Examining the moderating effects of affective, cognitive, and personality factors on the relationship between creative potential and creative performance

Abstract

Although a considerable amount of research has focused on different aspects of creativity, there is a notable paucity of empirical studies exploring the affective, cognitive, and personality factors that might impact the relationship between creative potential and creative performance. This study examined the moderating effects of extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience, rational/experiential cognitive style, positive/negative affect, and attitudes and values on the relationship between creative potential and creative performance in a sample of university students. Findings revealed that extroversion had a moderating effect on the relationship between individuals’ creative potential and creative performance such that there was a stronger relationship between creative potential and creative performance for individuals who had lower levels of extroversion. Results further showed that while neuroticism and negative affect were only associated with creative potential, extroversion and experiential cognitive style were only related to creative performance and that openness to experience, rational cognitive style, positive affect, and attitudes and values were all associated with both creative potential and creative performance. These findings also suggested distinguishing explicitly between creative potential and creative performance in studying the creativity of individuals.