James C. Kaufman

University of Connecticut | UConn · Department of Educational Psychology

The Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) is a common creativity assessment. According to this technique, the best judges of creativity are qualified experts. Yet what does it mean to be an expert in a domain? What level of expertise is needed to rate creativity? This article reviews the literature on novice, expert, and quasi-expert creativity rat...

College admissions testing typically focuses on grade point average (GPA) and SAT scores. Without disputing the importance of these predictors, one may wonder whether they are enough by themselves to determine eventual academic success. One possible additional construct, creativity, is examined via the lens of nonbiased assessment. It is argued tha...

Most investigations of creativity tend to take one of two directions: everyday creativity (also called "little-c"), which can be found in nearly all people, and eminent creativity (also called "Big-C"), which is reserved for the great. In this paper, the authors propose a Four C model of creativity that expands this dichotomy. Specifically, the aut...

Creativity is commonly defined as a combination of originality or novelty and task-appropriateness or usefulness. This article proposes that the meaning of the latter criterion varies across levels of creativity and answers different essential questions. Beyond originality, creativity can be defined by four forms of quality: (a) meaningfulness: for...

Who should evaluate the originality and task-appropriateness of a given idea has been a perennial debate among psychologists of creativity. Here, we argue that the most relevant evaluator of a given idea depends crucially on the level of expertise of the person who generated it. To build this argument, we draw on two complimentary theoretical persp...

Anxiety-driven counterfactual thinking can be a slippery slope. Building on the premise that both positive and negative emotions can impact creativity, the present study examines how trait anxiety, optimism, and other mental health factors like therapy experience shape outputs in divergent thinking (DT) tasks. Using an online sample (N = 647), the...

An important step in understanding domain-specific qualities of creativity is determining what patterns exist in self-perceived creativity across domains and how these patterns associate with other characteristics relevant to creativity. In two studies involving high school (Study 1) and undergraduate (Study 2) students, hierarchical cluster analys...

The unbridled positivity toward curiosity and creativity may be excessive. Both aid species survival through exploration and advancement. These beneficial effects are well documented. What remains is to understand their optimal levels and contexts for maximal achievement, health, and well-being. Every beneficial element to individuals and groups ca...

Often, creativity is associated with only artistic talent (known as the art bias) resulting in a failure to recognize it or its potential in nonartistic areas. The present study examined the art bias across artistic, scientific, business-oriented, and conventional occupations using implicit and explicit methods. In a mixed design, participants (N =...

In this chapter, we outline three ways to try to prevent potentially transformational creators from giving up on being creative. The first is to tackle misperceptions and biases that people have about creativity as a construct that could prevent them from identifying as a creative person. The second is to help people grow as creators by building in...

Domain-specificity is a topic of debate within the field of creativity. To shed light on this issue, we conducted a meta-analysis of cross-domain correlations based on the Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS). To evaluate the model fit of one general factor versus two factors that encompass the primary K-DOCS subscales (Scholarly, Scientifi...

Most research on the creative process has focused on idea generation, and the prevalence and influence of many other creative subprocesses remain poorly understood. To clarify different subprocesses' respective roles in creative work, this study investigated their frequencies and associations with creativity-related personal characteristics and pro...

State-of-the-art generative artificial intelligence (AI) can now match humans in creativity tests and is at the cusp of augmenting the creativity of every knowledge worker on Earth. We argue that enriching generative AI applications with insights from the psychological sciences may revolutionize our understanding of creativity and lead to increasin...

The “standard” definition of creativity as novel and useful describes creative products, but creativity is constituted by processes. This misalignment contributes to the oft-noted challenges of operationalizing creativity. Here, we distinguish creativity as a process from creativity as an attribute (i.e. “creative-ness”). Operating from a priori pr...

Creativity is usually seen as a good thing, but why? The Creativity Advantage first offers an overview of creativity studies with an emphasis on the little-discussed benefits of being creative. These include how creativity can lead to self-insight, help people heal, forge connections with others, inspire drive, and enable people to leave behind a m...

The fields of innovation, creativity, and aesthetics have long recognized that the arts are a mirror for society and culture for better or worse. Consistent cross-culturally, the better of the reflections is arts historical cataloging and celebration of people and societies; the worse is arts exposure of people’s aesthetic preference toward whitene...

Returning to my lessons learned as a young writer, I talk about the journey from little-c to Pro-c and, potentially, to Big-C. Different nuances of Pro-c are explored, with a particular emphasis on creative domains. Drawing on the amusement park theory, I analyze which are the key domains or the larger areas that are most important for creativity....

Creativity is connected to healing in many different ways. Creative people are more likely to experience post-traumatic growth or beneficial psychological changes that come in the aftermath of trauma. Creative activities can also help maintain emotional equilibrium. The cognitive reappraisal of seemingly negative events is associated with divergent...

