Abstract
This study investigated the association between two creativity indicators: Divergent Thinking (DT) and Creative Personality (CP), and key aspects of cognitive ability, personality (Big Five), and trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy). The sample consisted of 175 Spanish undergraduates and recent graduates from three university subject domains: Technical & Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Arts. Cognitive ability was found to bear little relationship to either index of creativity. In contrast, strong relationships were demonstrated between personality traits, including trait EI, and creativity, some of which varied significantly across subject domains. Results suggest that future research will have to pay particular attention to individual differences in the affective parts of the personality realm that are comprehensively captured by the construct of trait EI.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
All forms and versions of TEIQue are available, free of charge, for research purposes, from www.psychometriclab.com.
References
Amabile, T. (1996). Creativity in context: Update to the social psychology of Creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Ashby, F. G., Isen, A. M., & Turken, A. U. (1999). A neuropsychological theory of positive affect and its influence on cognition. Psychological Review, 106, 529–550.
Austin, E. J. (2009). A reaction time study of responses to trait and ability emotional intelligence items. Personality and Individual Differences, 46, 381–383.
Baas, M., De Dreu, C. K. W., & Nijstad, B. (2008). Meta-analysis of 25 years of mood-creativity research: Hedonic tona, activatin, or regulatory focus? Psychological Bulletin, 134, 779–806.
Baer, J., & Kaufman, J. C. (2005). Bridging generality and specificity: The Amusement Park Theoretical (APT) model of creativity. Roeper Review, 27, 158–163.
Barron, F., & Harrington, D. M. (1981). Creativity, intelligence, and personality. Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 439–476.
Batey, M., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Furnham, A. (2009a). Intelligence and personality as predictors of divergent thinking: The role of general, fluid and crystallised intelligence. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 4, 60–69.
Batey, M., & Furnham, A. (2006). Creativity, intelligence and personality: A critical review of the scattered literature. Genetic, General and Social Psychology Monographs, 132, 355–429.
Batey, M., & Furnham, A. (2008). The relationship between measures of creativity and schizotypy. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 816–821.
Batey, M., Furnham, A. F., & Safiullina, X. (2010). Intelligence, general knowledge and personality as predictors of creativity. Learning and Individual Differences, 20, 532–535.
Batey, M., Rawles, R., & Furnham, A. (2009b). Divergent thinking and interview ratings. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 27, 57–67.
Burch, G. S., Pavelis, C., Hemsley, D. R., & Corr, P. J. (2006). Schizotypy and creativity in visual artists. British Journal of Psychology, 97, 177–190.
Carroll, J. B. (1993). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Carson, S. H., Peterson, J. B., & Higgins, D. M. (2005). Reliability, validity, and factor structure of the creative achievement questionnaire. Creativity Research Journal, 17, 37–50.
Carvalho, D., Neto, F., & Mavroveli, S. (2010). Trait emotional intelligence and disposition for forgiveness. Psychological Reports, 107, 526–534.
Cattell, R. B. (1987). Intelligence: Its structure, growth, and action. New York: Elsevier.
Cattell, R. B., & Drevdahl, J. E. (1955). A comparison of the personality profile (16PF) of eminent researchers with that of eminent teachers and administrators, and the general population. British Journal of Psychology, 46, 248–261.
Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2006). Creativity versus conscientiousness: Which is a better predictor of student performance? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 521–531.
Clapham, M. M. (2001). The effects of affect manipulation and information exposure on divergent thinking. Creativity Research Journal, 13, 335–350.
Clapham, M. M. (2004). The convergent validity of the Torrance test of creative thinking and creative interest inventories. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64, 828–841.
Colom, R., Flores-Mendoza, C., & Rebollo, I. (2003). Working memory and intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 33–39.
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1985). The NEO PI personality inventory. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Collins.
Dailey, A., Martindale, C., & Borkum, J. (1997). Creativity, shynaesthesia and psysiognomic perception. Creativity Research Journal, 10, 1–8.
De Dreu, C. K. W., Baas, M., & Nijstad, B. A. (2008). Hedonic tone and activation level in the mood-creativity link: Toward a dual pathway to a creativity model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 739–756.
