Points of View about Preference as Tools in the Analysis of Creative Products

Abstract

Research on the creative product may provide an analytical tool for generating and testing hypotheses about psychological variables related to level and style of creative achievement. Evaluations of products should be analyzed to determine (1) whether more than one point of view about quality is held among a heterogeneous group of judges and (2) whether personality, academic, and background characteristics of Ss producing the products relate differentially to quality as defined by different points of view. In a study of artistic creativity, drawings were collected from 191 sophomore students at a school of design and rated for esthetic quality by 28 artist and non-artist judges. Four points of view about quality were identified by factor analysis of correlations between judges. Evidence is presented that psychological, achievement, and background characteristics of Ss are differentially related to quality of their drawings as defined by the four points of view. In particular, choice of major, scores on certain aptitude tests, academic performance in the fine arts courses, and measures of wealth of cultural background showed differential correlations with the points of view. Finally, characteristics of drawings rated high or low according to at least two of the judgmental viewpoints may be useful in the generation of hypotheses about psychological variables related to creativity.

The Prediction of Academic Success and the Ability to Draw at a School of Design1

“…Taking It also appeared that the prediction of performance in drawing was less successful than the prediction of academic criteria in art and design. This finding was not likely to be due to the unreliability of the judges' ratings, since Skager, Schultz, and Klein (1966) in a previous study of ratings contributed by this same panel of jUdges found the reliability of mean ratings of all seven judges to be greater than .90. (1hese evaluations were made on a landscape drawing done by an earlier group of students at the institution studied in this research.)…”

Research on Cognitive, Personality, and Social Psychology: II

“…A good example of the concrete product approach to creativity is a study by ETS scientists Skager et al (1966a). They raised the issue of the extent of agreement among a group of 28 judges (24 artists and 4 nonartists) in their aesthetic-quality ratings of drawings produced by the 191 students in the sophomore class at the Rhode Island School of Design.…”

“…Further analysis of the Skager et al (1966a) data is described in Klein and Skager (1967). Drawings with the highest positive and negative factor loadings on the first two factors extracted in the Skager et al study (80 drawings in all) were selected with the aim of further clarifying the spontaneous-deliberate contrast cited earlier.…”

A Description of Points of View in Esthetic Judgments in Terms of Similarity Dimensions

“…The drawings in sets A and B were also employed by Skager, Schultz, and Klein (1966b) When the drawings that were p:trticuJ.arly liked or disliked by the judges holding each point of view were examined, it appeared that the highly rated drawings on the different Viewpoints had different characteristics. For example, a study by Klein and Skager (1967) indicated that the experts holding the Artist-I viewpoint had a strong preference for "s porrtaneous" rather than "deliberate" drawings.…”