Children's creative potential is often assessed using cognitive tests that require divergent thinking, such as the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT; E. P. Torrance, 1974, 1976, 1990). In this study the authors investigated the effect of various scoring systems on the originality index, evaluating the high intercorrelation of fluency and originality measures found in the TTCT scoring system and the applicability of TTCT scoring norms over time and across age groups. In 3 studies, the originality of elementary school children was measured using TTCT norms and various sample-specific scoring methods with the TTCT Unusual Uses of a Box test as well as social-problem-solving tasks. Results revealed an effect of scoring technique on creativity indices as well as on the reliability of originality scores and the relationship between originality and other ability measures. The usefulness of the various measures for understanding children's original thinking are discussed.

The present paper outlines an action theory of creativity and substantiates this approach by investigating creative expression in five different domains. We propose an action framework for the analysis of creative acts built on the assumption that creativity is a relational, inter-subjective phenomenon. This framework, drawing extensively from the work of Dewey (1934) on art as experience, is used to derive a coding frame for the analysis of interview material. The article reports findings from the analysis of 60 interviews with recognized French creators in five creative domains: art, design, science, scriptwriting, and music. Results point to complex models of action and inter-action specific for each domain and also to interesting patterns of similarity and differences between domains. These findings highlight the fact that creative action takes place not “inside” individual creators but “in between” actors and their environment. Implications for the field of educational psychology are discussed.

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We assessed children’s social creativity through interviews during which participants imagined original solutions to interpersonal problems. In addition, we compared performances in the social domain with those obtained in object-oriented problem-solving tasks such as the Unusual Uses of a Box creativity test designed by Torrance (1974) and the Similarities subtest of the WISC (1996). A total of 88 French children participated in this study. First, we observed links between social creativity tasks as well as consistent developmental trends showing that social creativity can be considered as a unitary construct. Second, with regard to the integration or differentiation of creative abilities in children’s development, results showed a distinct creative ability in the social domain for younger children and the emergence of a more general creative ability in older children. Third, the relationship between fluency and originality indices was stable across age groups and task domains, supporting Simonton’s constant-probability-of-success model (1990) for children. Implications for the study of creative abilities in the social domain and for understanding how children interact with others in various social settings are discussed.