Assessing Creativity With Self-Report Scales: A Review and Empirical Evaluation

• Published in: Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts creativity, and the arts, 2012-02, Vol.6 (1), p.19-34
• Main Authors: Silvia, Paul J, Wigert, Benjamin, Reiter-Palmon, Roni, Kaufman, James C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Creativity; Human; Measurement; Psychometrics; Self-Report; Test Construction; Test Reliability; Test Validity
• ISSN: 1931-3896; 1931-390X
• DOI: 10.1037/a0024071

This article reviews recent developments in the assessment of creativity using self-report scales. We focus on four new and promising scales: the Creative Achievement Questionnaire, the Biographical Inventory of Creative Behaviors, the revised Creative Behavior Inventory, and the Creative Domain Questionnaire. For each scale, we review evidence for reliability, validity, and structure, and we discuss important methodological features for users to consider. We then present new analyses of each scale based on a large, diverse sample. We evaluate each scale's item-level and scale-level psychometric features, using both classical test theory and item response theory, and we examine how the scales converge. All four scales performed well and covaried highly with each other. Based on the latest generation of tools, self-report creativity assessment is probably much better than creativity researchers think it is.