Searching for Tomorrow's Innovators: Profiling Creative Adolescents

Abstract

Profiling may be a viable means of identifying those creative adolescents who can benefit from specialized guidance and exploration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, arts, and human services. The experimenters developed 1 general and 5 specific profiles including interest, personality, and achievement variables based on the profiles of eminent people in five domains of creative endeavor. Educators of gifted students at schools throughout a Midwestern state identified 485 students to attend a research through service counseling laboratory. One cohort received the Vocational Preference Inventory, the Personality Research Form, and the Tellegen Absorption Scale, and a second cohort received the VPI, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO- PI-R), and Tellegen Absorption Scale. For each cohort, descriptive data were gathered and principal components analyses were performed on scales of interest and personality inventories. In addition, a cluster analysis was performed for the second cohort. The finding supported the hypothesis that profiling could be used to identify creative adolescents for career development programs. Both principal components analyses and cluster analyses revealed profiles of fine and performing arts students: one or two profiles of interpersonally talented groupings: and an engineering/technical profile. Creative students were more agreeable than those in previous studies, and there was strong evidence for crossover arts/science profiles.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Williamson Family Distinguished Professorship Endowment.

Thanks to Ryan Hansen for his assistance with statistical analysis and the staff of the Counseling Laboratory for the Exploration of Optimal States at the University of Kansas for their role in the implementation of the study.

Notes

Note. GPA = Grade point average. VPI = Vocational preference inventory. PRF = Personality research form.

*n = 255.

Note. VPI = Vocational preference inventory. PRF = Personality research form. Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

^a Rotation converged in 7 iterations.

Note. Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

Note. GPA = Grade point average. VPI = Vocational preference inventory. PRF = Personality research form.

Note. VPI = Vocational preference inventory. PRF = Personality research form. Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

^a Rotation converged in 8 iterations.

Note. Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robyn McKay

Robyn McKay is now at Arizona State University—Polytechnic College of Technology and Innovation & the Gary K. Herberger Young Scholars Academy