Patterns of Psychological Vulnerabilities and Resources in Artists and Nonartists

Abstract

The present study was inspired by Barron’s (1963) description of creative individuals as “occasionally crazier, yet adamantly saner” than the general population. As suggested by this description, we hypothesized that some individuals embody a pattern of both psychological vulnerabilities and resources and that this pattern is more likely to be present in artists than nonartists. We analyzed intraindividual patterns of psychological vulnerabilities (anxiety, depression, stress) and resources (psychological well-being, ego-resilience, hope) and identified distinct clusters of individuals, including those expected from the negative correlation between resources and vulnerabilities (high vulnerabilities, low resources; low vulnerabilities, high resources), and also a cluster including both moderately high vulnerabilities and resources. As hypothesized, the cluster with both vulnerabilities and resources had more artists than nonartists. Exploratory analyses showed that creative achievement is predicted by the interaction of high vulnerabilities and resources and that this effect is significant beyond the predictive power of openness to experience and age.