Disentangling Creative Mindsets From Creative Self-Efficacy and Creative Identity: Do People Hold Fixed and Growth Theories of Creativity?

How people perceive their creativity is a growing area of research, but less is known about how people perceive the distinction between inborn (fixed) versus learnable (growth) aspects of their creative competence. This study measured fixed and growth creative mindsets, and its relationship to creative self-efficacy and creative identity in a sample of 620 undergraduate students. The data were split into 2 equal-sized samples to perform exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis results showed that items adapted from Dweck's previous studies with the word creativity replacing intelligence did not perform as well as Karwowski's creative mindset items. Confirmatory factor analysis results suggest that the best measurement model for mindsets is one that also includes self-efficacy, but not necessarily creative identity. Fixed mindsets correlated much less with the other factors, and all of the small correlations were in the negative direction, which could be expected given that those with a fixed mindset employ more helpless strategies. Fixed and growth creative mindsets were moderately negatively correlated, suggesting that while the 2 mindsets are related, it is important for future researchers to measure levels of both dimensions. This study also suggests that fixed and growth mindsets are better measured using descriptions that pertain specifically to the creative process. Implications and theoretical considerations are discussed.