ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three broad types: two mental abilities—creative ability and verbal intelligence; a large number of factors characterizing the social and psychological environment in which the research took place and two qualities of the project's output—innovativeness and productiveness. Creativity ability is assumed to be reasonably stable for any individual over a 5-10 year period, though it may show short-run fluctuations—perhaps related to factors such as fatigue, motivation, depression, or colleague stimulation. In general, scores on the Remote Associates Test were not strongly related to the kinds of social and psychological conditions tapped by the questionnaires. The opportunity or responsibility for innovation was one factor which influenced the creative process. The contradiction between the kinds of environments which seem to promote payoff from creative ability and the kinds of environments in which creatively able people find themselves might be called the "security dilemma."
