Are Women more Creative than men?? Rohit Mehar

Creativity  Creativity (or creativeness) is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas and concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts  Different interpretation in behavioral psychology, social psychology, cognitive sciences, business and management  Attributed to divine intervention, cognitive processes, social environment, chance, traits

Research Definition  Creativity is a function on intelligence and lateral inhibition  Higher the intelligence, lower the latent inhibition, higher the creativity and vice versa  For constant lateral inhibition, Intelligence has direct impact on creativity

Its Controversial!!!  Larry Summers, President of Harvard University outlined these hypotheses High Powered Job hypotheses Variability Hypotheses Discrimination Hypotheses Lost his job, intelligence can’t be more crucial than discrimination??

Interesting Research  Dr. Paul Irwing, based on SAT scores of people – Mean difference of 5 IQ points in favor of men Twice as many men with an IQ of 120+ Thrice as many men with an IQ of 170+ There is no difference below age groups of 14 years Difference increases as the age increases

 Skewed distribution in favor of men  Makes a bold statement that “Men have bigger brain than women”  Many researches done on the same lines giving similar results Interesting Research

Counter Facts  Ever diminishing variability Ratio of boys and girls who scored at high ends reduced four times in 20 years  SAT scores depends heavily on career choices  Discrimination and Institutional disadvantages are the major reason (NAS)

Why this can’t be settled?  Only IQ scores cannot differentiate men and women (What else then??)  History speaks (applies for both, more pertinent in case of men but)  Latent Inhibition is not constant  Left Brain – Right Brain (Intuition does not mean creativity)  Any other view??

Fostering Creativity  Building motivation, especially internal motivation  Encouraging confidence and a willingness to take risks  Promoting supportable beliefs about creativity  Providing opportunities for choice and discovery  Providing balance

Thank You