Personality Variables and Problem-Construction Activities: An Exploratory Investigation

Michael D. Mumford, David P. Costanza, K. Victoria hrelfall, Wayne A. Baughman, Roni Reiter-Palmon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Scopus citations

Abstract

Problem-construction and problem-finding activities have been shown to have a marked impact on creative achievement. Although cognitive operations play an important role in problem construction, there is reason to suspect that personality variables might influence effective process application. In the present study we constructed measures of personality characteristics that might influence adaption to novel, ill-defined tasks. These measures were administered to 250 undergraduates who were also asked to complete a problem-construction task. A series of discriminant analyses indicated that personality variables could be used to identify individuals who generated high-quality, original problems. The implications of our findings for understanding exactly how personality variables interact with cognitive operations in the problem-construction process are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)365-389
Number of pages25
JournalCreativity Research Journal
Volume6
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 1993
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Visual Arts and Performing Arts
  • Psychology (miscellaneous)

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