Dollinger, S. J., Urban, K. K., & James, T. A. (2004). Creativity and openness: Further validation of two creative product measures. Creativity Research Journal, 16, 35–47.
Domino, G. (1994). Assessment of creativity with the ACL: An empirical comparison of four scales. Creativity Research Journal, 7, 21–33.
Drevdahl, J. E. (1956). Factors of importance for creativity. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 21, 21–26.
Eysenck, H. J. (1993). Creativity and personality: Suggestion for a theory. Psychological Inquiry, 4, 147–178.
Eysenck, H. J. (1995). Genius: The natural history of creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Feist, G. J. (1998). A meta-analysis of personality in scientific and artistic creativity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 290–309.
Feist, G. J. (1999). The influence of personality on artistic and scientific creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of human creativity (pp. 273–296). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Feist, G. J. (2004). Creativity and the frontal lobes. Bulletin of Psychology and the Arts, 5, 21–28.
Feist, G. J., & Runco, M. A. (1993). Trends in the creativity literature: An analysis of research in the Journal of Creativity Behavior (1967–1989). Creativity Research Journal, 6, 271–286.
Ferrando, M., Ferrándiz, C., Bermejo, M. R., Sánchez, C., Parra, J., & Prieto, M. D. (2007). Estructura interna y baremación del test de pensamiento creativo de Torrance [Internal structure and standardised scores of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking]. Psicothema, 19, 489–496.
Freudenthaler, H. H., Neubauer, A. C., Gabler, P., Scherl, W. G., & Rindermann, G. (2008). Testing and validating the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire (TEIQue) in a German-speaking sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 673–678.
Furnham, A., Batey, M., Anand, K., & Manfield, J. (2008). Personality, hypomania, intelligence and creativity. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1060–1069.
Furnham, A., Crump, J., Batey, M., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2009). Personality and ability predictors of the consequences test of divergent thinking in a large non-student sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 46, 536–540.
García, O., Aluja, A., & García, L. F. (2004). Psychometric properties of Goldberg’s 50 personality markers for the Big Five model: A study in the Spanish language. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 20, 310–319.
Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers of the Big Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26–42.
Götz, K. O., & Götz, K. (1979). Personality characteristics of successful artists. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 49, 919–924.
Gough, H. G. (1979). A creative personality scale for the Adjective Check List. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1398–1405.
Gough, H. G. (1992). Assessment of creative potential in psychology and the development of a creative temperament scale for the CPI. In J. C. Rosen & P. McReynolds (Eds.), Advances in psychological assessment (pp. 227–259). New York: Plenum.
Guastello, S. J., Guastello, D. D., & Hanson, C. A. (2004). Creativity, mood disorders, and emotional intelligence. Journal of Creative Behavior, 38, 260–281.
Guilford, J. P. (1967). The nature of human intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hargreaves, H. L. (1927). The faculty of imagination: An enquiry concerning the existence of a general faculty, or group factor, of imagination. British Journal of Psychology Monograph Supplement, 3.
Hertzog, C., & Bleckley, M. K. (2001). Age differences in the structure of intelligence. Influences of information processing speed. Intelligence, 29, 191–217.
Hong, R. Y., Paunonen, S. V., & Slade, H. P. (2008). Big Five personality factors and the prediction of behavior: A multitrait-multimethod approach. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 160–166.
Johnson, S. J., Batey, M., & Holdsworth, L. (2009). Personality and health: The mediating role of trait emotional intelligence and work locus of control. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 470–475.
Kaduson, H. G., & Schaefer, C. E. (1991). Concurrent validity of the creative personality scale of the adjective checklist. Psychological Reports, 69, 601–602.
Kaufman, J. C., & Baer, J. (2005). The Amusement Park Theory of creativity. In J. C. Kaufman & J. Baer (Eds.), Creativity across domains: Faces of the muse (pp. 321–328). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kaufman, J. C., & Baer, J. (2006). Intelligent testing with Torrance. Creativity Research Journal, 18, 99–102.
