Styles of creativity: Adaptors and innovators in a Singapore context

Kirton (1976) described two creative styles, namely adaptors and innovators. Adaptors prefer to "do things better" whilst, innovators prefer to "do things differently". This study explored the relationship between two creative styles (adaptor and innovator) and the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) and how they subscribe to creativity, risks and goal orientations. A total of 206 Polytechnic students from Singapore completed a self-report questionnaire, which consisted of the Kirton Adaptation-Innovation Inventory (Kirton, 1976), NEO-Five Factor Inventory (Saucier, 1994), Learning Goal Scale (Ng, 2003), What Kind of Person Are You Self-Report Inventory (Khatena & Torrance, 1976), Gough's Creative Adjective Checklist, Risk Scenario, and Risk Taking Attitude Scale developed by Ng. It was found that adaptors were significantly more conscientious and subscribe to risk avoidance, ego approach and ego avoidance orientations than innovators, whilst, innovators were significantly more extraverted and open to experience and are likely to subscribe to creativity, risk taking and mastery goal orientations than adaptors. No significant differences were found between adaptors and innovators in agreeableness. The implications for the findings for the classroom teacher will also be discussed.