Discover Creative Motivation: Assembling Facts and Findings about Torrance’s Creative Motivation Scale (2019-2021)

The proposed secondary analysis of the primary research with the creative motivation (CM) scale, developed by E. Paul Torrance, aimed at consolidation of the psychological knowledge on creative motivation (CM) and a better understanding of the concept and its application. The search for available data located 45 empirical studies involving school age children, adolescents and adults. Studies’ samples, examined dimensions, measurement instruments, research design and findings were described as fully and as uniformly as possible and data ffrom all studies were compiled. Several sub-sets of studies were identified, on the basis of specified relevant characteristics, and their details and results were polled to derive conclusions based on the accumulated body of evidence. The synthesis of the existing research demonstrated that CM is related to real-life creativity. There is consistent evidence that CM scores differentiate criterion groups with different level of creativity, were they academic researchers, university students, or employees of advertising agencies. Supporting evidence comes from the comparison of groups with high and low CM which differ in their level of creative performance, and from correlational studies of CM and performance on creative assignments in university students. Second, a heterogeneous group of studies examined the relation between CM and creative thinking skills. Their aggregated results indicate a possible moderation by population’s level of involvement with creativity: relation was stronger in groups of people committed to creative achievements than in non-selected groups of younger subjects. Third, CM relationships with personality described a fairly consistent image of the person with high CM as someone with high tolerance of ambiguity, orientation towards innovation, and creative self-perception, though not necessarily very self-confident or trying to achieve high standards of performance. Finally, the place of CM in Torrance’s model of creativity was specified, as the new consolidated knowledge on CM was used to elaborate the inner mechanisms of creative behavior implied by the model. In conclusion, the new understanding of creative motivation was used to relate this construct to the larger area of research on motivation for creativity.

Outputs:

Stoycheva, K. (2022) Discover Creative Motivation: Assembling Facts and Findings about Torrance’s Creative Motivation Scale. Paper presented at the 20222 MIC Conference on Creativity, August 31 – September 2, 2022, Bologna, Italy.

Stoycheva, K. (2021) Discover Creative Motivation: Assembling Facts and Findings about Torrance’s Creative Motivation Scale (research report)

Stoycheva, K., Popova, K. (2019). Tolerance/Intolerance of Ambiguity: Assessing Its Perceived Importance. Psychological Research, Volume 20, Number 3, 629-640; ISSN 0205-0617 (Print); ISSN 2367-9174 (Online).