Week 7: Creativity

Creativity

Definitions

· People’s capacity to generate and apply new ideas

· Ability to produce novel and appropriate work

· Measuring/studying creativity is difficult. J. P Guilford 1950 started explosion of research

· No common process for creativity (discovered by looking at eminent creative minds e.g Jung, Einstein, Mozart). Most new ideas consist of repeated use of methods of everyday problem solving

· Four distinct stages of creativity (Helmholtz, Wallas)

1. Preparation (define and research problem)

2. Incubation(no conscious work on the problem except connections)

3. Illumination (‘Eureka’ moment)

4. Verification (turning new idea into reality)

CRYSTALLISATION experience (Gardner), when individual realizes gift and changes approach toward that domain

Theories of creativity

· Sternberg (1999) Handbook of Creativity. Two approaches (outside science):

1) Mystical approach

2) Pragmatic approach – aim to develop techniques for promoting creative thinking in business executives

3) Investment theory - people who identify unfashionable ideas and make them so

· Martindale (1999) reviews biological mechanisms in explaining creativity

Three main mechanisms

1) cortical arousal

2) hemisphere asymmetry

3) frontal lobe activation

· Kris (1952) explains creativity in terms of:

1) ‘primary processes’ – everyday, rational activity

2) ’secondary processes – irrational; activity e.g. dreams, hallucinations

· Psychoanalytical approach (Freudian) – based on the inner struggle between socially accepted and instinctual sexually oriented behavior

Artistic creativity is sublimation (converting internal conflict of instincts versus socially-accepted, into acceptable activities)

· Bisociation (Koestler) and Associative theory – creative people are able to make unstereotypical associations with simple stimulus e.g. table

· Psychometric approach – e.g. tests of divergent thinking ‘Torrance Tests of Creative thinking’. Attempted to show that creative thinking was as important as intelligence

· Cognitive theories of creativity identify mental plans, structures, process of creative thinking (Sloboda)

· Computational theories of creativity uses artificial intelligences e.g. computer program for jazz improvisation(Johnson-Laird)

· Social-personality approach focuses on personality traits of specific creative people (Teresa Amabile, Social Psychology of Creativity)