What makes an engineer creative?

The ability of a psychological model to work as a predictor of creativity was examined. Subjects were scientists and engineers employed by a solid-state device technology research and development organization. A personality profile was used to determine the level of cognitive orientation and a life experiences survey was used to ascertain stress. Measures of subjects' creativity included expert judgments, managers' responses to selection guidelines provided through the Candidate Identification Worksheet for identifying someone as highly creative; patents, presentations, and publications; and a composite criterion (a combination of expert judgments, patents, presentations and publications for each subject). Results showed no relationship between family background variables and stress, i.e. predictor variables and creativity. Analyses of developmental and background variables relative to creativity, using a composite creativity criterion, demonstrated significant findings, including gender, age, and education.<>