Abstract:

Initiative is one of the personality traits a modern individual needs in order to find fulfillment as a person and a professional. We study the initiative on the basis of the System-Functional Model (SFM) of personality traits by Russian psychologist Alexander Krupnov. This Model is based on the major theoretical propositions and constructs formulated in Russian psychology. It assumes personality traits consideration as a set of 8 components and 16 variables included into two subsystems:
(1) motivational-meaningful (attitudinal-target, motivational, cognitive and productive components),
(2) regulatory-dynamic (dynamic, emotional, regulatory and reflexive-evaluative components). The SFM is realized in the complex researches of sociability, persistence, curiosity, orderliness, responsibility, initiative, diligence, confidence, aggressiveness in various age, gender, professional, ethnic groups.

According to the SFM, initiative is considered as a system of motivational-meaningful and regulatory-dynamic variables that ensures the state of readiness and constancy of the individual's aspirations to the process of initiation. In a number of previous studies, it was shown that initiative is associated with both: other personality traits and the success of educational and professional activities. However, until now, the relationship between initiative and creativity, which is also an important factor in the self-realization of a modern person, has not been considered on the basis of SFM.

The purpose of the present study is to reveal the correlations between the initiative as personality traits and the creativity. We suppose that principal, motivational-meaningful and regulatory-dynamic components of initiative have positive correlations with creativity indicators in university students.

A total of 155 (85% – female) respondents took part in the research. All the respondents were first– and second–year university Linguistics students.

The initiative was measured with the “Initiative Questionnaire” by A. Krupnov. This questionnaire includes 8 subscales according to the SFM. The creativity was measured with the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA). The ATTA includes one verbal creativity task and two non-verbal creativity tasks. We used indicators for each tasks separately, total indicators of fluency, originality, elaboration, flexibility, and the total creativity index (CI). The descriptive statistics methods and Spearman rank correlation analysis were used for processing the data. Statistical processing was carried out in the R software environment for statistical computing and graphics, version 3.6.1., psych package version 1.9.6.

The results of the study confirmed the hypothesis. We have found positive correlations of creativity indicators with variables of motivational, dynamic and regulatory components of initiative. However, contrary to the assumptions, the attitudinal-target component variables negatively correlate with most of the creativity indicators. It can be assumed that excessive focus on initiative may limit opportunities for creativity. The obtained data will be used in the development of psychological trainings for the development and improvement of both creativity and initiative.

Keywords:

Personality Traits, Initiative, Creativity, System-Functional Model, Linguistics students.