Gender differences in the creativity structureof children of preschool age

Abstract

The article deals with a theoretical substantiation and empirical research of the problem of peculiarities of gender differences in the structure of creativity of children of preschool age. It is noted that the sexual comparison of the degree of expression of creativity gives contradictory results in all psychometric studies. There are three points of view regarding sexual differences in creativity: 1) girls have better creative abilities than boys; 2) boys are more creative than girls; 3) there are no sexual differences between on creativity.The empirical research of gender differences in the structure of creativity of children of preschool age was carried out with the help of E. Torrance’s tests of creative thinking (verbal and figurative). It is concluded that between the opposite sexes, according to the criterion of creativity, predominantly similarity is manifested. The structure of verbal and figurative creativity of boys and girls is homogeneous. Also, models of gifted pre-schoolers of both sexes match, but indicators of structural profiles of verbal and figurative creativity of girls are higher. Statistically significant differences are found in the level of indicators of verbal creativity (productivity and flexibility) and imaginative creativity (productivity and development).The research has shown that girls have more developed verbal creativity. They are capable of generating, developing ideas and completing them with a large amount of details. However, boys produce a smaller number of ideas, but their ideas are not less original and creative. Preschoolers of both sexes have equally developed the ability to transform the figurative information into a verbal form and the ability to provide abstract names to the executed drawings. Girls and boys are equally open for the perception of new information, they can easily withstand the uncertainty and understand the essence of the problem.