The Creative Trait Motivation Scales

Abstract

Most studies investigating the effects of motivation on creativity have employed a social-psychological approach and used a dichotomous conceptualization of motivation (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic). However, trait motivation may exist on a continuum and, although individual differences in motivation have also been found to predict creativity, no scales exist to directly assess creative trait motivation. The current report describes two studies examining the factor structure and psychometric properties of the creative trait motivation (CTM) scales. In the first study, participants (N = 580) completed three domain-specific scales (art, everyday, and science) and a well-established measure of creative self-perception. All three CTM scales demonstrated a similar factor structure, strong internal consistency for each of the factors, and evidence for construct validity. In the second study, the factor structures of the three scales were replicated employing a different sample (N = 597). The scales continued to demonstrate strong internal consistency and additional evidence for construct validity was provided, using well-established scales of both creativity and trait motivation. Together, the studies demonstrate that the domain-specific CTM scales are valuable tools for assessing creative trait motivation.