I start with a brief overview of the literature on meaning. The tripartite model proposes coherence, significance, and purpose as the key factors. The first component of the Creativity Advantage model, self-insight, is strongly connected to coherence, which is being able to look back and feel as though your life has made sense. Some nostalgia may b...

Creativity is usually seen as a good thing, but why? The Creativity Advantage first offers an overview of creativity studies with an emphasis on the little-discussed benefits of being creative. These include how creativity can lead to self-insight, help people heal, forge connections with others, inspire drive, and enable people to leave behind a m...

This chapter explores little-c, or everyday creativity, by providing an overview of the creative process. First, Graham Wallas’s initial model, which features the concepts of incubation and insight, is discussed. Then J. P. Guilford’s creative problem-solving model and subsequent additions and revisions are highlighted. I talk about the importance...

Creativity is usually seen as a good thing, but why? The Creativity Advantage first offers an overview of creativity studies with an emphasis on the little-discussed benefits of being creative. These include how creativity can lead to self-insight, help people heal, forge connections with others, inspire drive, and enable people to leave behind a m...

Creativity is usually seen as a good thing, but why? The Creativity Advantage first offers an overview of creativity studies with an emphasis on the little-discussed benefits of being creative. These include how creativity can lead to self-insight, help people heal, forge connections with others, inspire drive, and enable people to leave behind a m...

In this chapter I acknowledge my own past complicity in muddying the waters about the benefits of creativity with the Sylvia Plath effect (a finding regarding creativity and mental illness). I note that most people can understand how Big-C and, often, Pro-c are positive things, innovation and economic benefits being considered to be good. Studies o...

How do we define creativity? Studies of laypersons’ beliefs tend to find that people focus on malleability, aesthetic taste, insight, and curiosity. Experts, however, propose that for something to be creative it should be both novel or original and task-appropriate or useful. Although other criteria have been proposed, none has been as thoroughly a...

Creativity is usually seen as a good thing, but why? The Creativity Advantage first offers an overview of creativity studies with an emphasis on the little-discussed benefits of being creative. These include how creativity can lead to self-insight, help people heal, forge connections with others, inspire drive, and enable people to leave behind a m...

We humans are the only species that knows that we will die. One way to cope is by aiming for symbolic immortality, so that a part of us may live on after our death. There are many potential pathways; one is through one’s creative works. Creators need not be geniuses to have their contributions live on, however. Many Pro-c creators may join forces o...

Can creativity make you feel connected to other people? Terror management theory, which addresses the existential dread associated with death, suggests that the answer is no. But I push back against this view and highlight an array of studies and theories that point to many ways in which creativity can bring us together. First I discuss the museum...

Creativity is usually seen as a good thing, but why? The Creativity Advantage first offers an overview of creativity studies with an emphasis on the little-discussed benefits of being creative. These include how creativity can lead to self-insight, help people heal, forge connections with others, inspire drive, and enable people to leave behind a m...

Drawing on my own background as an aspiring writer, I highlight the core difference between little-c (everyday creativity) and Big-C (genius) before talking about the creation (with Ron Beghetto) of the four Cs model of creativity. Mini-c is creativity that is personally meaningful to the creator, even if it does not resound with others. Indeed, th...

There are many approaches to understanding how creativity is manifested, from the influence of the context or environment to understanding differences in processes or domains. However, less work has focused on a creator’s instinctual reaction to external stimuli and how it shapes the creative activities that follow. This paper proposes the CAUSE Mo...

Whereas research has generally viewed creativity as a benevolent construct, more recent work has started to explore creativity’s dark side. Much of this work has focused on the constructs associated with malevolent creativity, such as dark personality traits and deception. Less prevalent, however, is an emphasis on the factors that determine whethe...

In this study we investigate ethnic and racial differences in creativity using a large sample collected over a 10-year period in the US. All sample participants completed the K-DOCS—a self-report measure of creativity across five different domains—as part of earlier research. The large overall sample size resulted in sufficiently large sub-samples...

With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), the field of creativity faces new opportunities and challenges. This manifesto explores several scenarios of human–machine collaboration on creative tasks and proposes “fundamental laws of generative AI” to reinforce the responsible and ethical use of AI in the creativity field. Four scenarios are pr...

This paper proposes a model of three needs for theater and other creative arts. The first level, functional needs, is necessary for basic existence. For theater, that would entail such components as a physical space and players. The second level, quality needs, is comprised of the skills and abilities of the people and materials; it contributes to...

In this study, we investigate ethnic and racial differences in creativity using a large sample collected over a 10-year period in the United States. All sample participants completed the Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS)—a self-report measure of creativity across five different domains—as part of earlier research. The large overall sampl...

