Subjectivity in creative self beliefs: A Q-sort analysis

Over the past two decades, the study of creative self-beliefs has focused on generating instruments which target self-efficacy, self-identity, and self-perceptions. In this study, we re-examined creative self-belief (CSB) scales through the lens of implicit and subjective beliefs about creativity using Q-methodology. Our goal was to determine whether patterns in people's subjective beliefs about creativity manifested themselves in the assessment of CSBs. To accomplish this goal, we used forty-nine items from previously published scales on CSBs to create the corpus of items for a Q-sort analysis. Findings revealed three perspectives on how people arrive at whether they think they are creative or not: Identity-Essentialist, Practical-Productive, and Imaginative-Visionary. Connections were observed between the three perspectives, scales from which items were drawn, and typical implicit theories of creativity. Qualitative analysis of pre- and post-sort questions extended on the implicit theories theme as participants suggested that the existing CSB items did not fully capture their thought process when considering whether they are creative or not. Implications for the assessment of CSBs and the relevance of implicit theories in that work are also discussed.