This study investigated the relationship between creativity and personality
among college students from a variety of major fields of study. Indicators
of creativity were ratings of written stories, lists of personal hobbies,
and scores on the Creative Personality Scale (CPS; Gough, 1979). Personalit
y was assessed broadly using the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (Costa and McCra
e, 1985) as well as measures of depersonalization, intolerance of ambiguity
,, faith in intuition, and problem-solving styles. The results showed a pos
itive relationship between openness to experience and all creativity, measu
res. Moreover; high scores on intuition and extraversion were the best pred
ictors for creativity as measured by the CPS. Story creativity was predicte
d by low scores on conscientiousness. Depersonalilzation was not significan
tly related to creativity. The results of this investigation confirm and ex
tend previous research in demonstrating a close association between creativ
ity and specific personality traits. Future research should clarify the nat
ure of the creative personality across individuals of differing levels and
domains of expertise. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.