Assessment of Creativity: Theories and Methods

Abstract

The history of creativity assessment is as old as the concept itself. Researchers from various cultures and disciplines attempted to define the concept of creativity and offer a valid way to assess it. Creativity is generally defined as the ability to produce work that is novel and appropriate. Researchers in the field attempted to measure creativity from different perspectives and tried to answer the question like "What are the mental processes involved in creative thought?, Which personality traits are associated with creativity?, How can a product can be judged to be cre-ative? and, What are the external forces that affect creativity?". The answers of these questions constitute the most commonly used creativity assessment instruments. This chapter presents a brief overview on assessment of creativity through the eyes of the psychometric perspective and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of various instruments used in the field.