In Search of the Creative Personality

Conceptual maps of occupational interests and environments, traits, and psychosocial motives were used in a search for general features of creative personality. Creative individuals seem to be concentrated in artistic and investigative occupations. In the samples surveyed, individuals in different arts and investigative fields differed considerably in personality traits, and the more creative did not differ from the less creative in the same ways across samples. The power motive generally may be important, but research to show this is lacking. Nevertheless, creative individuals were found to share strong symbolic interests, independence, and high aspirations. Viewing them as self-oriented rather than other-oriented is consistent with the above findings and with their love of work and difficulty in relationships; it points to transcendence of the self as a common moral problem. Implications for research on the creative personality include the importance of attention to the development of symbolic interests and to our projections of power on the creative individual.