Longitudinal Stability of Person Characteristics: Intelligence and Creativity

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Abstract
An empirical study based on a heterogeneous sample of approximately 1,000 boys and girls concerns longitudinal stability in intelligence and creativity data. Group-administered intelligence tests were given at ages 10, 13, and 15; and different creativity tests were administered at ages 13 and 16. The three main features of the present study were that (1) intelligence and creativity data were collected and used for the same group of individuals; (2) the individuals constituted an unselected, representative group; and (3) the data were analyzed in a multivariable-multioccasion paradigm. The requirements for construct validity proposed by Campbell and Fiske (1959) were reformulated in terms of stability over time. The two main requirements that were derived are that (1) coefficients between measurements of the same variable on different occasions must be significantly greater than zero, and (2) a stability coefficient for a certain variable must also be higher than the correlation between data for this variable at the first occasion and data for any other type of variable at the other occasion. These two requirements were fulfilled for both intelligence and creativity data in all time intervals. For intelligence measured at ages 10 and 15, a stability coefficient of about .75 for both boys and girls was obtained. Correlations of .45 and .42 for boys and girls, respectively, were found between measures of creativity taken at ages 13 and 16. These results are in agreement with earlier studies of stability in intelligence and creativity, and support the construct validity of the creativity construct.

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