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CREATIVITY, INTELLIGENCE, AND ACHIEVEMENT AMONG
DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN’
ROBERT
H.
BRUININKS
DAVID
H.
FELDMAN
University
of
Minnesota
Albert
(1969)
counted publications on creativity that appeared in journals
listed in Psychological Abstracts and found that they have increased almost geo-
metrically in volume since
1958.
Much of this increased interest stems from the
development of measures to assess creative behavior by Guilford
(1950),
Torrance
(1966),
Barron
(1953, 1955),
Wallach
&
Kogan
(1965)
and others, making empirical
research more feasible. A second impetus toward research in creativity has been
the tremendous pressure to provide educational opportunities for children who do
riot conform to the requirements of the typical academic situation. In this sense,
creative children are viewed as having great potential for achievement that is not
recognized or encouraged in the average classroom. This realization has led
to
the current widespread public acceptance of the validity
of
a
creativity-intelligence
distinction, as reflected, for example, in legislation recently introduced into Con-
gress (H.
R.
4087
&
s.
71s)
defining the term “gifted”
as
“outstanding ability
or
creative talent.” However, the evidence for the independence of creativity and
intelligence, at least as they are typically operationalized in
I&
and creativity tests,
is far from conclusive (Barron,
1968;
Cronbach,
1968;
Feldman,
1969;
Hilgard,
1968;
Wallach,
1968).
Since one of the hopes of creativity research is to tap a significant mode of
functioning that expands educational opportunities for children-particularly dis-
advantaged and minority children-it is important to explore the relations among
creativity, intelligence and achievement measures for these groups. Thus, one
purpose of the present research is to gather further evidence on the creativity-
intelligence distinction in disadvantaged children. A second purpose is to explore
the meanings of creativity and
I&
as predictors of several measures of academic
achievement among disadvantaged children.
If
creativity tests are to be used in
educational selection, prediction, and evaluation of children from all backgrounds,
as it appears will be the case, it is desirable that the characteristics of these measures
be determined before widespread deployment takes place.
METHOD
Subjects
Ss
were 36 boys and 36 girls enrolled in the ublic schools of Metropolitan Nashville-Davidsoii
County, Tennessee. Approximately
80%
of the
is
were Black children. After four years in school,
the& had
a
mean Stanford-Binet
I&
of
86.58
(SD
=
12.83), and an average age of 9 years,
11
months.
Socioeconomic status data obtained through home interviews and ratings by school personnel
con-
firmed that the
Ss
came from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Tests
Toward the end of both the third and fourth grades, each
S
was administered the same measures
of verbal intelligence, creative thinking, and academic achievement. All tests were administered by
t.rained and qualified psychometrists. The measures are briefly described below.
Stanford-Bind Intelligence
ScaZe.
The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Form L-M (Terman
&
Merrill, 1960), is essentially
a
measure of general verbal ability. The test includes items ranging from
simple manipulation of objects to questions that require abstract reasoning.
‘This study was supported in part by
a
grant to George Peabody College for Teachers (H-D
973) and by
a
grant from the U.
S.
Office of Educat,ion to the University of Minnesota
(OEG-0-9-
3321894.533032).