The Journal of Social Psychology, 1977, 103, 3-11.

DIVERGENT THINKING, CULTURAL DIFFERENCES,

AND BILINGUALISM* I
University of California, Los Angeles; and
University of California, Santa Cruz

DOUGLASS R. PRICE-WILLIAMS 2 AND MANUEL RAMIREZ III

SUMMARY
Mexican-American, black and Anglo fourth grade children (N = 183)
from Catholic parochial schools in Houston, Texas, were tested with the
Unusual Uses Test and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The Anglo
5 s scored higher than the blacks and Mexican-Americans on the Peabody
test. Mexican-American and black males scored higher than Anglo males
on both fluency and flexibility as measured by the Unusual Uses Test.
Black males scored higher on fluency than any of the other subgroups. On
the other hand, Anglo females scored higher on fluency and flexibility than
the other females. Furthermore, Anglo females scored higher on flexibility
than any of the other subgroups. Black females obtained the highest
flexibility/fluency ratio. The results of the male 5s supported the hypothesis
that children of minority groups and children who are "balanced" bilin-
guals tend to do better on the Unusual Uses Test. The female results,
however, did not support this hypothesis and could not be explained by the
study.

A. INTRODUCTION
Studies comparing the performance of minority group children with that
of Anglo children on standardized intelligence tests and on tasks of diver-
.. Received in the Editorial Office, Provincetown, Massachusetts, on December 20, 1976,
and given special consideration in accordance with our policy for cross-cultural research.
Copyright, 1977, by The Journal Press.
1 The work described in this paper was supported by a grant from the Center for Research
in Social Change and Economic Development, Rice University, Houston, Texas, financed
under ARPA Order 738. Subsequent analysis of results was supported in part by Research
Grant HD04612, NICHD, Mental Retardation Research Center, UCLA; by the California
Department of Mental Hygiene; and by the University of California. The authors are grateful
to Barbara Goffigon Cox for her many suggestions and criticisms. The authors thank the
Diocese of Houston for making Ss available for this study.
1 Reprints are available from the first author at the first address shown at the end of this
article.
3
4 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

gent thinking have shown that while Anglo children generally do better on
intelligence tests, minority group children frequently do as well and in
some cases better than Anglo children on tasks of divergent thinking. For
example, Iscoe and Pierce-Jones (3) compared the performance of black
children and white children of five age levels on the Wechsler Intelligence
Scale for Children (WISC) and on the Unusual Uses Test (UUT). The UUT
asks 5 s to identify different ways to use specific common objects. Their
results included the following; (a) divergent thinking (UUT) scores had low
significant correlations with total WISC scores for both races, and of
individual WISC subtest scores only Information and Vocabulary showed
significant correlations with UUT scores for both groups; (b) UUT fluency
scores of white children exceeded those of black children only at the
youngest age level, black children performed about the same at the oldest
level; (c) there were no significant differences in UUT flexibility scores
between the two groups-black children scored slightly higher in two of the
age levels and white children did better in the other three age levels.
Referring to the fluency data, Iscoe and Pierce-Jones conclude:
The difference between the mean divergent thinking scores of Whites and
Negroes indicated the statistical superiority of the Negro children even though
the White children obtained significantly higher IQs on the WISe (3, 792).

Iscoe and Pierce-Jones also note,

It may well be that divergent thinking affords the Negro child a better advan-
tage than that afforded by tasks arising out of white middle class norms and
culture (3, 796).

In another study comparing white and black children on divergent

thinking, Torrance (6, 7) administered his verbal and figural batteries to
children of a segregated black school in Georgia. The scores were com-
pared to those of white children attending a middle class school in Min-
neapolis. In this study, black children scored higher than white children on
measures of figural fluency, flexibility, and originality. White students, on
the other hand, scored higher on measures of figural elaboration and on all
the verbal measures. Moreover, when the performance of black children
was compared with that of a sample of white children from Georgia, the
author found that, "the differences in favor of the whites on figural elab-
oration and verbal measures tended to fade out" (7, p. 76).
Research into the relation of bilingualism to divergent thinking has
indicated that children who are "balanced" bilinguals score higher on
divergent thinking tasks than monolingual children (1). However, 5s whose
 DOUGLASS R. PRICE-WILLIAMS AND MANUEL RAMIREZ III 5

