Creativity and intelligence

2 Creativity and intelligence

The potential relationship between creativity and intelligence has been of interest since the late 1900s,when a multitude of influential studies—from Getzels &Jackson,Barron,Wallach&Kogan,and Guilford—focused not only on creativity,but also on intelligence.This joint focus highlights both the theoretical and practical importance of the relationship:researchers are interested not only if the constructs are related,but also how and why.

There are multiple theories accounting for their relationship,with the 3 main theories as follows:

(1)Threshold Theory—Intelligence is a necessary,but not sufficient condition for creativity.There is a moderate positive relationship between creativity and intelligence until IQ=120.

(2)Certification Theory—Creativity is not intrinsically related to intelligence.Instead,individuals are required to meet the requisite level intelligence in order to gain a certain level of education/work,which then in turn offers the opportunity to be creative.Displays of creativity are moderated by intelligence.

(3)Interference Theory—Extremely high intelligence might interfere with creative ability.

Sternberg and O'Hara proposed a framework of 5 possible relationships between creativity and intelligence:

(1)Creativity is a subset of intelligence

(2)Intelligence is a subset of creativity

(3)Creativity and intelligence are overlapping constructs

(4)Creativity and intelligence are part of the same construct(coincident sets)

(5)Creativity and intelligence are distinct constructs(disjoint sets)