7. Big C: Nancy’s Attempt
Nancy used this method during the 1970s when she started researching on creative minds and psychological illness. Her subjects were based on her background in literature, mainly due to the fact she wanted to prove to her boss that her education wasn’t useless. Since Iowa was rich in literature, Nancy was able to enlist almost 30 renowned writers for her study. Her hypothesis was twofold. Firstly, the writers’ families would show a high rate of schizophrenia but the writers would be comparatively stable. Secondly, the family members themselves would be creative (based on the common notion that creativity and insanity correlated). The hypothesis was based on Nancy’s own knowledge of renowned creative people and their families. Next, she set up a basic interview process which covered the basic questions of development, society, work ethics and writing methodology. She judged the level of genius in blood relations by awarding grades to them based on their creative achievements. Forming a neutral group of individuals was more challenging for Nancy. She chose an interesting mix of people and matched the IQ levels with her subjects. Turns out, similar to the result of Mr. Terman’s research, that both sets of individuals had a good but not excellent IQ. Where did the creativity in the authors come from? Subsequent interviews with her subjects quickly made her realize that her quest would not return substantial results. Almost all the authors poured out their troubles to her during the interviews. Unfortunately, most of the burdens were emotional and indicated mood disorders or bipolarity. Her study resolved a few queries but caused many more pressing questions to surface.