Psychodynamic Personality Correlates of Creativity

Abstract

Publisher Summary Creativity as a concept evokes almost exclusively positive associations, ranging from flexibility of thought to originality, productivity, and the great cultural achievements in the history of mankind. These positive associations, together with the easy availability of individual examples that can be regarded as self-evident proofs of creativity, help counteract the absence of a generally accepted definition of creativity. One of the basic media between persons and external reality is perception. It carries an array of different functions. The fact that perception is not a completely objective mechanism provides the basis for its use as a central variable in theories of personality, in general, and makes it an experimentally interesting approach to creativity in particular. Differences in perception are seen more as a guiding line than as a distinct set of variables for creativity research, but some have been used repeatedly, among others “openness to experience.” The greater tolerance of creative people for apparent inconsistencies or for disorder is also related to perception.