Kaufman, J. C., Plucker, J. A., & Baer, J. (2008). Essentials of creativity assessment. New York: Wiley.
Kim, K. H. (2005). Can only intelligent people be creative? Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, 16, 57–66.
Kim, K. H. (2006). Can we trust creativity tests? A review of the Torrance tests of creative thinking (TTCT). Creativity Research Journal, 18, 3–14.
King, L., Walker, L., & Broyles, S. (1996). Creativity and the five-factor model. Journal of Research in Personality, 30, 189–203.
Lubart, T. I. (2003). In search of creative intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Lautrey (Eds.), Models of intelligence: International perspectives (pp. 279–292). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Marchant-Haycox, S. E., & Wilson, G. D. (1992). Personality and stress in performing artists. Personality and Individual Differences, 13(10), 1061–1068.
Martindale, C., & Dailey, A. (1996). Creativity, primary process cognition, and personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 409–414.
McCrae, R. R. (1987). Creativity, divergent thinking, and openness to experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1258–1265.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1997). Conceptions and correlates of openness to experience. In R. Hogan, J. A. Johnson, & S. R. Briggs (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 826–848). New York: Academic Press.
Mednick, S. A. (1962). The associative basis of the creative process. Psychological Review, 3, 220–232.
Mikolajczak, M., Luminet, O., Leroy, C., & Roy, E. (2007a). Psychometric properties of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire: Factor structure, reliability, construct, and incremental validity in a French-speaking population. Journal of Personality Assessment, 88, 338–353.
Mikolajczak, M., Roy, E., Luminet, O., Fillée, C., & de Timary, P. (2007b). The moderating impact of emotional intelligence on the free cortisol responses to stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 32, 1000–1012.
Mumford, M. D. (2003). Where have we been, where are we going? Taking stock in creativity research. Creativity Research Journal, 15, 107–120.
Mumford, M. D., & Gustafson, S. B. (1988). Creativity syndrome: Integration, application and innovation. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 27–43.
Pérez-González, J. C. (2010). Trait emotional intelligence operationalized through the TEIQue: Construct validity and psycho-pedagogical implications. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED).
Petrides, K. V. (2009). Technical manual for the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaires (TEIQue; 1st ed., 1st printing). London: London Psychometric Laboratory.
Petrides, K. V., & Furnham, A. (2000). On the dimensional structure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 313–320.
Petrides, K. V., Furnham, A., & Mavroveli, S. (2007a). Trait emotional intelligence: Moving forward in the field of EI. In G. Matthews, M. Zeidner, & R. Roberts (Eds.), The science of emotional intelligence: Knowns and unknowns (Series in Affective Science) (pp. 151–166). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Petrides, K. V., Niven, L., & Mouskounti, T. (2006). The trait emotional intelligence of ballet dancers and musicians. Psicothema, 18, 101–107.
Petrides, K. V., Pérez-González, J. C., & Furnham, A. (2007b). On the criterion and incremental validity of trait emotional intelligence. Cognition and Emotion, 21, 26–55.
Petrides, K. V., Pita, R., & Kokkinaki, F. (2007c). The location of trait emotional intelligence in personality factor space. British Journal of Psychology, 98, 273–289.
Petrides, K. V., Vernon, P. A., Aitken Schermer, J., & Veselka, L. (2011). Trait emotional intelligence and the Dark Triad traits of personality. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 14, 35–41.
Plucker, J. A. (1999). Is the proof in the pudding? Reanalyses of Torrance’s (1958 to present) longitudinal data. Creativity Research Journal, 12, 103–114.
Plucker, J. A., Beghetto, R. A., & Dow, G. T. (2004). Why isn’t creativity more important to educational psychologists? Potentials, pitfalls, and future directions in creativity research. Educational Psychologist, 39, 83–96.
Plucker, J. A., & Renzulli, J. S. (1999). Psychometric approaches to the study of human creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 35–61). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Quoidbach, J., & Hansenne, M. (2009). The impact of trait emotional intelligence on nursing team performance and cohesiveness. Journal of Professional Nursing, 25, 23–29.
Richards, R. (1999). Affective disorders. In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Romo, M. (1997). Psicología de la Creatividad. España: Paidós.
