Creativity and Age – Term Paper

          The question of age and intelligence coupled with creativity is a complicated one because many theories try to explain the kind of relationship between aging and creativity and intelligence. Some researchers argue that intelligence and creativity reduces as an individual gets older, while other researchers claim that intelligence remains constant as a person gets older. Moreover, IQ test shows that the intelligence of an individual reduces as they age. Nevertheless, some older people performed better on IQ test than they did when they were younger. Thus, it was difficult to quantify the intelligence of an individual based on IQ test alone.

        There are two types of intelligence, that is, crystallized and fluid intelligence. Liquid Intelligence is responsible for solving problems and critical thinking, while crystallized intelligence is gained through learning. Thus, from a personal point of view, the creativity of an individual can reduce, as a person gets older while intelligence can increase through crystallized intelligence. Moreover, IQ test shows that the score of an individual is high when the individual as at 25-30 and from there, the scores reduce. This shows that the creativity of a person reduces with age. Ideally, my assumption is based on the fact that younger individuals are more creative, or an individual is more creative below 30 years old compared to when they are 60 or 70. In addition to this, fluid intelligence gives a person the ability to solve problems using critical thinking and research shows that an individual thinks more critically at the age of 30, and they are more creative at the same age. Thus, critical thinking and creativity reduce as an individual attain 60 years of age. Therefore, it can be concluded that aging has an effect on creativity and intelligence.