Measuring creativity

Measuring creativity is not easy.

First, it's really hard to agree on what is creative and what is not: “Creativity is often misjudged. History is replete with examples of misjudged, overlooked, and ignored creative persons and works. Creative work is often misjudged in its own time and only later receives credit. Are contemporaries the best judges of creativity, or is a historical perspective the most accurate? (…) Misjudgment works both ways. Sometimes inventions and insights are overlooked, and sometimes their creativity and value are exaggerated. The possibility of misjudgment implies that consensual assessments should be used very judiciously.” Runco, M., Misjudgment, in Runco and Pritzker (1999)

Then of course is the problem of tests: “The criterion problem: what are the criteria by which creativity should be measured? A closely related question is whether tests commonly used to measure creativity in a person actually predict creative production. This problem encapsulates an essential operational definition for the field, because the research questions of empirical studies are based on issues of definitions.” O’Quin and Besemer, Creative Products, in Runco and Pritzker (1999)

Now, having acknowledged the previous two issues, how do we measure our (potential for) creativity? Divergent thinking is a widely used approach, motivation, personality, adaptability, and a dozen other features can be measured, even things like schizophrenia...

Here is the CREAX Creativity Self-Assessment Scan, announced as "a unique personal creativity profiling tool that offers you a free scan of your level of creativity in 8 different areas" Try it and see if the questions are relevant and the results tell you something about yourself: http://www.creax.com/csa