The Maze of Creative Thinking Pathways of Traits, States, and Intelligence in Shaping Creativity

Creativity is a complex and multifaceted construct that has been linked to various cognitive, emotional, and personality factors. This study explores the interplay between fluid intelligence, creative reasoning, personality traits, and mood states in predicting divergent thinking performance. We hypothesize that extraversion, openness to experience, positive moods, and creative reasoning would predict performance on divergent thinking tasks. A total of 120 young adults participated in the study, completing assessments on fluid intelligence (APM), creative reasoning (CRT-Reasoning), creativity (CRT-Creativity, TCT-DP), personality traits (Big Five Inventory 2), and moods (Current Mood Scale). Results revealed a negative relationship between fluid intelligence and divergent thinking performance, suggesting that higher fluid intelligence may be associated with more convergent thinking strategies. Extraversion emerged as a significant positive predictor of divergent thinking, supporting the idea that sociability and external engagement foster creativity. Openness to experience did not significantly predict divergent thinking, indicating that its impact may vary across domains of creativity. Mood states, especially hopelessness, were negatively associated with creativity, but the frequently found association between positive moods and creativity could not be replicated. These findings underscore the importance of considering cognitive, emotional, and personality factors in the study of creativity and suggest potential pathways for future research into how these elements interact to shape creative thinking.