Creativity across the Life Span: a Measurement Perspective

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Abstract
Research in creativity is discussed with particular emphasis on the problems encountered in assessing creativity from a life-span developmental framework. Misinterpretations of previous research, stemming from the confusion between creative capacity and productivity and the status of age as an explanatory variable in assessing creative capacity, are discussed as they relate to the unwarrantedly pessimistic impression that creative ability reaches a peak in early adulthood and declines as a function of age thereafter. Additional reliability and validity issues are considered including problems in developing both reliable and valid indicators of creativity, and assessing individual creativity reliably over the life course. Alternative developmental models and measures, such as those which consider qualitative changes in creative capacity and strategies which attempt to untangle the effects of age, cohort, and ecological contexts, are discussed as future research recommendations in the assessment of life-span creativity.

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