The authors compared personality correlates of creative achievement and wise performance in middle-age women of a longitudinal study. In Q-sort descriptions, originality and ambition were particularly salient in creative individuals, whereas meaning-making and benevolence were salient in wise individuals. Inventory measures of openness, unconventionality, ambition, and autonomy at age 21 predicted creative achievement, and measures of openness and tolerance predicted wisdom. Creative achievers increased over time in social integration and wise women in status-awareness. A behavioral commitment (creative activity soon after college or psychotherapeutic or spiritual careers) added significantly to age-21 openness and complexity to predict the criteria of creative achievement and wisdom.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Arbuckle, J. (1999). Amos 4.0. Chicago: Smallwaters.
2.
Assmann, A. (1994). Wholesome knowledge: Concepts of wisdom in a historical and cross-cultural perspective. In D. L. Featherman, R. M. Lerner, & M. Perlmutter (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 12, pp. 188-224). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
3.
Baltes, P. B. , & Smith, J. (1990). Toward a psychology of wisdom and its ontogenesis. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Wisdom: Its nature, origins, and development (pp. 87-120). New York: Cambridge University Press.
4.
Baltes, P. B. , & Staudinger, U. M. (2000). Wisdom: A metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. American Psychologist, 55, 122-136.
5.
Baltes, P. B. , Staudinger, U. M., Maercker, A., & Smith, J. (1995). People nominated as wise: A comparative study of wisdom-related knowledge. Psychology and Aging, 10, 155-166.
6.
Block, J. (1978). The Q-sort method in personality assessment and psychiatric research. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
7.
Cartwright, L. K. , & Wink, P. (1994). Personality change in women physicians from medical student years to mid-40s. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 291-305.
8.
Clayton, V. P. , & Birren, J. E. (1980). The development of wisdom across the life span: A reexamination of an ancient topic. In P. B. Baltes & O. G. Brim, Jr. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 3, pp. 103-135). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
9.
Cohen, J. , & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
10.
Collins, M. A. , & Amabile, T. M. (1999). Motivation and creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 297-312). New York: Cambridge University Press.
11.
Dudek, S. Z. , & Hall, W. B. (1991). Personality consistency: Eminent architects 25 years later. Creativity Research Journal, 4, 213-231.
12.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
13.
Feist, G. J. (1999). Autonomy and independence. In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (Vol. 1, pp. 157-163). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
14.
Getzels, J. W. , & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1976). The creative vision. New York: John Wiley.
15.
Gough, H. G. , & Bradley, P. (1996). California Psychological Inventory manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
16.
Gough, H. G. , & Heilbrun, A. B., Jr. (1983). The Adjective Check List manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
17.
Haan, N. (1977). Coping and defending. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
18.
Helson, R. (1967). Personality characteristics and developmental history of creative college women. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 76, 205-256.
19.
Helson, R. , & Pals, J. L. (2000). Creative potential, creative achievement, and personal growth. Journal of Personality, 68, 1-27.
20.
Helson, R. , Roberts, B. W., & Agronick, G. (1995). Enduringness and change in creative personality and the prediction of occupational creativity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1173-1183.
21.
Hillman, J. (Ed.) (1972). On psychological creativity. In The myth of analysis: Three essays in archetypal psychology (pp. 11-113). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
22.
Holland, J. L. (1985). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
23.
Joffe, P. E. , & Naditch, M. (1977). Paper and pencil measures of coping and defending measures. In N. Haan (Ed.), Coping and defending (pp. 280-298). New York: Academic Press.
24.
Kohut, H. (1966). Forms and transformations of narcissism. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 14, 243-272.
25.
Labouvie-Vief, G. (1990). Wisdom as integrated thought: Historical and developmental perspectives. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Wisdom: Its nature, origins, and developmental perspectives. New York: Cambridge.
26.
Loevinger, J. , & Wessler, R. (1970). Measuring ego development (Vol. 1). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
27.
Maruyama, G. M. (1998). Basics of structural equation modeling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
28.
McCrae, R. R. (1999). Consistency of creativity across the life span. In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (Vol. 1, pp. 361-366). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
29.
O’Quin, K. , & Besemer, S. P. (1999). Creative products. In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (Vol. 1, pp. 413-422). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
30.
Orwoll, L. , & Perlmutter, M. (1990). The study of wise persons: Integrating a personality perspective. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Wisdom: Its nature, origins, and development (pp. 160-177). New York: Cambridge.
31.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069-1081.
32.
Simonton, D. K. (1999a). Creativity from a historiometric perspective. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 116-136). New York: Cambridge University Press.
33.
Simonton, D. K. (1999b). Eminence. In M. A. Runco & S. R. Pritzker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity (Vol. 1, pp. 647-658). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
34.
Singer, J. D. (1998). Using SAS PROC MIXED to fit multilevel models, hierarchical models, and individual growth models. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 24, 323-355.
35.
Sinnott, J. D. , & Cavanaugh, J. C. (Eds.). (1991). Bridging paradigms: Positive development in adulthood and cognitive aging. New York: Praeger.
36.
Staudinger, U. M. , & Baltes, P. B. (1994). The psychology of wisdom. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Encyclopedia of intelligence (pp. 1143-1152). New York: Macmillan.
37.
Staudinger, U. M. , Maciel, A. G., Smith, J., & Baltes, P. B. (1998). What predicts wisdom-related performance? A first look at personality, intelligence, and facilitative experiential contexts. European Journal of Personality, 12, 1-17.
38.
Staudinger, U. M. , Smith, J., & Baltes, P. B. (1992). Wisdom-related knowledge in a life review task: Age differences and the role of professional specialization. Psychology and Aging, 7, 271-281.
39.
Sternberg, R. (1985). Implicit theories of intelligence, creativity, and wisdom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 607-627.
40.
Sternberg, R. (2001). What is the common thread of creativity? Its dialectical relation to intelligence and wisdom. American Psychologist, 56, 360-362.
41.
Wallach, M. , & Wing, C. W. (1969). The talented student: A validation of the creativity-intelligence distinction. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
42.
Wink, P. , & Helson, R. (1997). Practical and transcendent wisdom: Their nature and some longitudinal findings. Journal of Adult Development, 4, 1-14.
43.
York, K. L. , & John, O. P. (1992). The four faces of Eve: A typological analysis of women’s personality at midlife. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 494-508.