bilingualism is not "balanced" do not seem to perform as well as monolin-

guals on these same tasks (2).
In addition, the age at which the second language was learned seems to
be a critical variable. Landry (4) tested children at three different age
levels, comparing monolinguals and S s who had learned a second lan-
guage, to determine whether experience with two languages is related to
creativity. There were no significant differences between the two groups at
the first and fourth grade levels, but the sixth grade bilingual group
performed better on all measures (figural fluency, figural flexibility, figural
originality, verbal fluency, verbal flexibility, and verbal originality) than
the monolingual group.
More recently, Carringer (1) used the Torrance Tests of Creative Think-
ing to examine the relation of bilingualism to divergent thinking in Mexi-
can students for whom Spanish was the first language. These children had
received some instruction in English during the first five years of their
formal education. Only students identified as "balanced bilinguals" (those
possessing relatively equal abilities in both Spanish and English) were
included in the bilingual group. Carringer's results showed that the bilin-
gual group scored higher in figural and verbal fluency, flexibility, and
originality.
Some Mexican-American and black children residing in Houston, Texas,
are bilingual: The Mexican-Americans speak Spanish and English; the
blacks speak French and English. The prediction was made that
Mexican-American and black children in Houston would score higher on
divergent thinking tasks than monolingual Anglo children. It was also
predicted that Anglo children would score higher than Mexican-American
and black children on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and that
correlations between the Peabody test and the Unusual Uses Test would be
low for the three groups.

B. METHOD
1. Subjects
The Ss included 183 fourth grade (mean age, 10.4 years) children attend-
ing Catholic parochial schools in Houston, Texas.? Of these children, 63
were Mexican-American, 61 black, and 59 Anglo. Approximately half the

3 All of the schools were in neighborhoods which were ethnically homogeneous and most of
the instructional and administrative personnel in the schools were of the same ethnic group as
the community and children.
6 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

5 s in each group were male, half female. All 5 s were of low socioeconomic
status (SES): Ratings for SES were based on fathers' occupations according
to the categories used by Moore and Holtzman (5). Although every attempt
was made to equalize the groups according to SES, the Anglo 5s tended to
be of somewhat higher SES than blacks or Mexican-Americans.
A research team administered a short questionnaire to all fourth grade
children at the schools from which 51 s were to be selected. The items were
read to the groups of children who responded by marking their own
questionnaire. The questionnaire contained items concerning the lan-
guagets) spoken by the child and parents, family activities, number of
persons residing in the child's home and their relationship to the child, and
size of the home. The children were also asked to draw a human figure.
Those who had difficulty answering the questions or drawing the human
figure were eliminated; the others were placed into a pool from which the
5s for the study were selected on the basis of ethnicity, sex, and SES.
a. Mexiran Americans. The majority of Mexican Americans selected for
this study were bilingual. These Houston residents are well identified with
the traditional Mexican-American system of values-that is, they have
close ties to members of their extended families, they are familiar with
Mexican and Mexican-American history, and their interpersonal relation-
ships ate characterized by commitment to mutual help. Child rearing
practices emphasize respect for adults and family and religious authority
and there is strong identification with Mexican Catholic ideology. The
majority of the children in this study were second and third generation
Americans.
b. Blacks. The black residents of the Houston areas from which our 5s
were selected differ in many respects from black populations in other U.S.
urban settings. Most are bilingual (French, English) and most of the adults
were reared in rural areas of Louisiana. Observations of these 5 s indicated
an emphasis on strong ties to the extended family, respect for adults,
respect for family and religious authority, and identification with the teach-
ings of the Catholic church.
r. Anglo Americans. The majority of the Anglo population from which
we chose our 5 s were Caucasians who made no indication that they
identified with any "original" ethnic group. None of these children was
bilingual. Observations of the Anglo families indicated a strong emphasis
on encouraging children to develop identities separate from the family, and
children were also encouraged to be competitive.
 DOUGLASS R. PRICE-WILLIAMS AND MANUEL RAMIREZ III 7

2. Procedure
The 5s were tested individually by a member of their ethnic group with
the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Unusual Uses Test. Adminis-
tration of the UUT was prefaced by the following instructions:
Let's see how clever you can be about using things. For instance. if I ask you
how many ways an old tire could be used, you might say: fix up an old car. for a
swing, to ron around and run with, to cut up for shoe soles, and so on. Now, if
I asked you: How many ways can you use a pebble? What would you say?

