Abstract :
The arts and sciences have been identified as two specific
domains that are dependent upon the creative process. A total
of 369 undergraduate students served as research participants
in two separate studies. In the first study, participants (N = 238)
completed a measure of Openness to Experience (NEO-PI;
McCrae & Costa, 1999) and a questionnaire assessing artistic
and scientific creativity (ASAS; Guastello & Shissler, 1994).
Results from study 1 indicated that the Aesthetics and Actions
personality traits were significantly related to artistic creativity,
while the Ideas trait was the only lower level personality
trait to significantly correlate with scientific creativity. In the
second study, participants (N = 131) completed a measure
of Openness to Experience (NEO-PI), Vocational Interests (Holland,
1985), and an artistic and scientific creativity questionnaire
(Guastello & Shissler, 1994). Findings from study 1 were
largely replicated in study 2. Namely, Aesthetics and Ideas were
significantly related with artistic and scientific creativity, respectively.
Results from partial correlation computations were used
to identify specific personality traits that were used in a series
of regression models testing the second goal of the second
study. Specifically, vocational interests were observed to
mediate the relationship between personality dispositions
and creativity. Results suggest the ability of lower level personality
traits of Openness to differentiate between artistic and
scientific creativity. In addition, results lend support for the
motivational aspect of vocational interests.
