How to measure creativity?

A fundamental problem that first hit me when looking at this research proposal was the factor of being able to measure creativity, for example:

In an experiment does one use laymen? Or does one use artist?
How would you compare between different people?
Where does creativity stop and technical ability begin (ie. drawing, painting, drama)?

Using Self-Report for creativity: I was thinking about using self-report for people to detail their perception and process of creativity. The reason for this is to embody creativity as a "process" rather then an achievable state; People know their own states of creativity.

Research Method

For this research proposal I am thinking of using three university courses which involves an aspect of creativity as the main assessment - an architecture, art and writing course - and within each course have a controlled group and a group which will be provided with mindfulness lessons. A pre-test will involve two parts: a self-report of students creative abilities, and a "creativity" test made up of problem-solving, etc. After the course the groups will be tested again using the same methods, plus an extra question asking specifically about the student's creativity for the major assignment in the completed course.

The use of the three different classes needs to carefully considered though, although the ease of just looking at one class seems enough to look at the effect of mindfulness on creativity, the question still remains: Does mindfulness work the same on the creative process across different domains? There are variables that need to be considered when/if looking across the three classes though, such as if the marking weight of the assessment varies, how the assessment is marked (i.e. if there is a stronger theoretical basis in one class opposed to design of another) and university level of the courses (ie. an introduction level or third year with perquisites).

Other variables to consider: Students work load (both inside and outside university), the communication of the controlled groups and the mindfulness groups, the student's desire to do the course, and the social factor of the "lecturer" being the judge of the assessment. Blondlox 22:27, 23 January 2012 (UTC)Reply