Defining Characteristics of Creative Women

Abstract

This study was an effort to identify correlates of creativity in women. A sample of 447 college students were given the picture completion subtest of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, the How Do You Think Test, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory, the Family Environment Scale, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Second Edition. Results provide evidence of gender differences in creative potential favoring men. Creativity in both men and women in the study was associated with openness, extraversion, resistance to social demands, substantial personal powerfulness, high energy, and impulsivity. Unique to men were correlations between creativity and overall self satisfaction, insensitivity to criticism, and distinctly unusual cognition. A review of the correlates of creativity in women reveals quite a mixed picture. In women, creativity was correlated with harshly self-critical judgments regarding their ability to live up to others’ expectations. Curiously, creativity in women was also significantly correlated with cheerfulness, optimism, high expectations for interpersonal success, social poise, and comfort in interpersonal relationships. Family-of-origin characteristics associated with creativity were distinctly different for men and women, suggesting that family experiences conducive to later development of creativity in offspring may differ depending on the sex of the offspring.