A validation study of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking with a sample of Korean elementary school students

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the convergent/discriminant and construct validity of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)-Figural Form, which is one of the most widely used tests for measuring creativity nowadays. A total of 204 Korean elementary school students participated in the study. It first examined the convergent validity among the Figural TTCT-Form A, the Test of Creative Problem Solving in Science (TCPSS), and the Creative Personality Scale (CPS), using correlational and factor analytic techniques. Science-related attitude tests were included to examine the discriminant validity of the TTCT. The findings of the correlational analysis showed that correlations varied depending on the subscale of the TTCT. Originality and fluency, which are the core elements of divergent thinking, had no significant or even negative correlations with subscale scores from the TCPSS and CPS, implying that these creativity tests measure different constructs. A principal components analysis of the subscale scores of these measures resulted in five factors (creative personality, science attitude, creative problem solving, and two different cognitive functions from the TTCT), indicating that the constructs these tests attempted to measure were distinct from each other. In addition, the TTCT has been shown to represent two different cognitive functions: innovative creativity (indicated by originality and fluency) and adaptive creativity (related to abstractness of titles, elaboration, and resistance to premature closure). Lastly, the results of the principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using the 11 subtask scores from the Figural TTCT showed that both cognitive and task factors explained the variance in scores. This finding indicates that the TTCT scores do not represent the theoretical structure the test developers originally intended and implies the need to reconsider the nature of the TTCT and its usability for measurement and educational purposes.