Is creativity good, bad, or neutral? Although creative outcomes can serve malevolent purposes, we argue the underlying processes that support creative expression—what we call here the Creativity Ethos—lean toward the good in human nature. The dimensions of this Ethos can be metaphorically grouped under three main colors, Blue, Yellow and Red, relat...

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) takes advantage of exponential growth in our technological abilities to offer an array of new forms of entertainment, learning opportunities, and even psychological interventions and assessments. The field of creativity is a driving force in both large-scale innovations and everyday progress, and imbedding creativity...

The original 90-item Creative Behavior Inventory (CBI) was a landmark self-report scale in creativity research, and the 28-item brief form developed nearly 20 years ago continues to be a popular measure of everyday creativity. Relatively little is known, however, about the psychometric properties of this widely used scale. In the current research,...

The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Emotions provides a state-of-the-art review of research on the role of emotions in creativity. This volume presents the insights and perspectives of sixty creativity scholars from thirteen countries who span multiple disciplines, including developmental, social, and personality psychology; industrial and org...

The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Emotions provides a state-of-the-art review of research on the role of emotions in creativity. This volume presents the insights and perspectives of sixty creativity scholars from thirteen countries who span multiple disciplines, including developmental, social, and personality psychology; industrial and org...

The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Emotions provides a state-of-the-art review of research on the role of emotions in creativity. This volume presents the insights and perspectives of sixty creativity scholars from thirteen countries who span multiple disciplines, including developmental, social, and personality psychology; industrial and org...

This article presents a propulsion theory of creative contributions and discusses the reward system under which it operates. The theory argues that creative contributions are of three kinds – paradigm-preserving, paradigm-defying, and paradigm-integrating. Within each of these categories are various kinds of contributions that change a field in dif...

The introductory chapter to Creativity and Morality outlines the relationship between the constructs, summarizing the AMORAL model of dark creativity (Kapoor & Kaufman, in press). Specifically, the Antecedents, Mechanisms (individual), Operants (environmental), Realization, Aftereffects, and Legacy of the creative action are theorized and described...

Creativity researchers typically focus on the who, what, why, where, and how of creativity. A noticeable omission is when. The when is not completely ignored in the field; it surfaces in developmental and evolutionary perspectives, the study of eminent creators, and other avenues of scholarship. In this paper, we assert that for the concept of when...

The measurement of human intelligence is a landmark accomplishment in psychology; yet this advance came with negative outcomes, such as social injustice. In this chapter, we explore the history of IQ test development with particular attention to the degree to which the early pioneers and later leaders viewed the malleability (or fixedness) of intel...

We developed a novel conceptualization of one component of creativity in narratives by integrating creativity theory and distributional semantics theory. We termed the new construct divergent semantic integration (DSI), defined as the extent to which a narrative connects divergent ideas. Across nine studies, 27 different narrative prompts, and over...

Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS) is a self-report of creative behavior in five distinct domains. The present study aims to translate K-DOCS into Russian and evaluate its psychometric properties. The psychometric analysis was performed on a sample of adults recruited through Yandex Toloka (N = 1011; Mage = 35.94, SDage = 10.95) from vari...

In this exchange, the authors each address five questions about creativity, and then provide a final synthesizing response. The five questions they address are: (1) What is creativity? Are there different processes, types, or kinds of creativity, and if so, what are they? (2) What are the major obstacles to people thinking and acting creatively? (3...

The Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scales (K-DOCS) assess individual differences in creativity across five domains (Everyday, Scholarly, Performance, Science, and Artistic). We provide data on the psychometric properties and the structural and nomological validity of the German adaptation of the K-DOCS from three samples (Ntotal = 1,379). Our findin...

The Psychology of Wisdom: An Introduction is the first comprehensive coursebook on wisdom, providing an engaging, balanced, and expert introduction to the psychology of wisdom. It provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the psychological science of wisdom, covering wide-ranging perspectives. Each chapter includes extensive pedagogy, incl...

Students display resistance, including academic dishonesty, at all educational levels. In the present study, we qualitatively examined the extent and incidence of academic misbehaviors by 101 US college students (Mage = 22.98 years, SD = 6.70). Using a combination of self-reported closed- and open-ended questions, we developed a multi-faceted under...

We live in a world shaken by a pandemic and the subsequent (currently ongoing) lockdown. The COVID-19 virus is invisible yet has been the dominant topic since 2020. This increasing awareness (and respect) for the invisible may, we hope, transfer to how gifted programs perceive the new conception of transformational giftedness. In this chapter, we c...

