Uniqueness, integration or separation? exploring the nature of creativity through creative writing by elementary school students in Taiwan

Abstract

The primary goal of our study was to investigate the importance of originality in divergent thinking (DT) tests and to determine whether originality is the best reflection of creativity. To accomplish this, we cross-validated the DT test and creative writing task rating by consensual assessment technique (CAT). Thirty-seven elementary school pupils (18 males, 19 females) were asked to complete the imagination test (a type of DT test) and a creative writing task (‘If I were a principal’) with CAT rating. The composite creativity score, sub-scores and originality-ratio score derived from the DT and CAT-creativity scores were obtained. The data were analysed using Pearson product-moment correlations and the difference analysis of these correlation coefficients. The results revealed a significantly higher correlation between DT-originality and CAT-creativity than between DT-composite creativity and CAT-creativity, and the originality-ratio score was more highly correlated with CAT than with the other scores. We confirmed the importance of originality in DT tests, and we here propose primary (originality) and supportive (fluency and flexibility) abilities as alternative ways to explain creative potential.