(This latter question was asked only if the child did not clearly under-
stand the previous explanation.) Once the child understood the tasks, he or
she was asked to tell ways to use the following: (a) a newspaper, (b) a table
knife, (c) a coffee cup, (d) a clock, (e) money.
Ideational fluency was scored by summing the number of uses mentioned
for all five objects; ideational flexibility was scored in terms of different
categories of usage. For example, if a child responded to the newspaper
item by saying, "To read, to make a mat, and to use as an umbrella," a
score of three would be given for fluency and a score of three for flexibility.
On the other hand, responses to the table knife item such as "cut your
meat" and "cut other things" would represent a score of two for fluency,
but only a score of one for flexibility.
An efficiency index or ratio of category scores to fluency scores was also
computed and is given as percentages. UUT and Peabody test data were
also analyzed for possible correlations.

C. RESULTS

The results given in Table 1, show that Mexican-American and black

males scored higher than Anglo males on both fluency and flexibility. Anglo
females, however, scored higher on both fluency and flexibility than
Mexican-American and black females. In fact, Anglo females scored higher
on flexibility than any of the other subgroups.
The data presented in Table 1 also show that Anglo 5 s scored higher
than Mexican Americans and blacks on the Peabody test.
A 3 X 2 analysis of variance revealed a significant ethnic effect for the
Peabody test data (F = 6.74, P < .01) and the UUT flexibility data (F =
3.33, P < .05), but not for fluency (F = 1. 70, P < .05). The ethnic by sex
interactions were significant for both fluency (F = 7.63, P < .01) and
flexibility (F = 4.21, P < .01.)
8 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

TABLE I
GROUP MEANS AND SOS OF SCORES ON FLUENCY, FLEXIBILITY,
AND THE PEABODY PICTURE VOCABULARY TEST (PPVT)

Males Females
Measure n X SO n X SO

Fluency
Black-American 30 19.79 7.35 31 13.10 3.95
Mexican-American 33 19.27 7.07 30 17.27 5.27
Anglo-American 30 15.37 4.59 29 18.47 7.40
Flexi bility
Black-American 30 12.69 3.51 31 11.06 2.75
Mexican-American 33 13.94 4.54 30 13.73 4.24
Anglo-American 30 11.83 2.73 29 14.67 5.07
PPVT
Black-American 30 95.43 17.49 31 86.10 10.73
Mexican-American 33 93.26 13.01 30 89.40 15.74
Anglo-American 30 108.50 11.92 29 105.73 11.05

Tukey comparisons of the differences between the means of the six

subgroups for fluency and flexibility are shown in Table 2.
The efficiency index, a ratio of flexibility scores to fluency scores given as
percentages, showed the following results: Black males, 64.1%; Black
females, 84.4%; Mexican-American males, 72.5%; Mexican-American fe-
males, 79.5%; Anglo males, 77%; Anglo females, 79.4%.
Correlations between Peabody test and fluency and flexibility scores for
each of the six subgroups were not significant.
D. DISCUSSION

