Personality comparisons between outstanding creative craftswomen, women artists, and women in the general population

The purpose of this study was to obtain a personality profile of outstanding and highly creative women in crafts, and to determine whether they differed from other women artists and from women in the general population. It was hypothesized that women in crafts would have personality characteristics similar to persons in other creative fields; it was further hypothesized that women in crafts would have personality characteristics that differentiated them from women in the general population.

The sample consisted of 69 highly creative women in crafts. Of the 69 women contacted for the study, 38 women completed and returned the test materials. The 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed by the use of F tests to test for homogeneity of variances and t tests to test for differences between mean scores on the 16 PF.

The results of the t tests indicated that women in crafts differed significantly from women in general on nine factors of the l6 PF. Women in crafts were more aloof, intelligent, aggressive, practical, mistrusting, imaginative, unpretentious, radical and independent than women in general. Women in crafts and women artists had similar scores on 14 of the 16 PF. Women in crafts were more unpretentious and tough-minded than women artists.

The data collected in this study supported the findings of other researchers. The personality profile projected by women in crafts was consistent with the personality profile projected by creatives in other studies.