1 CREATIVE THINKING AND BIG FIVE FACTORS OF PERSONALITY MEASURED IN ITALIAN SCHOOLCHILDREN

Summary.—This study examined the relations of creative thinking with Big Five factors of personality and the differences by sex and age on creativity. A sample of Italian schoolchildren (56 boys and 56 girls), between 8 to 10 years of age, completed the Test of Creative Thinking and the Big Five Questionnaire for Children. Analysis of results indicated that older children obtained significantly higher scores than the younger ones on Elaboration and Production of titles. Girls obtained significantly higher scores than boys on Originality and Elaboration. The results suggested a modest and negative relation of Flexibility with Conscientiousness and of Production of titles with Emotional Instability. These findings support the need to explore the connection between creativity and personality in developmental age by means of multiple-tasks for evaluating creative thinking. Traditionally, creativity has been considered an individual characteristic associated with novel ideas which may emerge in the form of tangible products and within the frame of reference of the thinking person (Guilford, 1967a, 1967b); a process of becoming sensitive to problems, gaps in knowledge, missing elements, an