creativity

• Creativity


  A set of abilities, skills, motivations and states linked to dealing with problems
• Creativity


  A person's capacity to produce ideas, inventions, artistic objects, insights and products evaluated highly by experts
• Creativity


  A complex mix of motivational conditions, chance factors and end products
• Creativity


  Creative thought or behaviour must be novel-original and useful-adaptive
• Creativity


  The production of an idea or product that is both novel and useful
• A universally accepted definition of 'creativity' is still to be found
• Most definitions of 'creativity' tend to include variations on two criteria: Novel or original, Useful, adaptive or functional
• Very few ideas are truly 'original' or new, and are often derived from earlier ideas
• The 'usefulness' of an idea/product is subjective, and depends on the demands of the situation
• Areas that creativity definitions tend to relate to


  • The person who creates
  • The processes involved in the creation of those ideas
  • The product that results from this creative activity
  • The place or environmental factors conducive to creativity
• For many years, creativity researchers assumed that 'creativity' was one, all-purpose skill
• Increasingly, there is evidence to suggest that creativity might actually be 'domain-specific'
• People often assume that 'creativity' only refers to transformative breakthroughs
• Types of creativity


  • 'Big C' (eminent) creativity
  • Everyday creativity
• 'Big C' creativity


  Creative genius, relatively rare displays of creativity that have a major societal / cultural impact
• 'Little c' creativity


  Everyday creativity, daily problem solving and ability to adapt to change; output has no real impact on wider world
• We are all 'creative' to some extent
• Very few of us are creative geniuses
• The Four C Model of Creativity

  • Mini-c creativity - inherent in the learning process, constructing personal knowledge
  • Pro-c creativity - developmental and effortful progression, professional level expertise
• Measuring creativity


  Assessing the person who creates, the processes involved, the product that results, and the place or environment factors
• Aspects of creativity


  • Creative potential - contributing factors like way of thinking, personality, emotion, motivation
  • Creative performance - product-based tasks in a domain-based context
  • Creative achievement - inventories of past accomplishments in different domains
• Types of creativity assessment

  • Divergent thinking assessment
  • Product-based assessment
  • Self-report methodologies
• Convergent thinking


  Concerned with identifying the one, "correct" solution to a problem
• Divergent thinking


  Concerned with identifying as many different possible solutions to a problem
• In 1950, Joy P. Guilford called for psychologists to increase their focus on creativity in his presidential address at the American Psychological Association convention
• Before Guilford, less than 0.2% of all entries of Psychological Abstracts concentrated on creativity
• Guilford helped move the field of creativity research forward by both galvanizing the field and making it acceptable to study creativity
• Guilford's Structure of Intellect model


  Organized all human cognition along three dimensions: Operations, Content, Product
• Divergent thinking tests


  • Unusual uses test
  • Consequences test
  • Word association test
  • Remote associations test
  • Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)
• Unusual uses test

  Participants are asked to list as many possible uses for a common household item
• Consequences test


  Participants are asked to imagine the possible consequences of several different hypothetical situations / events
• Word association test

  Participants are asked to write as many meanings as they can for different words
• Remote associations test


  Participants are asked to identify the fourth word that is associated with three unrelated words
• Tests designed to assess divergent thinking

  • Unusual uses test
  • Consequences test
  • Word association test
  • Remote associations test
  • Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)
• Alternate / unusual uses test

  Originally designed to measure an individual's "flexibility of thinking"
• Alternate / unusual uses test


  Participants are asked to list as many possible uses for a common household item (e.g. a cup, brick, newspaper)
• Consequences test


  • "imagine what would happen if all laws were suddenly abolished"
  • "what would be the consequences if everyone suddenly lost the ability to read and write"
• Word association test


  Participants are simply asked to write as many meanings as they can for different words
• Word association test


  • E.g. Please write as many meanings as you can for the following: Duck, Sack, Pitch.
• Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)

  Most widely used measure of creativity

  Participants are given a battery of different tests that are intended to assess divergent thinking & problem-solving skills

  Designed for people of all ages (6 years +)

  Takes 30-45 minutes to complete

  Tests include both verbal and non-verbal stimuli