A note on the generality and cross-validity of personal history for identifying creative research scientists

Abstract

A 33-item scoring key composed of personal history items originally validated for research personnel in a petroleum laboratory was applied to research personnel in a pharmaceutical laboratory. Significant validities were obtained, in the new setting, between personal history scores and several criteria of research productivity and creativity. These results were interpreted to suggest that empirical keys may have more generality than is commonly believed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)