ADHD May Enhance Creativity
By Dr. David Rabiner
The difficulties associated with ADHD have been extensively documented. In fact, such studies comprise a substantial portion of the published research on ADHD. This type of work has helped increase awareness of the struggles experienced by many individuals with ADHD and has highlighted the importance of obtaining appropriate treatment.
What has been lost – or at least overlooked – in most ADHD research is the possibility that ADHD may also confer some benefits. Certainly, many individuals with ADHD manage to thrive and it is not uncommon to hear individuals discuss ways that having ADHD has benefited them. I certainly recall several of my clients reporting that ‘getting lost in their thoughts’, having different ideas rolling around in their mind when they were supposed to be focusing on one thing, and having their attention easily drawn to things going on around them contributed to their generating lots of interesting ideas and to putting things together in interesting ways.
Is there any evidence that ADHD may actually predispose individuals to become more creative? Russell Barkley, one of the world’s leading researchers and experts on ADHD, has argued against the notion that ADHD confers benefits as well as liabilities, stating in a recent NY Times article that “There is no evidence that A.D.H.D. is a ‘gift’ or conveys any advantages beyond what other people in the general population might have. People with A.D.H.D. are individuals, like anyone else, and may have been blessed with particular talents that are superior to levels seen in most people. But these talents have nothing to do with having A.D.H.D. Ü they would have had them anyway.” However, a study published last year in the journal Personality and Individual Differences [White & Shah (2011). Creative style and achievement in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Personality and Individual Differences, 50, 673-677.] suggests that this is not necessarily true and that people with ADHD may actually produce more creative work.
Participants were 60 college students, 30 of whom had been diagnosed with ADHD and 30 comparison students. Both males and females were well represented and their creativity was assessed in 3 different ways.
First, participants completed the Creativity Achievement Questionnaire (CAQ), a measure where individuals report their creative accomplishments in 10 domains: drama, humor, music, visual arts, creative writing, invention, scientific discovery, culinary arts, dance, and architecture. An example of an item from the CAQ would be ‘My work has won a prize at a juried art show.’ Thus, the measure provides an indication of real world creative accomplishment. Scores are obtained in each domain and for creative accomplishments overall. Research indicates that this measure provides a reliable and valid assessment of creative achievements.
Students also completed the FourSight Thinking Profile, a self-report measure of one’s preferred style when dealing with real world problem solving situations. Four problem solving styles are identified:
Clarifiers – those with a preference for defining and structuring the problem to be solved;
Ideators – those who prefer to generate ideas for solving the problem at hand;
Developers – those who prefer to elaborate or refine ideas that are initially suggested; and,
Implementers – those who prefer to put a refined idea into action.
Clearly, these are all important aspects of creative problem solving and one style is not inherently better or worse than any other. The authors predicted would show greater preference for being idea generators, i.e., the Ideator style, while comparison students would show greater Clarifier and Developer preferences.
Finally, participants completed the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA); this is a standardized and widely used measure of divergent creative thinking. Divergent thinking occurs when we generate many possible ideas about how to solve a particular problem. When we engage in divergent thinking, multiple approaches to addressing a problem are identified quickly; in the process, unexpected and creative connections between different ideas can emerge.
Tasks on the ATTA draw on both verbal and figural, i.e., nonverbal, creative abilities. The Verbal section examines one s ability to think creatively with words, whereas the Figural tests assess an individual s ability to think creatively with pictures. Examples of verbal tasks include making suggestions to improve a toy and thinking of as many different uses as possible for a common item, e.g., a brick. Examples of figural creativity tasks include picture construction, i.e., participants use basic shapes to create a picture and picture completion, i.e., completing and assigning titles to incomplete drawings.
Results
Real world creative accomplishments – Students with ADHD had significantly higher overall scores on the Creative Achievement Questionnaire than comparison students. In addition, their average score was higher for each of the 10 domains. Thus, it was not just in less academic domains like music and visual arts where students with ADHD reported higher creative accomplishments, but also in science, writing and architecture.
An interesting aspect of these findings is that the range of scores was much greater among students with ADHD as was the amount of variability. Thus, it does not appear that creative accomplishments were uniformly higher among these students; instead, the higher overall average is likely to reflect very high levels of creative accomplishment by a subset of these students. FourSight Thinking Profile – As noted above, this is not a direct measure of creative ability per se, but instead reflects individuals’ preferred problem solving style. As predicted, students with ADHD showed preference for the ‘ideator’ style, i.e., they preferred to generate multiple ideas, while other students preferred the ‘clarifier’ and ‘developer’ styles.
Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults – On this validated test of creative thinking, students with ADHD did not score higher than peers overall. However, as predicted, they scored significantly higher on tasks that measure verbal originality.
Effects of medication – Half of the students with ADHD were being treated with medication while half were not. No differences between these groups were found on any of the creativity assessments. As the authors note, however, their ability to detect any differences was limited by the small sample.
Summary and Implications
An important strength of this study is that it employed multiple measures of creativity – real world creative accomplishments, preferred problem solving style, and performance on a lab-based measure of verbal creativity. As noted above, students with ADHD surpassed their peers in their real world creative accomplishments and on the lab assessment of verbal creativity. They also showed a preference for being idea generators as opposed to ‘refiners’ or ‘clarifiers’ of existing ideas.
Why might ADHD be linked with creative performance? One possibility suggested by the authors – and which is consistent with recent theoretical work on the nature of ADHD – is that individuals with ADHD are characterized by poorer inhibitory control. Deficits in inhibition make it harder to maintain focus on a single thought or idea and to screen out extraneous stimuli; this can result in having more random thoughts and ideas and spending more time with multiple thoughts and ideas in one’s mind provides increased opportunity to draw interesting connections. In theory, this may contribute to the development of less conventional thinking and to enhanced divergent thinking skills. It is also possible that the nature of creative activity is a better match for people with ADHD than activities where success depends on sticking to a predetermined plan and/or working to find a single correct solution. As a result, they may spend more time in creative pursuits and thus get better at them.
The preference that individuals with ADHD show for the ‘ideator’ style may be important in regards to the type of work environment where they are most likely to thrive. Specifically, this style suggests that they may be especially well suited for entrepreneurial pursuits and careers that place a premium on divergent thinking skills. Of course, other types of thinking skills are also important as even the most creative and motivated entrepreneur is less likely to succeed if he/she is unable to carry out their plans in a disciplined and consistent way.
Another way these findings may be applied is to highlight for children the potential benefits ADHD may confer in terms of creative thinking and creative accomplishments. This could offset the notion of having a deficit/disorder and contribute to the development of talents that enhance self-esteem.
While findings from this study suggest that enhanced creativity may be a real benefit associated with ADHD, replicating these findings with a larger sample and with children and adolescents would be an important next step. It is also important not to lose sight of the very real difficulties that are associated with ADHD and to recognize that for many, this is a highly impairing condition for which ongoing treatment is required.
That being said, it is a nice change to come upon a well conducted study that conveys a hopeful and optimistic message based on what appear to be solid findings.
David Rabiner, Ph.D., is an associate research professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University and has published the Attention Research Update since 1997. You can also learn more about his work with Cogmed Working Memory Training at http://www.helpforadd.com/cogmed.htm
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