The term “creativity” can conjure various ideas and meanings. It’s no surprise that methods for measuring such a concept vary widely and are not without controversy. This is particularly true among people with ASD, who are a unique yet incredibly diverse group of individuals. This paper provides an overview of the assessment of creativity among ind...

In this article we raise two linked questions in relation to positive creativity (creativity that can help transform the world to a better place): (1) Why does a great deal of positive creativity fly under the radar? and (2) What can be accomplished to enhance the visibility and frequency of positive creativity? Building off of the recent CASE mode...

Creativity is largely seen as a positive construct, but there is room to deepen, document, and specify its impact on beneficial outcomes. Past research has identified academic achievement and mental health as areas of interest; we build and expand off of such work to suggest creativity may have a particularly strong connection to equity and meaning...

The dark side of creativity entails using original thought to meet a selfish, negative, or evil goal, with or without the deliberate intent to harm others. Recent empirical advances have studied the behavioral correlates of such creativity, including associations with aggression, deception, and subclinical psychopathy. The time, therefore, seems ap...

The dark side of creativity entails using original thought to meet a selfish, negative, or evil goal, with or without the deliberate intent to harm others. Recent empirical advances have studied the behavioral correlates of such creativity, including associations with aggression, deception, and subclinical psychopathy. The time, therefore, seems ap...

In this chapter we highlight best practices for enhancing creativity in the classroom. Using the Four C model as a starting point, we emphasize several specific points. Teachers should recognize both the benefits and costs of creativity. They can then help students gain a broader understanding of creativity. Teachers can give appropriate feedback t...

Narrative text permeates our lives from job applications to journalistic stories to works of fiction. Developing automated metrics that capture creativity in narrative text has potentially far reaching implications. Human ratings of creativity in narrative text are labor-intensive, subjective, and difficult to replicate. Across 27 different story p...

Narrative text permeates our lives from job applications to journalistic stories to works of fiction. Developing automated metrics that capture creativity in narrative text has potentially far reaching implications. Human ratings of creativity in narrative text are labor-intensive, subjective, and difficult to replicate. Across 27 different story p...

This handbook focuses on the development and nurturance of creativity across the lifespan, from early childhood to adolescence, adulthood, and later life. It answers the question: how can we help individuals turn their creative potential into achievement? Each chapter examines various contexts in which creativity exists, including school, workplace...

Myths about creativity keep contributing to its mysterious aura despite our increasing scientific understanding of this complex phenomenon. This study examined the prevalence of known creativity myths across six countries from diverse cultural backgrounds and explored why some people believe in them more than others. Results revealed persistent, wi...

For much of 2020, countries around the world fought against the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries went into lockdown to control the fast spread of the virus. The unusual restrictions and confinement of the lockdown brought about new challenges for people’s everyday lives. With flexibility, adaptability, and problem-solving at the core of its nature...

What is the aim of giftedness? Is the goal to narrow in on the gifts of a select few or to nurture everyone’s gifts such that they may be exchanged with each other? Drawing from creativity theory, we emphasize the possible interactive element of giftedness. Current paradigms risk ignoring hidden creativities and for potential to remain in the shado...

Creativity, and more recently dark creativity, have yet to be studied in relation to moral foundations, especially against the background of dark traits. This study identified moral foundations that predicted creativity, particularly malevolent creativity, after accounting for Dark Triad/Tetrad traits. Data (N = 529, Mage = 20.10 years, SD = 4.55)...

Most standardized educational tests are not intended to assess creativity. Past research in this domain has been largely correlational, examining the associations between creative beliefs or performance and scores on such tests. Hence, the primary aim of the current investigation was to determine the degree to which different metrics of creativity...

Virtual Reality Self-Modeling (VRSM) is a new self-modeling intervention. It is the coming together of two well-established interventions, video self-modeling (VSM) and virtual reality (VR) and can be described as using 360-degree VR videos, viewed through a VR system headset or smartphone, to depict individuals self-modeling a desired behavior. By...

Bottlenose dolphins are a large-brained, long-lived, highly social species, operating within a fission-fusion society characterized by broad multi-level social networks, extensive care giving and teaching of offspring, cooperative and diverse hunting tactics, long-term alliances, and learned vocal signals that broadcast an individual’s identity, ca...

The ability to engage in some form of communication is essential for any social species. Communication generally relies on species-specific adaptations that provide animals with a cognitive tool to pass on messages from one conspecific to the other. This means that communication between members of different species is relatively rare and potentiall...

People remember specific earlier events that happened to them by using episodic memory. Accordingly, researchers have sought to evaluate the hypothesis that nonhumans retrieve episodic memories. The central hypothesis of an animal model of episodic memory proposes that, at the moment of memory assessment, the animal retrieves a memory of the specif...