Kirton adaptive-innovative inventory

Kirton (1994) suggested that there are two poles of creative behaviour and developed a scale to measure cognitive style preferences, so called Kirton Adaptive-Innovative Inventory. She distinguished between innovators and adaptors. Innovators prefer looser cognitive situations that allow them to break out of the paradigm. Adaptors, on the contrary, prefer structured situations; their focus is on redefining, elaborating, modifying, and improving a paradigm. Adaptors and innovators both have distinct attributes that can be advantageous or disadvantageous, depending on the specific context.