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DIVERGENT THINKING IN BOYS AND GIRLS *
Author(s) -
Bhavnani Reena,
Hutt Corinne
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1972.tb01126.x
Subject(s) - psychology , verbal fluency test , developmental psychology , fluency , creativity , verbal reasoning , cognition , originality , social psychology , neuropsychology , mathematics education , neuroscience
SUMMARY Despite many findings of consistent sex differences in verbal and non‐verbal skills, there has been no systematic investigation of the performance of girls and boys on tests of creativity. This is particularly puzzling in view of the unequivocal superiority of the female in terms of verbal fluency. A study of the responses of 60 boys and 60 girls between 71/2 and 91/2 yr of age on the Wallach‐Kogan tests revealed that the girls scored higher than the boys on the Fluency measure but not on the Originality measure. The results are interpreted in terms of the differential development of verbal and non‐verbal skills in the two sexes and the “divergent cognitive style”–the latter apparently being more a characteristic of the male than of tin‐female.