Utilizing Q-Methodology for the Study of the Behavior of the Audience of Creativity

The study of Creativity from the standpoint of the Audience (e.g., any person that assesses a product as creative) has not been addressed yet from a naturalistic perspective in terms of the reactions of the individual according to the cultural group he/she belongs to. In this paper, a cultural group is defined as a group of individuals that have similar reactions to a stimulus (i.e., considering architectural objects as more creative than other objects). The present study presents a way to study Creativity from an interbehavioral standpoint by utilizing Q Methodology to capture the interaction between the Audience and the object. Thirty Participants (15 females and 15 males) from different occupations (art, science and various trades) were asked to organize sixty pictures (architecture, photography and furniture) in a Q-sort in terms of how creative they considered the picture was with respect to the others. The responses were grouped by three factors- photography preference, furniture preference and preference for architectural products. The results showed that the responses of the participants grouped them independently of their occupation or gender; showing specific tendencies on which objects they valued as most creative. Results are discussed in terms of how the factors represent the different cultural groups present in the participants’ sample, and their relation with previous research on the behavior of the Audience. The present results show promise of the use of the Q Methodology in the research of the behavior of the Audience from a naturalistic perspective.