hocevar, 1979; Kim, 2006a; Kim, Cramond, & Bandalos, 2006). However, the latent structure of creativity is still controversial. Although some researchers argue that creativity is uni-dimensional, some other researchers suggest that it has more than a single factor structure. This research served as an investigation of whether the two-factor structure established by Kim (2006a) and Kim et al. (2006) holds true for seemingly two new population groups: 8th and 11th graders.Being most widely used divergent tests (Clapham, 2004, p. 829), the major purpose of the TTCT was to individualize instruction (Torrance, 1966, 1974). However, it is mostly used to identify gifted children (Kim, 2006b), although it is also used for research and instructional planning (Kim, 2006b). The TTCT is originally in part on Structure of Intellect model (Krumm, Lemos, & Filippetti, 2014, p. 72). Four dimensions of the TTCT, namely, fluency, originality, elaboration, and flexibility, were adopted from divergent factors (Kim, 2006a). Although the TTCT is based on model, it also differs from test batteries as Guilford's test tasks attempt to elicit as factorially pure mental functioning as possible (Torrance, 2008, p.47). In addition, it differs from the test battery of Wallach and Kogan as Wallach and Kogan activities all attempt to elicit associations (Torrance, 2008, p. 47).The TTCT has six versions. After being published in 1966, it was re-normed in 1974, 1984, 1990, 1998, and 2008. The re-norming process affected the scoring procedures. However, the content of the TTCT did not go through any alteration (Kim, 2006a, 2006b, 2011). The earliest two versions of the TTCT assessed fluency, originality, elaboration, and flexibility.In the 1984 version of the TTCT, flexibility was excluded from the analyses; whereas, abstractness of titles and resistance to premature closure were included in the TTCT (Hebert, Cramond, Neumeister, Millar, & Silvian, 2002; Torrance & Ball, 1984). The reason why Torrance excluded flexibility from the analysis was that there was high correlation between fluency and flexibility (Hebert et al., 2002). A new measure termed creative strengths was included in the scoring in 1984 as well. This measure included thirteen criterion-referenced measures (indicators).The TTCT battery has two different forms: the TTCT Figurai and Verbal, each having two parallel forms (Torrance, 1974, 1990, 1998, 2008). With both measures, the instructions are designed to motivate the respondents to give unusual, detailed responses (Cramond, Matthews-Morgan, Bandalos, & Zuo, 2005, p. 284). The Figural TTCT has a wide range of application ranging from measuring creative skills among young children to identifying creative adults. It includes three picture-based activities: picture construction, picture completion, and repeated figures of lines or circles. This test lasts 30 minutes with each activity being allocated 10 minutes (Torrance, 1990, 1998, 2008).Conceptual FrameworkMany researchers have studied the structure of creativity using the TTCT (e.g., Clapham, 1998; Heausler & Thompson, 1988; Hocevar, 1979; Kim, 2006a; Kim et al., 2006; Krumm et al., 2014). …