Phenomenology of creativity in stories evoked by Thematic Apperception Test: plot twists

Although the key role of imagination in relation to the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is well known we practically do not encounter it in research on creativity. However, the starting point of our qualitative-oriented research is 500 stories created based on TAT, which was openly presented to the participants as a creativity test where imagination knows no bounds. The target group was 50 various artists - musicians and visual artists. Their narratives were then subjected to qualitative analysis in order to capture and identify factors that may indicate the author’s creativity. We focused on both content and formal aspects of stories. The aim was to create categories that could manifest certain aspects of creativity embedded in the narratives. The individual criteria emerged from the data themselves but are also supported by theory. In the article, we will introduce one of them, namely unexpected twists.