La Creatividad

On Creativity
Towards an Understanding of Creativity and its Measurements

Ernesto Villalba

EUR 23561 EN - 2008

The Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen provides research-based, systemsoriented support to EU policies so as to protect the citizen against economic and technological risk. The Institute maintains and develops its expertise and networks in information,communication, space and engineering technologies in support of its mission. The strong crossfertilisation between its nuclear and non-nuclear activities strengthens the expertise it can bring to the benefit of customers in both domains.

European Commission Joint Research Centre Contact information Address: Ernesto Villalba, JRC, TP 361, Via Fermi, 21027, Ispra (VA), Italy E-mail:ernesto.villalba@jrc.it Tel.: +390332785226 Fax: +390332785733 http://crell.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ http://www.jrc.ec.europa.eu Legal Notice Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this publication. Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union Freephone number (*): 00 800 6 7 89 10 11
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A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server http://europa.eu/ JRC 48604 Catalogue number: LB-NA-23561-EN-C EUR 23561 EN ISBN: 978-92-79-10647-7 ISSN 1018-5593 DOI: 10.2788/2936 Luxembourg:Office for Official Publications of the European Communities © European Communities, 2008 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged Photo cover by Marco Cassè: http://flickr.com/photos/kazze/115208603/ Printed in Italy

On Creativity♠

Table of contents
Table ofcontents............................................................................................................. iii Summary ...........................................................................................................................7 1. Introduction...............................................................................................................9 2. Towards an understanding of what creativity is .....................................................11 3. Differentapproaches to measuring creativity .........................................................19 3.1. Divergent thinking ..........................................................................................20 3.2. Creative personality ........................................................................................21 3.3. The creativeclass............................................................................................23 3.4. Entrepreneurship and innovation as pointers of creative potential.................27 4. Measuring creativity using large international surveys ..........................................31 References.......................................................................................................................35 Annex: Extratables.........................................................................................................39

The views expressed in this publication are strictly those of the author and they do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

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Creativity is often obvious in young children, but it may be harder to find in older children and adults because their creative potential has beensuppressed by a society that encourages intellectual conformity.
R. J. Sternberg♣

Creativity now is as important in education as literacy and should be treated with the same status
Sir Ken Robinson♦

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Sternberg, R. J. (2006). The nature of creativity, Creativity Research Journal, 18 (1), p. 93. Robinson, K. (June, 2006). Do schools kill creativity? Talk at the TED: Ideas worth...