Conditional Reasoning Test for Creative Personality: Rationale, Theoretical Development, and Validation

Abstract

The innovations of creative individuals are regarded as vital for business functioning and survival. To this end, efforts have been made to design measures of creative personality in hopes of predicting creative performance. Current measures of creative personality all reside at the explicit level, yet theory and research both suggest that a large proportion of personality can also be conceptualized at the implicit level. We address this issue by presenting a theoretical basis for creative personality that operates on an implicit level. Using conditional reasoning methodology, we describe five cognitive biases that serve as justification mechanisms for creative personality. Next, we link implicit creative personality to creative abilities through a developmental process. We then test this model and our new measure of creative personality in five different studies. Our results provide evidence in support of an implicit component of creative personality and suggest that it is a substantial predictor of creative performance. Finally, we describe the management and human resources implications of the conceptualization of creative personality as an implicit construct.

The added value of implicit motives for management research Development and first validation of a Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT) for the measurement of implicit motives

“…As we argued before, different types of implicit measures are most likely complementary and not interchangeable, tapping into different mechanisms and relating to different outcomes. Schoen and colleagues [ 59 ], for example, recently developed a CRT measure to assess a person’s implicit creative personality and found that it is a substantial predictor of creative performance. Yet, other implicit measures of creative personality, such as a BIAT, an OMT or a I-PSQ-type of questionnaire, could most likely add to the knowledge of creative personality and performance.…”

“…Thus, the pattern of selected solutions is indicative of the justification mechanisms that people apply, and hence of the underlying unconscious or implicit processes through which people motivate their behaviors and thoughts. CRTs have been successfully developed and used for the assessment of achievement motivation [ 13 ], aggression [ 57 ], power [ 58 ], creativity [ 59 ], addiction proneness [ 60 ], and most likely also for a number of other constructs. Recent studies, including two meta-analyses, show that the CRT has good psychometric qualities [ 60 – 63 ].…”

“…Recent studies, including two meta-analyses, show that the CRT has good psychometric qualities [ 60 – 63 ]. Notwithstanding these good properties, the development and validation of new CRTs is rather effortful [ 39 ] and completion of one CRT requires up to 20–30 minutes [ 59 ].…”

How to select a true leader?

“…The conditional reasoning test was initially developed to measure implicit aspects of achievement motivation (James, 1998), and aggressiveness (James et al, 2005), but today it is used to measure certain aspects of leadership (James et al, 2013), team orientation (O'Shea et al, 2004), delays, absenteeism and withdrawal (Nieminen, 2012), addiction tendencies (Bowler and Bowler, 2014), and creativity (Schoen et al, 2016).…”

The multiple ways of behaving creatively in the workplace: A typology and model

“…3 Individual differences do exist. Even though employees with creative potential can think outside the box (Amabile & Pratt, 2016) and are willing to take risk (Schoen et al, 2016), it is conceivable that some individuals may not feel comfortable with the particular type of risk associated with handling rules. Similarly, some individuals may not feel that this is the "right" thing to do (March & Olsen, 2011).…”