Creativity: An interdisciplinary perspective

Abstract

A number of research traditions have contributed to an emerging picture of creative individuals, processes, and achievements. Psychometric instruments have documented the absence of correlations, above a threshold, between measured intelligence and creativity; computer simulations and “on‐line” studies of human subjects indicate that creative problem solving draws on the same information‐processing skills as everyday problem solving; case studies reveal that creative individ‐uals pursue a network of interrelated enterprises over the course of their productive lives and that most creative insights emerge gradually. Creative individuals exemplify a predictable set of personality traits and are motivated chiefly by intrinsic factors. Sociological and historiometric approaches document the conditions under which creative products are likely to emerge within a given society, and neurobiological perspectives suggest that certain neural structures and processes may be particularly associated with creative out‐comes. A science of creativity is most likely to emerge from a synthesis of these different disciplinary perspectives.