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Psychology Research Journal > Volume 1, Issue 1 (2026) > e01002

Being Creative Briefly: The SCAB-6 as a Brief Measure of Cognitive-Productive Aspects of Creativity

Kathryn E. Kelly

Abstract

The Scale of Creative Attributes and Behavior (SCAB) is a 20-item measure of five dimensions of creativity. This study developed and evaluated an abbreviated version using data from 515 adults. Principal axis factoring, item relationships, redundancy, and conceptual content were used to identify six items representing a general factor of the original scale. The resulting SCAB-6 demonstrated good internal consistency and correlated strongly with the 20-item SCAB. Although all six items were meaningfully loaded on a common factor, unrestricted factor analysis yielded two correlated factors corresponding to Creative Cognitive Style and Creative Engagement. The SCAB-6 may therefore be used as a brief overall measure of perceived Cognitive-Productive creative orientation or to examine its two facets when theoretically relevant. The SCAB-20 remains preferable when broader multidimensional characteristics of creative personality are of interest.

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Published 

September 2, 2026

Keywords

Creativity;

Creativity assessment;

Creative cognition;

Creative behavior;

Psychometrics;

Scale development;

Individual differences