Gender Differences in Creativity (original) (raw)

Gender and creativity: an overview of psychological and neuroscientific literature

Brain imaging and behavior, 2015

The topic of gender differences in creativity is one that generates substantial scientific and public interest, but also courts considerable controversy. Owing to the heterogeneous nature of the findings associated with this line of research, the general picture often appears puzzling or obscure. This article presents a selective overview of psychological and neuroscientific literature that has a relevant bearing on the theme of gender and creativity. Topics that are explored include the definition and methods of assessing creativity, a summary of behavioral investigations on gender in relation to creativity, postulations that have been put forward to understand gender differences in creative achievement, gender-based differences in the structure and function of the brain, gender-related differences in behavioral performance on tasks of normative cognition, and neuroscientific studies of gender and creativity. The article ends with a detailed discussion of the idea that differences ...

Gender differences in creative thinking revisited: Findings from analysis of variability

Personality and Individual Differences, 2011

This study investigated gender differences in creativity among 985 schoolchildren (499 boys, 486 girls) by analyzing both means and variability. A relatively new creativity test, the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP), was employed to gain a more refined understanding of gender differences in creativity using a gestalt approach. Whereas the results of analyses of means generally supported the Gender Similarities Hypothesis, the variability analyses tended to support the Greater Male Variability Hypothesis and the Gender Difference Hypothesis. Analyses of the TCT-DP subscales revealed that both genders have their relative strengths and weaknesses in creative thinking. Whereas girls outperformed boys in thoroughness of thinking, boys outperformed girls in boundary-breaking thinking. Variability analyses further showed that more boys clustered in the two extremes of the composite score. Significantly greater variability was found for males on five criteria of the TCT-DP. The educational implications of such a complex pattern of gender differences are discussed. With a view to searching for an explanation for gender differences, several lines of further research are proposed.

Impact of Gender and Subject on the Creativity Level of High and Low Achievers

The aim of the study was to find out effect of gender and subject on the creativity level of students. Furthermore it was aimed at finding out differences in creativity level between high and low achievers. Sample (N=154) consisted of BS Hons' students of University of Sargodha. The sample was comprised of 76 high achievers and 78 low achievers and almost equal number of girls (n=76) and boys (n =78). Abedi Creativity Test was used to measure creativity level of University undergraduates. On the basis of Cumulative grade point averages (CGPA) of previous semesters (IV & VI), high and low achievers were selected as the participants of the study. Results have revealed that there was no significant effect of gender and subject of the students on the total score of creativity (p>.05) while it was revealed that pure science students scored high on originality as compared to arts students while no differences were found on other three subscales of creativity. Findings revealed that...

Gender Differences in the Distribution of Creativity Scores: Domain-Specific Patterns in Divergent Thinking and Creative Problem Solving

Frontiers in Psychology, 2021

The present study examined gender differences in the distribution of creative abilities through the lens of the greater male variability hypothesis, which postulated that men showed greater interindividual variability than women in both physical and psychological attributes (Ellis, 1894/1934). Two hundred and six (51.9% female) undergraduate students in Hong Kong completed two creativity measures that evaluated different aspects of creativity, including: (a) a divergent thinking test that aimed to assess idea generation and (b) a creative problem-solving test that aimed to assess restructuring ability. The present findings extended the research of greater male variability in creativity by showing that men generally exhibited greater variance than women in the overall distribution of the creativity scores in both divergent thinking and creative problem solving, despite trivial gender differences in mean scores. The findings further enriched the discourse of the greater male variabili...

Türk Üstün Zekâ ve Eğitim Dergisi A Componential Analysis of Gender Differences in Scientific Creativity

2013

In this study, an investigation was carried out to explore if there were any gender differences in scientific creativity and its components. Participants included 704 sixth grade students who applied to the Education Programs for Talented Students (EPTS) at Anadolu University in the City of Eskişehir in Turkey. Of the total sample , 345 were female and 359 were male. Stu-dents' scientific creativity was measured using the Creative Scientific Ability Test (C-SAT). It measures fluency, flexibility and creativity and hypothesis generation, hypothesis testing and evidence evaluation. The analysis showed that male students scored significantly higher on hypothesis generation components of scientific creativity. Although male students had higher scores on flexibility, hypothesis testing and evidence evaluation components too, the differences between the groups were not significant. The findings shows that gender differences in scientific creativity in childhood and adolescence might r...

Gender Differences in Creativity Among Students in Private Higher Education

European Journal of Education Studies, 2021

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between openness to experience, creativity, creative behaviour, general creativity, and support for creative behaviour from academic staff (lecturers and professors) and by the environment among students in private higher education. The aim was to investigate the contribution of gender, support for creative behaviour from academics, and the environment in predicting different measures of creativity. Additionally, this study examined the structure of the creative behaviour self-assessment questionnaire. The openness to experience scale, creativity subscale, inventory of creative behaviours, creativity self-assessment questionnaire and assessment of incentives for creative behaviour by academics and the environment were tested on a sample of 346 students (54% female), who were randomly selected from different private higher education institutions (college and universities). Students with different majors participated (7...

Self-reported differences in creativity by ethnicity and gender

Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2006

Creativity assessment has been proposed as a supplement to intellectual testing, in part because of reduced differences by ethnicity; creativity testing might also specifically help reduce stereotype threat. Recent trends in creativity research point to a domain-specific view challenging the more traditional generalist view. With these trends in mind, the current study assessed creative self-perceptions of 3553 students and community members in 56 different possible domains distributed across five factors (as determined by principal components analysis). African Americans were less likely to fall prone to gender stereotypes in creativity. In addition, African Americans and Native Americans tended to rate themselves as more creative than other ethnicities. Specific trends in the factors and implications for future research are discussed.

Students' Divergent Thinking and Teachers' Ratings of Creativity: Does Gender Play a Role?

The Journal of Creative Behavior, 2009

The differences between genders regarding the properties of divergent thinking and teachers' ratings of students' creativity are the issue of the present research. Data gathered from three previous experimental studies in Greek primary school students (N total = 228) was used for this purpose. In these studies, divergent thinking tasks were assigned to students and teachers' ratings were collected. The results showed that there were indeed differences in performance -except in the subscale of originality -in favor of girls who were more likely to perform better when they had a male teacher. Teachers' ratings of creativity were not related to students' gender but to teachers' gender.