If Einstein had trained as an artist, would he have been as creative a painter as Van Gogh? How about if Van Gogh had trained as a physicist—would he have been as creative as Einstein? One feels, in answering questions such as these, that the answer is probably “no.” But why? Certainly there are people who are multitalented. William Blake achieved great renown as both a writer and a painter. Leonardo da Vinci showed great talent in painting and invention. Richard Feynman is known primarily as a physicist, but his popular books achieved great renown. Is creativity the same or different across different domains, and why? This essay addresses the question of the domain-generality versus domain-specificity of creativity through a theoretical analysis of the construct. As argued in the following pages, there is no general answer to the question of whether creativity is domain-general or domain-specific; creativity varies across individuals as a function of three variables.
The greatest challenge in understanding the domain-generality versus specificity of creativity is in understanding the concept of a domain itself. Is literature a domain, or German literature, or modern German literature, or modern German literature in its original language, or what? Is cognitive psychology a domain, or psychology, or behavioral science, or social science? Because no consensual definition of a domain currently exists, it is impossible at this time to have a clear sense of exactly what domain-specificity means. Domains may themselves be defined at varying levels of generality or specificity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Amabile, T. M. (1983).The social psychology of creativity. New rk: ringer.
Cattell, R. B. & Cattell, A. K. S. (1973).Measuring intelligence with the Culture Fair Tests. Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996).Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Collins.
Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (1985).Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum.
Dweck, C. S. (1999).Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development.Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis.
Frensch, P. A. & Sternberg, R. J. (1989). Expertise and intelligent thinking: When is it worse to know better? In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.),Advances in the psychology of human intelligence(Vol. 5, pp. 157–188). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Garcia, J. & Koelling, R. A. (1966). The relation of cue to consequence in avoidance learning.Psychonomic Science,4, 123–124.
Gardner, H. (1993).Creating minds: An anatomy of creativity seen through the lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. New York: Basic Books.
Guilford, J. P. (1950). Creativity.American Psychologist,5, 444–454.
Lubart, T. I. (1994). Creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.),Thinking and problem solving(pp. 290–323). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Lubart, T. I. & Sternberg, R. J. (1995). An investment approach to creativity: Theory and data. In S. M. Smith, T. B. Ward, & R. A. Finke (Eds.),The creative cognition approach(pp. 271–302). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Morrison, T. (1981).Tar baby. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Niu, W.-H. & Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Cultural influences on artistic creativity and its evaluation.International Journal of Psychology, 36, 225–241.
O'Hara, L. A. & Sternberg, R. J. (2000–2001). It doesn't hurt to ask: Effects of instructions to be creative, practical, or analytical on essay-writing performance and their interaction with students' thinking styles.Creativity Research Journal,13, 197–210.
Plath, S. (1963/1971).The bell jar. New York: Harper & Row.
Rubenson, D. L. & Runco, M. A. (1992). The psychoeconomic approach to creativity.New Ideas in Psychology,10, 131–147.
Simonton, D. K. (1988a). Creativity, leadership, and chance. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.),The nature of creativity(pp. 386–426). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Simonton, D. K. (1988b).Scientific genius: A psychology of science. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Simonton, D. K. (1994).Greatness: Who makes history and why. New York: Guilford Press.
Stemler, S. E., Grigorenko, E. L., Jarvin, L., & Sternberg, R. J. (2006). Using the theory of successful intelligence as a basis for augmenting AP exams in psychology and statistics.Contemporary Educational Psychology,31, 344–376.
Sternberg, R. J. (1981). Intelligence and nonentrenchment.Journal of Educational Psychology,73, 1–16.
Sternberg, R. J. (1982). Natural, unnatural, and supernatural concepts.Cognitive Psychology,14, 451–488.
Sternberg, R. J. (1985).Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (1988). Mental self-government: A theory of intellectual styles and their development.Human Development,31, 197–224.
Sternberg, R. J. (1993).Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test. Unpublished test.
Sternberg, R. J. (1997a).Successful intelligence. New York: Plume.
Sternberg, R. J. (1997b).Thinking styles. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (1999). A propulsion model of creative contributions.Review of General Psychology,3, 83–100.
Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Teaching psychology students that creativity is a decision.The General Psychologist,36, 8–11.
Sternberg, R. J. (Ed.) (2003a).Psychologists defying the crowd: Stories of those who battled the establishment and won. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Sternberg, R. J. (2003b).Wisdom, intelligence, and creativity synthesized. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (2005). WICS: A model of positive educational leadership comprising wisdom, intelligence, and creativity synthesized.Educational Psychology Review,17(3), 191–262.
Sternberg, R. J. & Gastel, J. (1989a). Coping with novelty in human intelligence: An empirical investigation.Intelligence,17, 187–197.
Sternberg, R. J. & Gastel, J. (1989b). If dancers ate their shoes: Inductive reasoning with factual and counterfactual premises.Memory and Cognition,17, 1–10.
Sternberg, R. J. & Grigorenko, E. L. (1995). Styles of thinking in school.European Journal for High Ability,6, 201–219.
Sternberg, R. J. & Kalmar D. A. (1997). When will the milk spoil? Everyday induction in human intelligence.Intelligence,25, 185–203.
Sternberg, R. J. & Lubart, T. I. (1991). An investment theory of creativity and its development.Human Development,34, 1–31.
Sternberg, R. J. & Lubart, T. I. (1995).Defying the crowd: Cultivating creativity in a culture of conformity. New York: Free Press.
Sternberg, R. J. & Lubart, T. I. (1996). Investing in creativity.American Psychologist,51, 677–688.
Sternberg, R. J., Torff, B., & Grigorenko, E. L. (1998a). Teaching for successful intelligence raises school achievement.Phi Delta Kappan,79, 667–669.
Sternberg, R. J., Torff, B., & Grigorenko, E. L. (1998b). Teaching triarchically improves school achievement.Journal of Educational Psychology,90, 374–384.
Sternberg, R. J., Grigorenko, E. L., Ferrari, M., & Clinkenbeard, P. (1999). A triarchic analysis of an aptitude-treatment interaction.European Journal of Psychological Assessment,15(1), 1–11.
Sternberg, R. J., Kaufman, J. C., & Pretz, J. E. (2001). The propulsion model of creative contributions applied to the arts and letters.Journal of Creative Behavior,35, 75–101.
Sternberg, R. J., Kaufman, J. C., & Pretz, J. E. (2002).The creativity conundrum. New York: Psychology Press.
Sternberg, R. J. & The Rainbow Project Collaborators (2006). The Rainbow Project: Enhancing the SAT through assessments of analytical, practical, and creative skills.Intelligence,34, 321–350.
Tetewsky, S. J. & Sternberg, R. J. (1986). Conceptual and lexical determinants of nonentrenched thinking.Journal of Memory and Language,5, 202–225.
Torrance, E. P. (1962).Guiding creative talent. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Torrance, E. P. (1974).Torrance tests of creative thinking: Norms-technical manual. Lexington, MA: Personnel.
Weisberg, R. W. (1999). Creativity and knowledge: A challenge to theories. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.),Handbook of creativity(pp. 226–250). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Zhang, L. F. & Sternberg, R. J. (2006).The nature of intellectual styles. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sternberg, R.J. (2009). Domain-Generality Versus Domain-Specificity of Creativity. In: Meusburger, P., Funke, J., Wunder, E. (eds) Milieus of Creativity. Knowledge and Space, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9877-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9877-2_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9876-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9877-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)