Great Expectations: Creative Achievements of the Sociometric Stars in a 30-Year Study

The creative achievements and characteristics of a group of ten high school students identified as the most creative by their high school peers were compared to those of ten participants from the same group who had the greatest number of publicly recognized creative achievements approximately 30 years later (Sociometric Stars vs. Beyonders). Mini-case studies were presented for the 10 Sociometric Stars and hypotheses were advanced to explain their failure to qualify for the Beyonders. Results of the comparisons indicate that life situations such as divorce and caring for children, in addition to personal factors such as love of work, sense of purpose in life, and high energy, were more important in affecting creative achievements than the usual predictors of creativity: intelligence, academic achievement, and sociometric nominations.