GENDER DIFFERENCES IN CREATIVITY AMONG STUDENTS IN PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

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 (70% finance and law, 16% information technology and 14% web design). Consistent with our predictions, the 'openness to experience’ domain was positively related to the creativity facet, creativity behaviour and general creativity. As expected, the openness to experience domain and its creativity facet and creative behaviour and general creativity were associated with supporting creative behaviour by the environment in both males and females. However, contrary to our predictions, support for creative behaviour from academics was unrelated to openness to experience, creativity and general creativity in both males and females. In contrast, support for creative behaviour by academics was related to creative behaviour in females but not in males. Creative behaviour and general creativity were positively associated and supported creative behaviour by academics and the environment. Support for creative behaviour from the environment was positively associated with openness to experience, creativity, creative behaviour and general creativity, while gender only showed independent positive associations with creative behaviour. Gender, support for creative behaviour from academics and support for creative behaviour from the environment together accounted for 9% of the variance in openness to experience, 7% of the variance in creativity, 12% of the variance in creative behaviour and 13% of the variance in general creativity. The results highlight the importance of support for creative behaviour from the environment in explaining openness to experience, creativity, creative behaviour and general creativity. Furthermore, they show that gender is a significant predictor of creative behaviour. The results also provide further validation of the Inventory of Creative Behaviours and further delineate the nomological network of the creativity construct. Article visualizations: