This book asks what are key psychological attributes of creative individuals, from personality to cognitive abilities to motivation and values, to their self and identity development, and to mental health and well-being. Through nine chapters, leading scholars review existing research and discuss where the new science of creativity is heading. The book goes beyond description of creators in terms of broad personality traits and engages with the ongoing debates in creativity scholarship about domain generality vs. specificity, levels of creativity, and nature of creativity as a transformative power for good vs. dark and harmful creativity. Contributions addressing how creators see themselves, how they think, and what drives them are brought together to formulate a new model of the creative person. Using a systems approach to personality psychology as theoretical framework, this book shows how a more nuanced description of the creative person can support the development of creative individuals.
1. Introduction: In Search of the Creative Person.-
2. What Is the
Nature of the Creative Person?.-
3. Personality Traits of the Creative
Person.-
4. Am I Creative? Challenges to Accurate Assessment of Creative
Self.-
5. What Motivates Creative People?.-
6. Five Key Cognitive Attributes
of Highly Creative Individuals.-
7. Development of Creative Individuals.-
8.
The Creativity and Mental Health Debate Through the Lens of the Creative
Person.-
9. Knowing the Creative Person.
Zorana Ivcevic is Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Yale University, USA. She is co-editor of the Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Emotions (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and Crisis, Creativity, and Innovation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), and author of The Creativity Choice (Public Affairs/Hachette, 2025).
