Publication Date

Fall 2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Advisor

Gregory J. Feist

Keywords

Psychology of Science

Subject Areas

Personality Psychology; Psychology

Abstract

This study investigates whether personality is a valid predictor of creativity in science above and beyond demographic characteristics, such as career age, gender, and scientific discipline. Creativity is an act of making something new, original, and useful. Creative achievement in science is the personal ability to generate original, useful, and adaptive scientific theories, research methods, or empirical findings. Personality characteristics can operate as valid predictors of creative achievement in science. This study surveyed 145 scientists throughout the United States. Total creativity index was computed by standardizing and summing the total number of publications, total number of citations, h-index, and Soler's creativity index. As expected, openness and neuroticism were significantly positively correlated to creativity in science, while, interestingly, psychoticism was negatively correlated with creativity.

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