Relationship between Temperament and Creativity
A Review of Literature

In seeking to establish the relationship between temperament and creativity, it would be prudent to define both temperament and creativity. However, in so doing, it should be noted that neither term has an assigned definition. Temperament, in the words of Necka and Hlawacz (2013), could be “conceptualized as the biologically rooted, mostly inborn, foundations for personality and other individual traits” (183). Hilda and Sneha (2017) on the other hand define temperament as “an individual's characteristic level of emotional excitability or intensity” (803). As the authors further point out, an individual’s temperament becomes apparent awhile after birth, i.e. several weeks after birth. When it comes to creativity, the focus is on the individual’s ability to formulate ideas that could be deemed original. Thus, creativity has also got to do with creation, innovation, and imagination. A more concise definition of creativity would come in handy in this case. According to Parkhurst (as cited in Batey and Furnham, 2006), creativity could be defined as “the ability or quality displayed when solving hereto unsolved problems, when developing novel solutions to problems others have solved differently, or when developing original and novel (at least to the originator) products” (359). These are the definitions of creativity and temperament that will be adopted in this text. It is important to note that in this discussion, personality and temperance will be used synonymously.

Various studies have been conducted in the past in an attempt to chart the relationship between personality and creativity. In one such study, it was found out that creativity can be predicted and explained via certain personality traits (Batey and Furnham, 2006). It should, however, be noted that as Batey and Furnham (2006) further point out, creativity still remains an elusive concept as far as developing its full understanding is concerned. This, according to the authors is as a consequence of challenges encountered in the measurement of creativity. Puryear, Kettler, and Rinn (2017) are also in support of this assertion. In their own words, “creativity is a complex construct” (Puryear, Kettler, and Rinn, 2017, p. 1). As a matter of fact, “despite the large amount of research relating creativity and personality, conceptions or measurements of creativity as an influence on this relationship have not been a common frame for studies” (Puryear, Kettler, and Rinn, 2017, p. 4). It therefore follows that given the complexity of creativity measurement, personality constructs that seek to define the...…but also easy to use and more functional than the products offered by the competition. On many fronts, one of the firsts step towards innovation is creativity. No innovation can occur without creativity.

The proposed research will seek to contribute towards more robust hiring strategies of product developers in ABC Company – a videogame design company. Towards this end, a new approach towards the recruitment of employees will be formulated and implemented. The approach is largely founded on hiring for personality instead of skills and/or experience. A interpretation will be made that skills could be learnt and experience gathered. Thus, the hiring for skill approach will be an intervention seeking to recruit employees possessing the personality traits that correlate with creativity.

It is important to note that personality largely relates to how persons interact with the world around them. The general consensus in psychology is that life experiences largely shape the personality of individuals – with special reference to the five dimensions of personality that are pointers to whom we really are. Towards this end, there is sufficient evidence indicating that personality has a tendency to remain stable over a long period of time. For this reason, no effort will be made to change or adjust…