User:Ertyqway/Creativity Draft

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"The problem of creativity is beset with mysticism, confused definitions, value judgments, psychoanalytic admonitions, and the crushing weight of philosophical speculation dating from ancient times." Albert Rothenberg

Creativity, both in process and product, is central to what we think of as a peculiar and powerful human mode of thinking.

Creativity and highly creative people have been regarded with admiration and trepidation for most of human history. It is fair to say that without creativity, human beings would still be trapped in a brutal paleolithic existence.

Colloquial definitions of creativity are typically descriptive of a cognitively instrumental aspect of human action:

  • to make something partly or wholly new,
  • to invest with new properties or characteristics,
  • to produce or bring about, to cause, to design,
  • and even to imagine.

Often implied is a concomitant presence of inspiration, cognitive leaps or intuitive insight as a part of creative thinking and acting. (Koestler, 1964)

More than 60 different definitions of creativity can be found in the psychological literature (Taylor, 1988), and it is beyond the scope of this article to list them all.

The etymological root of the word in English and most other European languages comes from the Latin creatus, literally "to have grown."

As a working definition for the purpose of taxonomy and discussion, this entry will assume the following:

Creativity is the mental process and resultant action by which existents and concepts are rearranged into new configurations and integrations in order to serve some purpose according to normative criteria. (Wharton, 1999)

Creativity is therefore generative, intentional, goal-directed (teleological), and value-positive.

Contents

[edit] Essential Attributes of Creativity

"Creativity, it has been said, consists largely of re-arranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know." George Keller

Although a comprehensive definition of creativity is still a subject of intense discussion among philosophers, psychologists, cognitive scientists, and other researchers, there is generally more agreement on what creative behavior ostensively comprises. In other words, we can generally point to an action or behavior and say whether or not it is "creative".

include examples here

Following from this ostensive understanding, the essential attributes of creativity can then be determined to a more general extent.

[edit] Creativity is Innovative

The most obvious indication of creativity in any human action is innovation. Where thought or action has resulted in something (whether it be an object, idea, or relationship) that is partly or wholly new, then it is clearly characterized to some degree as creative.

[edit] Creativity is Non-Linear and Opportunistic

Numerous studies during the last three decades have indicated that the traditional notion of the creative process as a linear progression from need or desire to fulfillment (or problem definition to solution in the so-called "Waterfall Model") is fundamentally flawed. In practice, creative problem-solving tends to be highly non-linear, including strategies such as rapid prototyping, lateral thinking, cognitive leaps, and many other dynamic thought processes. As a result, a plot of the creative thought process looks less like a straight line than like a seismograph (Guindon, 1990).

Creativity is also typically characterized by cognitive opportunisism, by which changing problem- and solution-spaces are explored and refined by trial-and-error, including the extensive use and disposal of mental models and experimental mock-ups.

In this sense, there is a strong evolutionary quality to the creative thought process, where ideas propagate, mutate, flourish, and disappear according to their fitness as measured against a host of constantly-changing criteria (which are themselves influenced by the evolution of ideas, hence the non-linearity of the system).

[edit] Creativity is Conceptually Substitutive

[edit] Creativity is Teleological and Value-Positive

[edit] The Scope of Creativity

Although a comprehensive definition of creativity is still a subject of intense discussion, there is broad agreement on what creative behavior ostensively comprises.

For many people, the word creativity conjures up associations with artistic endeavours and writing (both literature and poetry). Some have also linked creativity with moments of sudden scientific insight since at least the time of Archimedes in Ancient Greece.

Pop psychology attributes creativity to right-hemisphere or fore-brain activity or even specifically with so-called lateral thinking.

In a general context, creativity is often associated with problem solving, particularly in technical disciplines and management theory.

Within the different modes of artistic expression, one can postulate a continuum extending from "interpretation" to "innovation". Established artistic movements and genres pull practitioners to the "interpretation" end of the scale, whereas original thinkers strive towards the "innovation" pole. Note that we conventionally expect some "creative" people (dancers, actors, orchestra-players ...) to perform (interpret) while allowing others (writers, painters, composers ...) more freedom to express the new and the different.

Since the time of Graham Wallas and his work Art of Thought, published in 1926, some have considered creativity a legacy of the evolutionary process, which allowed humans to quickly adapt to rapidly changing environments.

Today, creativity forms in some eyes the core activity of a growing section of the global economy — the so-called "creative industries" — capitalistically generating (generally non-tangible) wealth through the creation and exploitation of intellectual property or through the provision of creative services.

