Creativity and the measurement subclinical psychopathology in the general population: schizotypy, psychoticism, and hypomania

The aims of the study were to investigate the roles of well-known psychopathology measures in predicting creativity, to assess the concepts of a multitrait and single trait understanding, and to evaluate the role of latent measures of hypomania predicting creativity. Following the completion of a battery of questionnaires 203 participants completed 2 creative cognition tasks. Multivariate multiple regression analyses revealed significant effects for both schizotypy and the latent hypomania scales. Critically, these showed that some negatively (introvertive anhedonia, excitement, and social vitality) and others positively (impulsive nonconformity and mood volatility) predicted creativity. These findings suggest future avenues should evaluate the roles of mood, autonomy, and asociality in mediating the link between subclinical psychopathology and creativity. Further, research should both manipulate state and control trait mood when evaluating psychopathology and creativity.

© American Psychological Association, 2016. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/aca0000047