The hypothesis that black and Mexican-American 5 s would score higher

than Anglo 5 s on fluency and flexibility was only partially supported by the
findings of this study. This hypothesis is supported in regard to flexibility,
but black Ss scored lower than Anglo 5s on fluency. Moreover, while
Mexican-American fluency scores were higher than Anglo fluency scores,
the 3 x 2 analysis of variance indicated that this difference was not
significant.
The most interesting comparisons arising from the present study occur in
the significance of the ethnic by sex interaction, the examination of the
means of males and females by ethnic group. Since Iscoe and Pierce-Jones
did not report results separately for males and females, there is no way to
compare these data with theirs. Mexican-American and black males scored
higher on fluency and flexibility than Anglo males; male Mexican-American
and black means on fluency were similar, with blacks scoring slightly
higher. On flexibility, however, Mexican-American males performed con-
 8
s
TABLE 2 ~
en
FLUENCY AND FLEXIBILITY: COMPARISON AMONG SIMPLE MAIN EFFECTS MEANS
FOR THE ETHNIC X SEX INTERACTION !ll
Mexican-American Mexican-American Black-American Black-American Anglo-American ~
('J
males females males females males t"!
Flexi- Flexi- Flexi- Flexi- Flexi-
Groups Fluency bility Fluency bility Fluency bility Fluency bility Fluency bility s
r-
Anglo-American e-
females .80 .73 1.20 .94 1.32 1.98** 5.37** 3.61 ** 3.10** 2.84**
Mexican-American ~
en
males - 2.00 .21 .52 1.25 6.17** 2.88** 3.90** 2.11**
Mexican-American
females 2.52** 1.04 4.17** 2.67** 1.90 1.90** ~
Black-American
males 6.69** 1.63** 4.42* .86 ~
Black-American Z
~
females 2.27* .77 t"!
e-
*p < .05.
** P < .01.
.~..
~
t"!
N
.........

-0
10 JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

siderably better than the black males. This latter finding may be due to the
fact that more Mexican Americans than blacks were bilingual. Further-
more, since the Mexican Americans were from a traditional Mexican-
American neighborhood located in a large urban center where oppor-
tunities to learn English are very good, most Mexican Americans in our
study were probably also "balanced" bilinguals.
The overall data on males, therefore, supports the hypothesis that chil-
dren of minority groups and children who are "balanced" bilinguals tend to
have an advantage on the DDT.
The results from the females, on the other hand, do not support the
above hypothesis and are difficult to explain: Anglo and Mexican-American
females scored higher than black females on both fluency and flexibility.
The performance of the black females may have been affected by their
lower fluency in English, as indicated by the Peabody test scores. It is
interesting to note, however, that black females scored higher than any of
the groups on the efficiency index.
The higher efficiency index achieved by the black females indicates that
in relation to fluency, they demonstrated the highest flexibility of any of the
groups. This shows an advantage in flexibility that is not reflected in
fluency or flexibility scores alone. In all three ethnic groups, females scored
higher than males on the efficiency index.
As predicted, there were no significant correlations between the Peabody
test and flexibility or fluency. In retrospect, it would have been useful to
have administered the DDT in French and in English to the black bilin-
guals and in Spanish and in English to the Mexican-American bilinguals,
or to have obtained a measure of English, Spanish, and French fluency on
all s
The results of this study seem to demonstrate the complexity of divergent
thinking. Performance on divergent thinking tasks not only tends to differ
between members of different ethnic groups, but also demonstrates in-
tracultural variability. It should be determined through further research
how much of the variance in flexibility, fluency, and efficiency is contrib-
uted by the variables of SES, sex, age, degree of bilingualism, degree of
fluency in English, and minority group membership. It would also be
important to identify the variable(s) that resulted in the high performance
of the Anglo females. Furthermore, the findings of this study have implica-
tions for research on intellectual functioning in members of minority
groups, since the DDT apparently taps intellectual abilities in black and
Chicano children which do not seem to be reflected in standardized tests,
such as the Peabody test.
 DOUGLASS R. PRICE-WILLIAMS AND MANUEL RAMIREZ III 11

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Gifted Child Quart., 1965, 9, 13-15.
3. ISCOE, I., & PIERCE-JONES, J. Divergent thinking, age, and intelligence in white and
Negro children. Child Devel., 1964, 35, 785-797.
4. LANDRY, R. G. The relationship of second language learning to divergent thinking
abilities of students in urban schools. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan,
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5. MOORE, B. M., & HOLTZMAN, W. H. Tomorrow's Parents: A Study of Youth and Their
families. Austin: Univ. Texas Press, 1965.
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gia: Georgia Studies of Creative Behavior, University of Georgia, 1967.
7. . Are the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking biased against or in favor of the
"disadvantaged" groups? Gifted Child Quart., Summer, 1971, 75-80.
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