Abstract:

Present research analyzed the relationships between creative self-efficacy (Beghetto, 2006), defined as “the belief one has the ability to produce creative outcomes” (Tierney & Farmer, 2002, p. 1138), creative self-concept (Karwowski, 2014), concerning the perceived ability to solve complex problems by original solutions and the belief that creativity is an important element of self-description, and metaphorical creativity referred to the ability of individuals to create a great number of original and funny metaphors (Primi, 2006). The aims of this study were to explore the linear associations among creative self-efficacy, self-concept, and factors of metaphorical creativity. We hypothesized that self-concept and self-efficacy will be positively related (H1); metaphorical production will be negatively related to flexibility (H2); self-concept and self-efficacy will be positively related to metaphorical production (H3). Additionally, we analyzed the differences for gender and type of education (humanistic, technical, and scientific) in self-efficacy, self-concept, and metaphorical creativity.

The sample consisted of 498 Italian students (271 girls), ranged between 13 to 20 years, attending humanistic, technical, and scientific Public High Schools of Catania, (Sicily, Italy). Measures: the Self-Efficacy Scale (SES) (Beghetto, 2006) used to measure creative self-efficacy; the Short Scale of Creative Self (SSCS) (Karwowski, 2012; 2014) to value the self-concept and its dimensions, consisting of Creative Self-efficacy (CSE) and Creative Personal Identity (CPI); Metaphor Creation Test (MCT) (Primi, 2006) in order to assess the four factors of metaphorical creativity:
1) fluency (ability to produce great number of ideas),
2) flexibility (ability to change categories and to pass from a category to another one,
3) production (number of correct metaphors), and 4) quality (ability to find equivalent or parallel relationships across different domains and to think unusual and unconventional associations among stimuli).

Results confirmed that creative self-efficacy was positively related to self-concept (r=.60). Significant and negative relationships emerged between flexibility and production (r= -.29). Positive relationships were found between metaphoric production and self-efficacy (r= .19) and self-concept (r= .27). Differences for gender only for metaphoric creativity were noted: so, girls showed higher levels than boys in fluency and production, while boys displayed higher levels than girls in quality. Respect to type of education, it was noted that students attending humanistic schools displayed higher levels than the others on creative self-efficacy and flexibility. Students attending scientific schools scored higher than the others in fluency, production, and quality.

Results suggested that the more the adolescents positively evaluated their imagination and ability to come up with new or good ideas, the more they perceived themselves as highly able to solve problems, to apply creative thinking to propose original solutions, and they believed that creativity is relevant in their self-description. Moreover, the more the adolescents produced correct metaphors the more they perceived themselves as highly able in creativity skills. The emerged relationships could be considered as useful perspective to promote training on creative self-efficacy in developmental age and self-concept could improve the ability to produce creative metaphors.

Keywords:

Creative self-efficacy, creative self-concept, metaphorical creativity.