CREATIVE ABILITIES AND SEX-TYPED RESPONSE PATTERNS IN A NIGERIAN SAMPLE
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine the normal development of creativity within the context of an urban primary school in Lagos State, Nigeria. The null hypotheses stated that there would be no significant differences among the grade levels on the creativity measure, and that there would be no significant differences between male and female responses on the creative thinking measure. The sample consisted of primary school children in grades one through six, attending an urban public school in Lagos State, Nigeria. Thirty students (15 males, 15 females) were randomly selected at each grade level, for a total sample of 180. The sample was tested during the first half of the 1982-1983 academic year, between December 1982 and January 1983. Creativity was measured with the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Figural Form B. Intelligence was measured with the Standard Progressive Matrices. Sex-typed responses were measured with a classification scheme, developed by D. J. Hargreaves, applied to the Repeated Figures Activity of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Academic achievement was measured by the end-of-semester academic average in Mathematics and English. Results of the data analyses led to the rejection of both null hypotheses. Further conclusions regarding the Nigerian sample include: (1) Males had a greater mean score for fluency in the figural creativity tasks than did females. (2) Males produced greater mean scores in figural originality. (3) Intelligence has a significant positive correlation with all five creativity sub-scores. (4) Neither intelligence nor creativity had a significant relationship with academic achievement. (5) Males generated more ideas in the life and the mechanical-scientific categories as measured by the Hargreaves' procedure than did females. (6) A general drop in means on the creativity sub-scores occurred in grade three, and seemed to have been highly influenced by the performance of males. One of the limitations in this research which was particularly noteworthy was the external historical factor of the military coup in Nigeria which occurred on December 31, 1983. The conclusions of the current research may not be applicable to the post-coup Nigerian primary education system.
Subject Area
Educational psychology
Recommended Citation
OLEKSY-OJIKUTU, ALEXANDRIA ELIZABETH, "CREATIVE ABILITIES AND SEX-TYPED RESPONSE PATTERNS IN A NIGERIAN SAMPLE" (1985). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8600099.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8600099
