Open-Mindedness and Creativity

Abstract

In concluding his review of the psychological literature relating to the study of creativity, Golann (1963) states his "belief that the use of theoretically derived personality factors as criterion variables has . . . been neglected, yet holds most promise of providing a functional developmental understanding of creativity" (p. 561). Specifically, in "such an approach our criterion variables might be tolerance for or seeking of ambiguity, openness to experience . . . internal frames of evaluation, or independence of judgment, to name but a few theoretically based descriptive concepts which appear again and again in the literature and deserve further investigation" (p. 561). The cluster of traits which Golann cites appears to represent a good thumbnail sketch of the open-minded individual as described by Rokeach ( 1960). Indeed, in a more recent paper, Rokeach (1965) suggests that open-mindedness may be a prerequisite (in the sense of a necessary but insufficient condition) for creativity. Rokeach's "Dogmatism Scale" and Mednick's "Remote Associates Test" (RAT) were administered to 24 graduate students enrolled in a course in business administration at George Washington University during the Fall of 1966. The RAT is a test of creativicy based upon Mednick's theoretical interpretation of the creative process as one which involves the forming of associations between mutually remote cognitive elements (Mednick, 1962; Mednick & Mednick, 1964). It was predicted that scores on the Dogmatism Scale would be inversely related to performance on the RAT. The resulting correlation coefficient, -.248, though in the predicted direction, failed to reach statistical significance (9 = .12). However, the results are suggestive and it appears that further research into the relationship between dogmacism and creativity is warranted.

Full text

Psychological Reports,
1967,
20,
822.
@
Southern Universities Press
1967
OPEN-MINDEDNESS AND CREATIVITY
JACOB
JACOBY
Deflar~ment of Defense, POT! George
G.
Meade, Maryland
In concluding his review of the psychological literature relating to the study
of creativity, Golann (1963) states his "belief that the use of theoretically de-
rived personality factors as criterion variables has
.
.
.
been neglected, yet holds
most promise of providing a functional
developmental
understanding of cre-
ativity" (p. 561). Specifically, in "such an approach our criterion variables
might be tolerance for or seeking of ambiguity, openness
to
experience
.
.
.
in-
ternal frames of evaluation, or independence of judgment, to name but a few
theoretically based descriptive concepts which appear again and again
in
the
literature and deserve further investigation" (p. 561).
The cluster of traits which Golann cites appears to represent a good thumb-
nail sketch of the open-minded individual as described by Rokeach
(
1960). In-
deed, in
a
more recent paper, Rokeach (1965) suggests that open-mindedness
may
be
a prerequisite (in the sense of a necessary but insufficient condition)
for creativity.
Rokeach's "Dogmatism Scale" and Mednick's "Remote Associates Test"
(RAT) were administered to 24 graduate students enrolled in a course in busi-
ness administration at George Washington University during the Fall of 1966.
The RAT is a test of creativicy based upon Mednick's theoretical interpretation
of the creative process as one which involves the forming of associations between
mutually remote cognitive elements (Mednick, 1962; Mednick
&
Mednick,
1964). It was predicted that scores on the Dogmatism Scale would be inversely
related to performance on the RAT.
The resulting correlation coefficient, -.248, though in the predicted direc-
tion, failed to reach statistical significance
(9
=
.12). However, the results are
-
suggestive and it appears that further research into the relationship between dog-
macism and creativity is warranted.
REFERENCES
GOLANN,
S.
E.
Psychological study of creativiry.
Psychological Bulletin,
1963, 60, 548-
565.
MEDNICK,
S.
A. The associative basis of the creative process.
Psychological Review,
1962,
69,
220-232.
MEDNICK,
S.
A,,
&
MEDNICK,
M.
T.
An associative interpretation of the creative proc-
ess.
In
C.
W.
Taylor
(Ed.),
IVidening horizons in creatiui~y.
New York: Wiley,
1964.
Pp.
54-68.
ROKEACH,
M.
The open and closed mind.
New York: Basic Books,
1960.
ROKEACH,
M.
In
pursuit
of
the creative process. In
G.
A. Steiner
(Ed.),
The creative
organization.
Chicago: Univer. of Chicago Press,
1965.
Pp.
66-88.
Accepted April
21, 1967.