Creativity

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Approaches

Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognise ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.

Often viewed as qualitatively different - people can be creative or non-creative. Also, people can work in creative or non-creative domains and professions.

Creativity as a process (Wallas, 1926): Preparation -> incubation -> illumination -> verification

Sternberg: Creativity is a combination of intellectual skills, knowledge, thinking styles, motivation, personality and environment. Creativity involves the creation of an original and useful product

Amabile: A product or response is creative to the extent that appropriate observers independently agree it is creative

Rhodes (1961) Four P Model: Product, Process, Person, Press

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4-P Model

(1) person approach: what are the characteristics of creative individuals - personality traits, abilities

(2) process approach: what cognitive processes underlie creative thinking - focus on general cognition, divergent and associative thinking

(3) product approach: what are the characteristics of creative outputs - related to aesthetics, concerned with achievement, focusing on creations

(4) press approach: how does the environment affect individuals as creators - contextual factors, how dispositional factors interact with different environments

Qualitatively different or varying magnitude of a continuous trait? Creativity can be researched in many levels. There are different ways to conceptualise creativity. 4-P model one way to emphasise different aspects of creativity research: person, process, product, press.

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Measuring creativity

Which aspect of creativity is to be measured - product, process, person or press?

Creative potential measures. Divergent thinking measured through alternative uses task. Convergent thinking measured through insight problems and Remote Associates Test (RAT)

Self-reported creativity e.g How creative am I? Do I generate creative ideas? However, general issues with self-report still stand, for example we do not know how truthful and accurate answers will be.

Creative activity and achievement can be used to measure creativity. Several measures for everyday activities and/or more eminent achievements.

All the different measures do not correlate very well; are they measuring the same aspect of creativity?

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Traits associated with creativity

Does a person need to be intelligent to be creative? Intelligence theories include creativity but the current intelligence tests do not measure creativity. Divergent thinking tests measure something that traditional IQ tests don't measure.

IQ and creativity are correlated to a certain point only. Intelligence necessary but not sufficient for creativity.

Cskikszentmihalyi (1997): highly creative individuals express a range of traits, either simultaneously or depending on the situation: an ability to move from one extreme to another e.g playfulness to discipline, extreme work morale to blatant disregard for rules and authorities, inter-directed reflection to intense social interaction.

Intelligence and some personality traits are related to creativity. Intelligence is associated with creativity up to about 120 IQ points. Openness to experience and extraversion associated with creativity.

Creativity is not straightforward to measure, partly due to the differences in definitions and measures that emphasise different dimensions

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