How Does It Feel? The Development of the Experience of Creativity Questionnaire

Abstract

Creativity research has tended to neglect the phenomenology of the creative process. This article addresses this by describing the development of the Experience of Creativity Questionnaire (ECQ), designed to measure experiential (Part A) and existential (Part B) dimensions of artistic creativity. The questionnaire items were generated on the basis of an earlier qualitative investigation. Participants were 100 artists, from diverse fields of the creative arts. Two Maximum Likelihood factor analyses with Promax rotation were performed on the items comprising the initial ECQ, resulting in 6 factors in Part A and 3 factors in Part B. Factor analyses were then performed on a reduced number of items, providing the basis for 5 scales in Part A (labeled Distinct Experience, Anxiety, Absorption, Power/Pleasure, Clarity/Preparation) and 3 scales in Part B (Transformation, Centrality, Beyond the Personal). The scales demonstrated acceptable reliability, ranging from .82 to.60 (Guttman coefficient). Use of the ECQ in future research will facilitate further investigation of the phenomenology of the creative process and afford greater integration of research paradigms in creativity research.

Notes

Note. Item numbers are as in the final version of the ECQ. Items with loadings of less than .3 have been removed. Items with loadings above .3 that do not appear in the final ECQ are written in full text.

Note. Item numbers are as in the final version of the ECQ. Items with loadings of less than .3 have been removed.

Notes. A1–A5 = ECQ-A scales 1–5. B1–B3 = ECQ-B scales 1–3. DE = Distinct experience. Anx = Anxiety. Abs = Absorption. P/P = Power/pleasure. C/P = Clarity/preparation. Trans = Transformation. Cent = Centrality. BP = Beyond the personal.

∗p < .05. ∗∗p < .01. ∗∗∗p < .001.