The Ego-functioning of the creative child

[摘要] The study aimed to examine the ego functioning of thecreative child, with a view to testing theories ofcreative functioning. The development of thesetheories is reviewed from Freud'e writings at thebeginning of the century to more current conceptionsof Creativity as a function of ego proCeSses. Thetheories examined related to the ego functions ofTolerance of Ambiguity, Regression in the Service ofthe Ego and Empathy, all of which were hypothesised .abeing employed to a greater degree by creativeindividuals. A theoretical conception of theautonomous 1 intellective and creative ego wasdeveloped according to Norma Haan's (1977) view ofConstructivist Man. The ego function of 60 children(39 male and 21 female' batween the ages of 8 and 12years were tested by having their mothers rate them onHaan's Q-sort of Ego Processes. A measure ofCreativity was obtained using activities from theTorrance Test of Creative Thinking (Torrance 1974)completed by the chiIdren. AnalysiS for the resultsfailed to show any significant support for thehypotheses concerning the 3 main Ego Functions. Ofthe other Ego functions also exmined using the Haaninstrument, only that of Substitution showed asignificant (and negative) correlation withCreativity. This suggested that (a) childrenemploying this ego function to a significant degreetend not to be creative and (b) Mothers valuingsubstitution highly may tend to stifle creativity intheir children by their expectations and parentingstyles. The failure to find significant support forthe hypothesis is attributed to Ca) possibleincomplete measures of Creativity and (b) the Mother'sdifficulty in using the ego rating instrument in anunbiased way rather than rating for Racialdesirability and perceived expectations of theresearch on Certain key functions. It was concludedthat trained professionals may be better equipped toaccurately assess ego functioning. A discussion ofthe results and 1imitations of the study follows witha consideration of methodological problems in themeasurement of both Personality and Creativity.suggestions are made for further research. No strongconclusions can be drawn regarding the validity of thetheories discussed but they are felt to be very usefulformulations for work in the educational and clinicalfields.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand