A comparison between Scientific and artistic creativity in the relation to psychopathology among engineering and art students

The degree to which creativity is domain-specific or domain-general remains hotly contested, but there is at least one area of agreement: people have different creativity profiles. Many researchers have found evidence of an association between creativity and the predisposition to mental illness. Most of the existing research has concentrated on artistic creativity, and the position of other creative domains is not yet clear. The present study compares creativity profiles using the creative personality (CPS; Kaufman and Baer, 2004), Gough Personality scale (CPS; Gough and Heilbrun, 1983) and biographical inventory of creative behavior (BICB; Batey , 2007)and it’s relation to depression and anxiety (Costello and Comrey, 1967), perceived stress scale (PSS; Cohen and et al, 1983)and Affective Temperament (ATQ; Light, 2009) in a sample of art and engineering students consisting of 407 engineering students and 322 Art students. The sample was selected from University of Tehran and art university of Tehran Through convenience sampling method. The Data analyzed through Pearson correlation and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Correlation results showed that the only variable which correlated positively with creativity was Hyperthymic temperament and also MANOVA results showed that art students achieved higher scores in creativity and Cyclothymic temperament.