Assessing Creativity with the Test for Creative Thinking - Drawing Production (TCT-DP): Concept, Application, Evaluation, and International Studies

This article presents the Test for Creative Thinking - Drawing Production, or TCT-DP, laying out how it was built, the thinking behind it, the scheme used to score it, and what came out of putting it to use across different settings. Klaus K. Urban developed the instrument with a particular aim: to capture creativity as something broader than what the older divergent thinking tests measured. Those earlier tests leaned heavily on counting responses, treating fluency and quantity as the main signal. Urban wanted a tool that reflected creativity in a fuller, more complete sense.

At the core of the test is a drawing task that begins with figural fragments. The examinee is given an incomplete set of graphic elements and asked to produce a drawing from them. The choice of fragments is deliberate, and the article explains why they take the form they do. Rather than asking for lists of uses or associations, the test invites the person to make something visual and open-ended.

Scoring happens through a defined set of criteria, and these criteria do double duty. They are not only the yardstick for a given drawing; together they describe the construct the test is meant to tap. In other words, the way a production is judged maps directly onto what Urban considers creativity to involve.

Norming was carried out across a range of ages and ability levels. One finding that held up through this process: boys and girls, men and women, did not differ significantly in their scores. The test did not favor one sex over the other.

The article closes by gathering together several studies that report on the reliability and validity of the TCT-DP, drawing on data collected in various contexts. The test is positioned within the work of identifying giftedness and creativity.