Frank Barron

Predicting creativity from early to late adulthood: Intellect, potential, and personality

Abstract In 1950 (at age 27) a sample of 80 male graduate students was assessed on potential, intelligence–intellect, personality and creativity, and then personality and career outcome data were collected again at age 72. Intelligence (primary mental abilities, spatial, and number), intellect, potential, and personality (e.g., self-confidence, tolerance, openness, psychological mindedness, and introversion) at age 27 were expected to covary with creativity at age 27 and predict lifetime creativity at age 72. Yet, due to the non-intellective nature of personality, we predicted that personality would explain unique variance in creativity over and above that already explained by intellect and potential. Results supported each of these expectations. For instance, observer-rated potential and intellect at age 27 predicted lifetime creativity at age 72, and yet personality variables (such as tolerance and psychological mindedness) explained up to 20% of the variance over and above potential and intellect. Rank-order consistency coefficients revealed consistency over 44 years in some traits (e.g., psychological mindedness) and inconsistency in other traits (e.g, dominance). If traits function to lower behavioral thresholds in given situations, then the traits of self-confidence, openness, tolerance, and psychological mindedness (among others) may serve as a relatively direct link to creative behavior.

Identifying Gifted Mexican-American Students.

main criterion for admission to special education programs for the gifted. Thus, by implication, giftedness is defined predominately as the demonstration of high level convergent thinking abilities. The validity of this assumption has begun to be questioned in some areas, especially in reference to the penalties such culturally loaded verbal assessment devices place on culturally different students (Bernal, 1973; Bernal & Reyna, 1975). For this study it was assumed that giftedness embraces more than just high level convergent thinking abilities. It was assumed that the ultimate goal of special education programs for the gifted is to aid students who show the greatest potential for future high level intellectual and creative contribution to perform at their highest levels. Within this context, the study was further limited to students of Mexican-American backgrounds, since such students appeared to be receiving the least support from the present assessment procedures. The study was thus designed to provide tools with which

Towards an ecology of consciousness

Forms characteristic of the earth itself are inherent in the design of man. Mans being emerged out of a cosmic matrix whose morphic aspects man himself expresses. These forms and their functional interrelationships are the very conditions of consciousness. This paper proposes that the relationship between human consciousness and its complete environment should be the subject matter of an emerging discipline, the ecology of consciousness. Constructs useful in the ecology of plants and animals should be coordinated to psychological constructs. These coordinating constructs should be based upon study of the most pervasive morphic regularities at the biophysical level. An analysis of the design of man suggests many possibilities, especially when one considers the known neurophysiological and biochemical conditioners of consciousness. Educational (experiential) strategies for the transformation of consciousness should also be explored. These might include the manipulation of variables such as volume, duration...

The clash of social philosophies and personalities in the nuclear arms control debate: A healthful dialectic?

Nuclear arms have forced philosophic conflicts into the open. However, little scholarly research has been conducted on the psychological determinants of behavior regarding nuclear arms. The field stands in need of a new measure specifically geared to issues of confronting policy makers and the public. This article outlines the development of such a measure, namely, the Nuclear Arms Reduction Scale (NAR). Two opposing political stances on nuclear weapons are presented in this 10‐item scale, which is keyed in the direction of a pronuclearfreeze (as opposed to a probuild‐up policy preference). In samples from West Germany and the United States, correlations between the NAR Scale and other scales from the Barron Inventory of Personal Philosophy showed positive relationships with disposition toward originality, independence of judgment, and complexity of outlook (allp <. 001). Positive correlations were also found with several other scales (e.g., internationalism and trust in human nature), and negative correl...

Personal Values and Political Affiliation Within italy

The philosophy of life of 82 young Italian males was analyzed in relation to their preferences in politics. The political spectrum from Right to Left was identified by the following continuum of party affiliation: Fascist, Monarchist, Liberal, Christian Democratic, Socialist, Communist, Popular Front Socialist. Statements in a questionnaire organized around personal and social philosophy were then correlated with positions of the young men on this continuum. The results showed clearly that the influence of the Catholic Church in matters of custom and morality is an important source of divisiveness in Italian political life. The Left splits sharply from Center and Right on matters having to do with divorce and sexual freedom; the Center is less exclusively determined by dogma but still is clearly orthodox and conservative, while the Right is dominated by its hatred of Communism and its emphasis on formalism and central authority.