Albert Einstein, Virginia
Woolf, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robin Williams, and Bill Gates; all
well known for their creativity, have another thing in common:
attention hyper deficit disorder. Stories of creative people usually
feature problems they have at school, the fact that they can not pay
attention and the constant bouts of day dreaming. The misconception
that people with ADHD cannot pay attention to anything long enough to
get anything done is wrong. When impassioned with an activity or
idea, people with ADHD will often times become consumed by it, giving
their full attention to it. This trend has peaked the attention of
the scientific community, sparking several different studies to be
achieved by different researchers.
A study done by Darya
Zabelina and Mark Beeman did not focus on people with ADHD, but
instead studied highly creative people and their ability to perform
on two forms of attention, attentional persistence and attentional
flexibility. The study was done on undergraduate students all tested
by the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), the test measures
the level of creativity each person has. They divided the students
into two groups: low and high creative scores. Then they tested them
on their ability to focus on one task for a long time and their
ability to switch between tasks. The results were very interesting.
The highly creative people scored highly on attentional persistence,
but when it came to attentional flexibility, their ability to switch
between tasks was remarkably lower than their less creative
counterparts. It seems that it is more taxing for creative people to
switch between tasks. It might explain why they are so creative,
their ability to stay focused on tasks of interest for extended
amounts of time may be the reason why they are so creative, they have
the ability to continue working until their craft or idea is
perfected. Similarly, their inability to switch their attention as
well as non-creative people might be the reason why they may seem so
scatter-brained and unable to keep their attention on tasks that are
unimportant to them and ultimately holding aspects of ADHD.
Another study was done that
actually sought to see if there were any links between ADHD and the
level of creativity that a person may hold. Holly White and Priti
Shah performed this study on adults with ADHD and non ADHD. They
measured their level of creativity using a similar standardized test
as the one Zabeling used, this one was the Abbreviated Torrance Test
for Adults and investigated the real world creative achievement that
each adult held to make sure that the results concurred with their
actual level of creativity. The tests showed that the people with
ADHD held higher levels of creativity and also had greater
achievement of creativity in the real world than their non ADHD
counterparts. They also compared the creative styles of each adult
with the FourSight Thinking profile which gives insight into an
individual's preferred way of clarifying, generating, developing, and
implementing of ideas. The results generated clearly indicated that
adults with ADHD had a higher preference for idea generation than non
ADHD adults.
What can be taken from both
these studies is that creativity has a strong correlation with
attentiveness or the lack of ability to switch between tasks. ADHD, a
disorder that has been long thought to inhibit children and adults,
may actually allow them to be more creative. These studies may help
to understand and better use the abilities of people with ADHD. Their
talents could be used in more creative careers or tasks and may even
help to find ways to teach them in school. The knowledge gained by
these studies could offer a better quality of life for people with
ADHD and alternatives to better fit their abilities.
References:
White, Holly A., & Shah,
Priti. (2011). Creative
Style and Achievement In Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder. Personality
and Individual Differences,50 (5), 637- 677.
Zabelina,
D.L., & Beeman, M. (2013). Short-Term
Attentional Perseveration Associated with
Real-Life Creative Achievement. Frontiers
in Psychology, 4
(191), 1-8.
https://luc.app.box.com/s/4c031c26bsh2bj3619si/1/2379149883/20397003703/1
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