Andrew,
Dean Keith Simonton has produced several wonderful studies investigating
the relationship between creativity/professional achievement and aging.
Here are a few references, and a link to a listing of his most prominent
publications
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/Simonton/dkspdf.html#D
Simonton DK.1988. Age and outstanding achievement: what do we know after
a century of research? Psychol Bull. Sep;104(2):251-67.
SIMONTON D. K. 1997. Creative productivity : A predictive and
explanatory model of career trajectories and landmarks. Psychological
review. vol. 104, no1, pp. 66-89.
Simonton, Dean Keith, 1989. Age and Creative Productivity: Nonlinear
Estimation of an Information-Processing Model. International Journal of
Aging and Human Development, v29 n1 p23-37
One disappointing result I recall is a curvilinear relationship between
professional creativity and education wherein creativity increases
through the acquisition of a masters degree, but decreases as a result
of doctoral education. Bummer. But seriously, his investigations tend
to focus on the kinds of "creative" role populations you noted such as
academic researchers, composers, artists, etc., so that may be a
limitation for you. Also, I think all the samples represent western
cultures.
In any case, I hope this gets you started, and I applaud your
consideration of role expectations as an avenue for considering the
relationship between individual and contextual features. I think that's
a productive line of reasoning.
Let me know if I can be of any further help.
Regards - Cameron
Cameron M. Ford, Ph.D.
Founding Director
Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
College of Business Administration
University of Central Florida
4000 Central Florida Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32816
www.cei.ucf.edu
407-823-3700 (Faculty Office)
407-823-3683 (Center Office)
407-823-3725 (Fax)
-----Original Message-----
From: Entrepreneurship Division Listserv
[mailto:
ENTREP@AOMLISTS.pace.edu] On Behalf Of Cardow, Andrew
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 4:55 PM
To:
ENTREP@AOMLISTS.pace.edu
Subject: [ENTREP]
Greetings all,
A colleague has asked me a question that I am not confident in answering
and was wondering if someone might point me in the right direction. I
am interested in locating studies on creativity and innovation as people
age. I am familiar with studies measuring students potential for
creativity, mainly through the entrepreneurial education literature.
However I have missed the path to follow on creativity and age. I am
also familiar with studies involving patents.
When we were discussing this topic we had a 'shoot from the hip' thought
that age has little do with the creative output but rather such activity
is a result of individual environmental factors. We thought that time
available for creative reflection decreased as pressure of work and
social considerations increased. This may be one explanation. While
this may be intuitive, is there an actual study that either confirms or
disputes such finding?
The context in which the question was asked was one of increasing age of
the population in many western countries, and the popular impression
that business needs to be innovative in order to advance. While there
are some industries, ours, and the 'arts' being two, where creativity is
present and encouraged as we age, it is also expected of us. In
addition the environment is 'supposed' to be constructed to enable
creativity. Outside of such 'creative' industries however is there an
actual study available that specifically relates creativity and
innovation to biological age over time?
Thanks,
Enjoy
Kind Regards
**************************************
This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.
Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list.
You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the list here:
http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1
If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
jbunch@benedictine.edu.
Ventures HO!