Selcuk Acar

Selcuk Acar, Ph.D., is an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of North Texas. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (with an emphasis in Gifted and Creative Education) from the University of Georgia. His primary area of research interest includes divergent thinking, assessment of creativity, and the education of the gifted and talented. Prior to UNT, Dr. Acar has worked at two different centers specialized in the field of creative education: Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development of University of Georgia, and the International Center for Studies in Creativity of SUNY Buffalo State. In addition to numerous book chapter and encyclopedia entries, Dr. Acar published over 70 peer-reviewed articles primarily on creativity. He has served as a PI in a creativity measurement grant by the Institute of Education Sciences to develop a new measure of original thinking called MOTES. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor at Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. He is also on the editorial board of Gifted Child Quarterly, Journal of Creative Behavior, Journal of Advanced Academics, and Creativity Research Journal. Dr. Acar is a recipient of APA Division 10’s 2022 Berlyne Award in recognition of outstanding research by an early career scholar, UNT College of Education’s 2021 Faculty Research Excellence Award and UNT College of Education's 2023 Service Award.

Education:

Ph.D., 2013, The University of Georgia

Recent Publications:

 

• Acar, S., Lee, L.E., &Scherer, R. (2024). A reliability generalization of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking-Figural. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000819
• Acar, S., Dumas, D., Organisciak, P., &Berthiaume, K. (2024). Measuring original thinking in elementary school: Development and validation of a computational psychometric approach. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000844
• Bower, J., Acar, S., Kursuncu, U. (2023). Measuring creativity in academic writing: An analysis of essays in Advanced Placement Language and Composition. Journal of Advanced Academics, 34(3-4), 183-214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1932202X231211633
• Organisciak, P., Acar, S., Dumas, D., and Berthiaume, K. (2023). Beyond semantic distance: Automated scoring of divergent thinking greatly improves with large language models. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 49, 101356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2023.101356
• Acar, S. (2023). Does the task structure impact the fluency confound in divergent thinking? An investigation with TTCT-Figural. Creativity Research Journal, 35(1), 1-14.
• Acar, S., Tadik, H., Uysal, R., Myers, D., &Inetas, B. (2023). Creativity and socioeconomic status: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Creative Behavior, 57(1), 138-172.  https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.568
• Acar, S., Ogurlu, U., &Zorychta, A. (2023). Exploration of discriminant validity in divergent thinking tasks: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, 17(6), 705-724. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000469
• Acar, S., Branch, M. D., Burnett, C., &Cabra, J. (2021). Assessing the universality of the zero originality lists of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) - Figural: An examination with African American college students? Gifted Child Quarterly. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00169862211012964
• Acar, S., Neumayer, M., &Burnett, C. (2021) Social media use and creativity: Exploring the influences on ideational behavior and creative activity and accomplishment. Journal of Creative Behavior, 55(1), 39-52. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.432
• Acar, S., Tadik, H., van der Sman, C., Myers, D., &Uysal, R. (2020). Creativity and wellbeing: A meta-analytic review. The Journal of Creative Behavior. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jocb.485