Three issues: Definition – what is creativity? Scientific approaches to creativity Practical approaches

Definition Reed: “Creating a novel and useful product or situation. Sternberg & Ben-Zeev (2001): “Creativity is the ability to produce work that is novel (original and unexpected), high in quality, and appropriate (useful and meets the task constraints of tasks).”

Scientific Approaches to Creativity Guilford (1950) reported that on 2/10ths of 1% of entries in Psychological Abstracts up to 1950 were studies of creativity. Sternberg & Ben-Zeev (2001) reported that about 5/10ths of 1% of entries in Psychological Abstracts for the years 1975-1994 were studies of creativity. 1.5% of entries for that period (3 times as many) were studies of reading.

Scientific Approaches to Creativity Psychodynamic approach: Freud: creativity arises from the tension between conscious reality and unconscious drives. Creative work provides an acceptable way to express unconscious wishes publicly. These wishes refer to things like power, wealth, fame, love

Psychodynamic approach Kris (1952) adaptive regression: intrusion of unmodulated thoughts into consciousness elaboration: reworking of those thoughts into reality-oriented thoughts This approach used case studies only, so has not been central in scientific study of creativity

Psychometric Approach Cox (1926) estimated IQ for 301 eminent people who lived between 1450 and 1850. (Average ratings) found correlation between IQ and rank order of eminence to .16. Simonton (1975): r = 0. Cox: Highest persistence + OK intelligence > Highest intelligence + OK persistence

Research on Creativity Psychometric approach: Guilford (1950): It’s difficult to study only eminent people such as Einstein or Michelangelo, because there are so few of them. Guilford suggested studying creativity in ordinary people using tasks like the unusual uses test (e.g., “think of as many uses as possible for a brick”).

Psychometric Approach Torrance (1974) – Tests of Creative Thinking. simple tasks requiring divergent thinking and problem-solving scored for fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration e.g., Asking Questions, Circles, Product Improvement, Unusual Uses

Torrance Tests Asking questions – write out all the qs you can think of based on a drawing of a scene. Circles – expand empty circles into different drawings and give the drawings titles. Unusual uses – list interesting and unusual uses of a cardboard box. P.I. – ways to change a toy monkey to be more fun

Psychometric Approach Mednick – Remote Associates Test Said that creative thinking involves forming new relations among elements, with those relations being useful in some way or matching a standard. Cake Blue Cottage Surprise Line Birthday Quick & objective test – but is it a good theory?

Psychometric Approaches Sternberg & Ben-Zeev on IQ and creativity Creative people tend to have IQs > 120. Above 120, IQ does not seem to matter Role of IQ varies depending upon which aspect of intelligence is involved, as well as field of creativity (e.g., art & music vs. science & math).

Research on Creativity Cognitive approaches Goal is to understand mental representations underlying creativity and process that operate on those representations. Weisberg (1999) – it is the products of creative processes that are remarkable, not the processes themselves.

Cognitive Approach Weisberg & Alba (1981) Asked subjects to solve the nine-dot problem:

Weisberg & Alba (1981) Solution of the problem depends upon going outside the box. But people given that insight still had trouble solving this problem. Weisberg: Thus, “extraordinary insight” is not the explanation. Solver goes through a set of ordinary cognitive processes; ‘insight’ doesn’t help.

What might those cognitive processes be? Finke’s Geneplore model: There are two main processes in creativity – generation and exploration. Generation – create pre-inventive structures Exploration – use those structures to produce creative ideas.

Finke’s Geneplore Model Person creates mental representations of objects that emphasize certain qualities. (Generative) Then, person uses these repns. to create new ideas or objects. (Exploratory) Because this is a cognitive theory, it emphasizes processes like retrieval, association, analogy, transformation, & categorical reduction.

Confluence Approaches Csikszemtmihalyi (1988, 1996) – interaction of individual, domain, and field Domain – stores information, problems Individual – guided to a problem by a domain, draws on information in that domain, transforms and extends it through cognition, personality, and motivation Field – people who control or influence domain evaluate and select new ideas (e.g., critics).

Confluence Approaches Sternberg & Lubart (1995) – Investment Theory Creative people buy low and sell high in the world of ideas. Buying low – pursuing ideas that are unknown or unfashionable. Selling high means convincing people the idea is great. Requires confluence of six resources: knowledge, intellect, thinking style, personality, motivation, and environment.

Sternberg & Lubart’s Investment Theory Knowledge – To know domain without being bound by that knowledge Intellect – be synthetic, analytic, practical Thinking – preference for thinking in new ways Personality – persistence, willingness to take sensible risks, tolerance for ambiguity, SE Motivation – Intrinsic, task-focused; you must love what you are doing; don’t focus on rewards Environment – supportive; providing a forum

Practical Approaches Primary concern is developing creativity Secondary concern is understanding creativity No concern with testing ideas empirically Issue – does the commercial success of some practical approaches damage the scientific study of creativity, as Sternberg & Ben-Zeev claim?

Practical Approaches Edward De Bono – Lateral Thinking taking a broad view, with multiple viewpoints PMI – plus, minus, interesting po – as in hypothesis, suppose, possible, poetry “hats” – data, intuition, criticism, generation

Practical Approaches Osborn (1953) – Brainstorming Ad-man developed Brainstorming to encourage people to ‘open up.’ Recommended non-judgmental atmosphere where all ideas would be considered. Where’s the filter? Do you reject an idea before offering it publicly? Or offer it publicly perhaps to be rejected by group? He argued that critical approach is inhibtory

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