Creativity in conflict: the personality of the commercial creative

The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) was administered to a group of advertising and design creatives and to a comparable group of professionals and managers in occupations that were not evidently creative. The creatives were substantially more neurotic and more open to experience than the noncreatives, somewhat more extraverted, and less conscientious. Personality profiles suggesting low levels of ego control were more prevalent in the creatives group, but the difference was not significant. These findings are discussed in the light of Otto Rank's theory of creative development and in the context of commercial creativity. It is suggested that advertising and design creatives can be characterized as individuals at the intermediate stage of Rankian creative development.