Teresa Amabile

Teresa M. Amabile is an American psychologist, academic, and author whose research has focused on creativity, intrinsic motivation, innovation, and organizational behavior. She is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, at the Harvard Business School, where she served on the faculty from 1995 until her retirement in 2024. She joined Harvard after 18 years on the psychology faculty at Brandeis University. Amabile is known for developing the componential theory of creativity, a framework explaining how domain expertise, creative thinking skills, and intrinsic motivation interact to produce creative performance. Her theoretical and empirical work has substantially influenced research in psychology, management, education, and organizational studies.