The word "creativity" can convey an implication of constructing novelty without relying on any existing constituent components (ex nihilo - compare creationism). Contrast alternative theories, for example:

  • artistic inspiration, which posits the transmission of visions from divine sources such as the Muses. Compare with invention.
  • artistic evolution, which stresses obeying established ("classical") rules and imitating or appropriating to produce subtly different but unshockingly understandable work.

Compare with crafts.

[edit] Creativity in Art and Literature

[edit] Creativity in Science

[edit] Creativity in Problem Solving and Design

[edit] Types of creativity and creatives

Koestler (1964) lists three types of creative individual, the Artist, the Sage and the Jester.

Paul Birch and Brian Clegg (Crash Course in Creativity, 2002) have called the three types of creativity that result "aaahhh", "ah ha", and "ha ha".

  • The Artist creates beauty or challenge (aaahhh).
  • The Sage creates ideas or solutions (ah ha)
  • and the Jester creates humour (ha ha).

Believers in this trinity hold all three elements necessary in business and can identify them in all in "truly creative" companies as well.

One can also categorise creativity by where and how it arises.

[edit] Measuring creativity

Genrich Altshuller introduced approaching creativity as an exact science with TRIZ in the 1950s.

The psychologist Robert Sternberg has proposed to apply the name creatology to scientific studies of creativity.

Creativity can be measured based on a response to a variety of test scenareos:

  • Expressing ideas: the ability to easily develop and juggle an abundance of associations and phrases when presented with a single word or image.
  • Combining ideas in a new way: developing a wide range of innovative solutions when asked to explore new possibilities for an everyday item (such as a brick).
  • Finding new uses for existing ideas: generating an original idea or solution based on a suggested existing idea
  • Expansion: the ability to work up a tentative idea into a practical solution.
  • Focus and discrimination: recognising the central challenge within an approach to a solution, while discounting any distracting minor elements, and then evaluating the difficulties.
  • Perspective swopping: the ability to suggest ways of viewing a known problem from a completely different perspective.

[edit] Social attitudes to creativity

"The man who invented fire was probably burned at the stake." Ayn Rand

'Creatitivity' is much praised in principle, but much derided in practice. Those in logical and ordered organisations may praise it but be reluctant to set a creative individual 'loose' in their ordered system.

Business is increasingly claiming that professional "creatives" do not have a monopoly on the concept of creativity, and that Problem solving in general may require a flexible mind. Employers may value lawyers, accountants, people in sales, and others more highly if such people can use a "creative" approach to their work, albeit within the confines of a logical and constraining system. The phrases "thinking outside the box" and "thinking outside the square" express this idea.

Ambivalence to creativity in the West may perhaps be due to the culture's image of creativity;

  • the ingesting of drugs to generate visions;
  • the celebration of eccentric behaviour;
  • the possible cross-over between creativity and mental illness;
  • the often bohemian sexual tastes of artists;
  • the cultural association of artists with a life of poverty and misery.

[edit] Fostering creativity

Some see the conventional system of schooling as "stifling" of creativity and attempt (particularly in the pre-school/kindergarten and early school years) to provide a creativity-friendly, rich, imagination-fostering environment for young children. Compare Waldorf School.

A growing number of pop psychologists are making money off the idea that one can learn to become more "creative". Several different researchers have proposed several different approaches to prop up this idea, ranging from psychological-cognitive, such as:

See also: creativity techniques.

[edit] Periods and Personalities

4th century of the Christian Era
1470s
Early 20th century
1940s
1950s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s

[edit] See also:

[edit] References

  • Boden, Margaret (1992) The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms
  • Gardner, Howard (1984) Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cognitive Approach to Creativity ISBN 0465004458
  • Guindon, Raymonde (1990) Designing the Design Process: Exploiting Opportunistic Thoughts" In: Human-Computer Interaction Vol. V, pp. 305-344.
  • Koestler, Arthur (1964) The Act of Creation ISBN 0140191917
  • Taylor, C. W. (1988) Various approaches to and definitions of creativity. In: The nature of creativity: Contemporary psychological perspectives, ed. R. J. Sternberg (pp. 99-121). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521338921
  • Wharton, J. Gregory (1999) Creativity and Cognition In: Proceedings of the C. Calhoun Lemon Colloquium on Philosophy and Values: Creativity and Values. Clemson University.

[edit] External links

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[edit] Creativity Books


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