Ellis Paul Torrance (October 8, 1915 – July 12, 2003) was an American

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

best known for his research in

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...

. After completing his undergraduate degree at

Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining university status in 1837, it is the oldest private university in the state and enrolls more than 9,000 ...

, Torrance acquired a Master's degree at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

and then a doctorate from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. His teaching career spanned from 1957 to 1984. First, he taught at the University of Minnesota and then later at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

, where he became professor of Educational Psychology in 1966. Torrance's major accomplishments include 1,871 publications: 88 books; 256 parts of books or cooperative volumes; 408 journal articles; 538 reports, manuals, tests, etc.; 162 articles in popular journals or magazines; 355 conference papers; and 64 forewords or prefaces. He also created the

Future Problem Solving Program International Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI), originally known as Future Problem Solving Program (FPSP), and often abbreviated to FPS, is a non-profit educational program that organizes academic competitions in which students apply critic ...

, the Incubation Curriculum Model, and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking.

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

Threshold hypothesis

There has been debate in the psychological literature about whether intelligence and creativity are part of the same process (the conjoint hypothesis) or represent distinct mental processes (the disjoint hypothesis). Evidence attempts to look at correlations between intelligence and creativity from the 1950s onwards, by authors such as Barron,

Guilford Guildford is a town in Surrey, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Guildford, the Diocese of Guildford and the Parliamentary constituency of Guildford. Guildford, Guilford, or Gildford may also refer to: Places Australia * Guildfor ...

or Wallach and Kogan, regularly suggested that correlations between these concepts were low enough to justify treating them as distinct concepts. Some researchers believe that creativity is the outcome of the same cognitive processes as intelligence, and that it is only judged as creativity in terms of its consequences, i.e.: when the outcome of cognitive processes happens to produce something novel, a view which Perkins has termed the "nothing special" hypothesis.

A very popular model is what has come to be known as "the threshold hypothesis", proposed by Torrance, which holds that, in a general sample, there will be a positive correlation between low creativity and intelligence scores, but a correlation will not be found with higher scores. Research into the threshold hypothesis, however, has produced mixed results ranging from enthusiastic support to refutation and rejection.

Legacy

In 1984, the University of Georgia established the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development. A special issue of

Creativity Research Journal The ''Creativity Research Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers research into all aspects of creativity. The editor-in-chief is Adam Green (neuroscientist) (Georgetown University). The journal was established in 1988 ...

(guest edited by

James C. Kaufman James C. Kaufman is an American psychologist known for his research on creativity. He is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. Previously, he taught at the California State University, Sa ...

and John Baer) was dedicated to his honor and memory. The

National Association for Gifted Children National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

has designated a special lecture dedicated to Torrance in one of its focus interest groups. In 2015 in Istanbul, Turkey, th
KIE Conference
launched the annua
E. Paul Torrance International Roundtable on Creative Thinking
to refresh the work and legacy of Dr Torrance internationally especially among today’s crop of creativity enthusiasts, push the boundary of knowledge on creative thinking as well as increase knowledge sharing within creativity field. Torrance roundtable has been held in Istanbul, Turkey, Berlin, Germany, Philadelphia, USA, Prague, Czech Republic, Dubai, UAE, Virtual/Online, etc. In 2019, the KIE annua
creativity volume
was dedicated to Dr Torrance's 105th anniversary of his birth
Marking the 105 Birthday of the contemporary Father of Modern Creativity: E. Paul Torrance.Torrance newsletter
is published annually Torrance.

Biography

* *

References

External links

Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development

E. Paul Torrence papers
University Archives, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Knowledge, Innovation & Enterprise Conference

E. Paul Torrance International Roundtable on Creative Thinking
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torrance, Ellis Paul 20th-century American psychologists Educational psychologists Creativity researchers Intelligence researchers Mercer University alumni University of Minnesota alumni University of Georgia faculty 1915 births 2003 deaths University of Michigan alumni