Whitfield (1975) identified the three personality variables that affect a person's creativity .These are :
1. Knowledge : knowledge provides the individual with background information necessary to develop adequate solutions to the problem at hand. But knowledge alone will not guarantee creativity. In fact, it can act as a mental straitjacket if we allow ourselves to believe that the knowledge we possess is all that is available.
2. Intellectual abilities : Coupled with knowledge, a highly creative person must have intellectual abilities that allows and openness for accepting new or novel ideas and new relationships. Sensitivity, imagination, perceptiveness, and flexibility included among the intellectual components of the creative personality.
3. Temperament : one's temperament also is related to creativity. Tolerance for uncertainity, along with self confidence, non-conformity, and emotional expressiveness are characteristics of the creative temperament.
These three parts of the creative personality are essential to each other. They overlap and are interdependent.
