At the same time he emphasized the 'appalling neglect' of the study of creativity by psychologists. Examining the index of the Psychological Abstracts since its origin, he found that of the approximately 121.000 titles listed in 23 years, only 186 were indexed as definitely bearing on the subject of creativity.
The major interest in the creativity disposition and the recognition of its importance for knowledge came from the fields outside of psychology. Large industries recognized the enormous value of new ideas. Various branches of the government are asking for individuals who have inventive potentialities. These needs have found psychology ill prepared.
One of the major conceptual blocks for the study of creativity has been the conception of creativity as an inherited property of the genius (Razik 1967): 'Assumebly ... creativity is where one finds it, and little can be done through education to affect it' (p. 301).
Another conceptual block for the 'creativity movement' centered in the measurement instruments commonly used in the schools: the traditional intelligence tests to assess the capacity of students for learning and the achievement tests to judge the progress students make on their way through the school program. Both intelligence and achievement tests were mostly limited to tasks for which there were single, predetermined 'right' answers (convergent thinking).