Romo, M., & Alfonso, V. (2003). Spanish painters’ implicit theories. Creativity Research Journal, 15, 409–415.
Runco, M. A. (1994). Creativity and its discontents. In M. Shaw & M. Runco (Eds.), Creativity and affect (pp. 102–126). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Runco, M. A. (2004). Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 657–687.
Runco, M. A. (2008). Commentary: Divergent thinking is not synonymous with creativity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2, 93–96.
Russ, S. W. (1993). Affect and creativity. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Russ, S. W. (1998). Affect, creative experience and psychological adjustment. Ann Arbor, MI: Braun-Brumfield.
Russ, S. W. (2003). Play and creativity: Development issues. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 47, 291–303.
Sánchez-Ruiz, M. J. (in press). Stress and creativity. In M. A. Runco & S. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (2nd ed.). New York: Academic Press.
Sánchez-Ruiz, M. J., Pérez-González, J. C., & Petrides, K. V. (2010). Trait emotional intelligence profiles of students from different university faculties. Australian Journal of Psychology, 62, 51–57.
Schutte, N. S., Malouff, J. M., Hall, L. E., Haggerty, D. J., Cooper, J. T., Golden, C. J., et al. (1998). Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 167–177.
Sevdalis, N., Petrides, K. V., & Harvey, N. (2007). Predicting and experiencing decision-related emotions: Does trait emotional intelligence matter? Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 1347–1358.
Shaw, M. P., & Runco, M. A. (1994). Creativity and affect. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Sheldon, K. M. (1994). Emotionality differences between artists and scientists. Journal of Research in Personality, 28, 481–491.
Shrout, P. E., & Fleiss, J. L. (1979). Intraclass correlations: Uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 420–428.
Silvia, P. J., Kaufman, J. C., & Pretz, J. E. (2009). Is creativity domain-specific? Latent class models of creative accomplishments and creative self-descriptions. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 3, 139–148.
Smith, L., Heaven, P. C. L., & Ciarrochi, J. (2008). Trait emotional intelligence, conflict communication patterns, and relationship satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1314–1325.
Smith, D. R., & Snell, W. E., Jr. (1996). Goldberg’s bipolar measure of the big five personality dimensions: Reliability and validity. European Journal of Personality, 10, 1–17.
Sternberg, R. J. (2005). Creativity or creativities. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 63, 370–382.
Sternberg, R. J., & Lubart, T. I. (1995). Defying the crowd: Cultivating creativity in a culture of conformity. New York, NY: Free Press.
Sternberg, R. J., & O’Hara, L. A. (1999). Creativity and intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 251–272). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thurstone, L. L., & Thurstone, Th. G. (1984). Manual del test aptitudes mentales primarias [Handbook of the primary mental abilities]. Madrid: TEA.
Torrance, E. P. (1974). The Torrance tests of creative thinking—norms-technical manual research edition—verbal tests, forms A and B—figural tests, forms A and B. Princeton, NJ: Personnel Press.
Torrance, E. P. (1990). The Torrance tests of creative thinking: Figural forms A and B. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service.
Vernon, P. A., Petrides, K. V., Bratko, D., & Schermer, J. A. (2008). A behavioral genetic study of trait emotional intelligence. Emotion, 8, 635–642.
Warwick, J., & Nettelbeck, T. (2004). Emotional intelligence is…? Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 1091–1100.
Woldfradt, U., & Pretz, J. E. (2001). Individual differences in creativity: Personality, story writing, and hobbies. European Journal of Personality, 15, 297–310.
Woody, C., & Claridge, G. S. (1977). Psychoticism and thinking. British Journal of Social Clinical Psychology, 16, 241–248.
Wuthrich, V., & Bates, T. C. (2001). Schizotypy and latent inhibition: Non-linear linkage between psychometric and cognitive markers. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 783–798.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sánchez-Ruiz, M.J., Hernández-Torrano, D., Pérez-González, J.C. et al. The relationship between trait emotional intelligence and creativity across subject domains. Motiv Emot 35, 461–473 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9227-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9227-8