The 7th P in creativity research: How an individual’s creative perception influences one’s creative behavior

On October 31 Anatoly Kharkhurin (PhD, associate professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, School of Psychology, HSE) took part in the "Culture matters" research seminar with the report "The 7th P in creativity research: How an individual’s creative perception influences one’s creative behavior".

This seminar presented a research project investigating contributors of creative perception to creative behavior. Creative perception paradigm promises to add a new perspective on the multifaceted construct of creativity. Presently, this construct is approached from the perspective of a creative person, a creative process, a product of creative activity, environment or place in which creative activity occurs, persuasion of others in plausibility of creative outcome, and potential to engage in creative activity (Rhodes, 1961; Simonton, 1990; Runco, 2003). The current creative perception paradigm expands the 6P approach with a study of various aspects of individuals' perception, which potentially prompt their creative engagement. The 7th P approach suggests that creativity construct can be evaluated from the standpoint of creative perception.

An empirical study discussed in the seminar, investigated how cultural background moderates a contribution of creative perception to creative behavior. Creative behavior was operationalized as creative potential and unstructured imagination. Creative potential was measured by divergent thinking test, the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults. Unstructured imagination was measured by alien creature test. Creative perception was operationalized to have two orientations: one directing inwards, toward a person (self-efficacy) and the other directing outwards, toward the environment (preference for complexity and asymmetry). Creative self-perception was assessed by Khatena-Torrance Creative Perception Inventory. Preference for complexity and asymmetry was assessed by a standard Barron-Welsh Art Scale. These tests were given to Russian and Emirati undergraduate college students. First, we found that creative perception of the self contributes to divergent thinking and unstructured imagination, and creative perception of the environment contributes to unstructured imagination. Second, we found that Russian participants have greater creative perception of the self than their Emirati counterparts. Third, Russian participants demonstrated greater abilities for divergent thinking and unstructured imagination compared with their Emirati counterparts. Fourth, the sociocultural environment moderated the contribution of creative perception to creative performance. Among Russian participants, creative perception of the environment predicted divergent thinking. Among Emirati participants, creative perception of the self and the environment predicted unstructured imagination. These findings suggest that in addition to process, product, person, place, persuasion, and potential perspectives, creativity construct can be evaluated from a standpoint of creative perception. The latter perspective has strong cultural connotations.