The profile of music as a creative domain in people’s conceptions: Expanding Runco & Bahleda’s 1986 study on implicit theories of creativity in a conceptual replication

Abstract

Concepts of creativity in music usually focus on explicit theoretical assumptions based on models from psychology research. In recent years, the fields of psychology and education have become increasingly interested in research on laypersons’ attitudes and assumptions about creativity. These implicit theories may complement or even contradict scholarly conceptualisations of creativity and its domain specificity. As a conceptual replication of the work by Runco and Bahleda (1986), this study aims to explore the dimensionality of subjective conceptions of creativity in different domains (arts, science, everyday life, music) by means of an open-ended questionnaire in an online survey ( N = 106). A content analysis of the data yielded 27 meta-categories; a correspondence analysis of their distribution across domains revealed differences between domain-specific conceptions. This indicates stereotypical structures regarding creativity in different domains, as expressed in the associations generated by the participants. Unlike science and the arts, music is described as having distinct aesthetic and emotional qualities. The participants’ musical expertise did not appear to significantly influence the generation of associations. With respect to these characterisations cited by the participants, the domain of everyday life seems to be antipodal to other domains and may therefore have served as a point of reference for the participants’ subjective experience of creativity and creative behaviour. These results confirm the findings of Runco and Bahleda (1986), perhaps even furthering them in terms of the analytical methods applied and the findings on the comparison of domains. Nevertheless, the potential of implicit theories (i.e. laypersons’ mindsets concerning the theoretical conceptualisation of musical creativity and its implications for music education) requires further study.