The Relationship between Intelligence and Creativity - Literature Review

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The Relationship between Intelligence and Creativity Literature Review

Intelligence is mostly described by psychologists as “the measure of a person’s ability to acquire and apply knowledge”, or “the measure of a person’s cognitive ability to adapt” (Heilman, K.M., 2005). If this is true, then creativity is the ability that allows people to better adapt. All throughout history psychologists have studied the relationship between intelligence and creativity. In 1896, Alfred Binet (the founder of intelligence) studied the imagination of children through inkblots (Glower, J. A., Ronning, R. R., & Reynolds, C. R., 1989). Guilford, Sternberg and Torrance are also famous for their studies in this field (Kaufman, A. B., 2007).

There are two dominant opinions when it comes to the study of intelligence and creativity: firstly, there are those who believe that there is a relationship between intelligence and creativity, and secondly, there are those who disagree. Two theoretical explanations have been proposed to explain this relationship: investment theory and threshold theory. Investment theory states that a confluence of intellectual abilities, knowledge, styles of thinking, personality, motivation and environment are all necessary aspects of creativity (Sternberg, R. J, 2006). Sternberg conducted several tests and studies to support his view that people must have certain aspects of intelligence in order to be creative. Similarly, threshold theory states that to be creative, a moderate level of intelligence is necessary (Preckel, F., Hollingand, H., & Wiesev, M., 2006). This theory works around the idea that once IQ reaches a point of usually 120 or higher, the relationship between creativity and intelligence changes from a positive correlation to a insignificant one (Kaufman, A. B., 2007). However, recent studies have shown a slight positive correlation between creativity and intelligence regardless of IQ (Heilman, K. M, 2005).

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On the other hand, some investigators have found that there is a weak relationship between intelligence and creativity. Simonton, Herr, Moore and Hasen all found a weak correlation; however, according to Heilman (2005) this lack of relationship may have been a result of the tests used.

Two tests will now be analysed. The first test to be analysed is Raven’s Progressive Matrices. This test by J.C. Raven was developed as a measure of intelligence and is a way to understand "observation and clear thinking" or "higher thought processes" (Mills, C. J., & Ablard, K., E. 1993). The second ...

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