Measuring Creativity Change and Development

Creativity is not a static entity. It develops as people mature, and it can be trained and nurtured. Most applications of creativity research are in fact geared toward this end. However, the study of creativity as it changes and develops, whether under "natural" or "treatment" conditions (program effectiveness), faces a number of measurement and research-design challenges that have, thus far, greatly limited the conclusions that can possibly be made about this phenomenon. After a brief overview of research in this line of work, this review article emphasizes the enduring issues of practice effects, alternate-form reliability, and measurement equivalence in the study of creativity change and development. These issues serve as the general thread of this paper to discuss pitfalls and recommendations regarding (1) the definition and operationalization of constructs, (2) research designs, (3) issues of statistical power in repeated-measurement settings, and (4) other important measurement, methodological, and statistical issues for the accurate study of creativity change and development.