creativity 2

• Creativity


  In general definitions also tend to relate to four different areas: 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 (Rhodes, 1961)
• Aspects of creativity


  • Divergent thinking assessment
  • Performance
  • Product-based assessment
  • Self-report methodologies
• Intelligence


  Creativity as a subset of fluid intelligence (Gf)
• Early creativity and intelligence research

  Researchers in creativity had established careers as intelligence psychometricians
• Early creativity and intelligence research

  First focus of much creativity research was linked to intelligence
• Creativity as part of intelligence

  • Binet: Early attempts to design IQ tests included open-ended items to measure imagination
  • Guilford: Structure of Intellect Model included divergent thinking
  • Cattel: Creativity as a subset of fluid intelligence (Gf)
  • Gardner: Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Considered those who excelled in each made creative contributions to that area
• Intelligence as a form of creativity

  • Sternberg and Lubart's (1995, 1996) investment theory - creative individuals have an extraordinary ability to invest in ideas, "buying low and selling high"
  • Creativity is an important determinant of intelligent thinking and behaviour, because it enables individuals to "think differently"
  • Creativity is seen as a precondition of intelligence
• Intelligence as a form of creativity

  Creativity may also help individuals to "redefine" problems. Creativity enables individuals not just to solve problems, but to do so in new ways: Einstein redefined the way we understand physical laws and how they function in the universe, Picasso redefined the way we perceive possibilities for artistic expression, Darwin redefined the way we view the development of organisms
• Intelligence and creativity as related constructs

  Cox (1929) found a significant correlation between creativity & intelligence, but with serious limitations in methodology
• Intelligence and creativity as related constructs

  Baron (1963) found evidence for a modest relationship between creativity & intelligence (r =.40), but also noted that when participants' IQ exceeded 120, the same relationship was significantly weaker
• Threshold theory


  It has been proposed that a minimum or 'threshold' level of intelligence is required for creative thinking. The correlation between creativity & intelligence drops significantly when IQ scores exceed 120. This suggests that high intelligence is necessary for creative thinking, but it is not the only factor
• Creativity and intelligence as unrelated constructs

  Intelligence refers to adaptation to existing environments, creativity involves changing existing environments to create new ones. If a response is intelligent, it cannot be creative, and if behaviour is creative, it cannot be intelligent. Empirically, low or nonsignificant correlations between creativity and intelligence would be needed to support the idea that both constructs are unrelated
• Creativity and intelligence as overlapping constructs


  Creativity and intelligence share a substantial amount of variance. This stance would require significant positive correlations as empirical evidence
• Big Five (OCEAN)


  Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (Emotional Stability)
• Creativity and personality


  Grajzel et al. (2023) found a significant, albeit weak, relationship between divergent thinking and openness (r=0.20) and extraversion (r=0.09)
• Openness and Intellect


  Openness: Cognitive engagement with perception, fantasy, aesthetics, and emotions

  Intellect: Cognitive engagement with abstract and semantic information, primarily through reasoning
• Creativity domains


  Openness predicts creative achievement in the arts, Intellect predicts creative achievement in the sciences
• Openness


  The only personality factor consistently related to creativity, predicting creative achievement and divergent thinking, as well as creative hobbies, personal goals, and thinking styles
• Creativity and psychopathology


  Analyses of biographies of people who have achieved 'creative eminence' (esp. writers, poets, and artists) showed higher prevalence of mood disorders & other psychological disorders. Creative writers are found to experience depression at significantly higher rates. Creativity is positively correlated with alcoholism, suicide, and stress
• Creativity and psychopathology


  Substantial overlap between the processes underpinning creative and psychopathological thinking, through overinclusive thinking: tendency to use irrelevant information or to introduce complexity in solving problems, characteristic of both creative and psychopathological thinking
• Creative individuals may have every intention of producing original associations, while psychotic individuals may have little alternative or control over their original, unusual, or eccentric ideas. Psychotic patients may not even be aware of the 'creative nature' of their ideas
• Creative artists showed higher prevalence of mood disorders & other psychological disorders
• Writers are found to experience depression at significantly higher rates (e.g., Ludwig, 1994)
• Creativity is positively correlated with alcoholism (Nobel, Runco, & Ozkaragoz, 1993), suicide (Lester, 1999), and stress (Carson & Runco, 1999)
• Overinclusive thinking


  Tendency to use irrelevant information or to introduce complexity in solving problems, characteristic of both creative and psychopathological thinking
• The tendency to introduce complexity in perception goes both with creativity and with schizophrenia (Barron and Harrington, 1981)
• Creative individuals


  May have every intention of producing original associations, while psychotic individuals may have little alternative or control over their original, unusual, or eccentric ideas
• Psychotic patients


  May not even be aware of the 'creative nature' of their ideas (Merten & Fischer, 1999)
• Creativity


  A form of "controlled weirdness" or "controllable oddness" (Barron, 1993)
• Creativity is associated with psychological health rather than mental disorders, and creative individuals have a greater sense of self-actualisation (Maslow, 1971; Rogers, 1980)
• Creativity


  Holds an intermediate position between intelligence and personality, because creative productions imply both an ability to think fluently and flexibly and inclination to do so (Zeidner, 1995)
• Factors that facilitate creative thinking

  • Intellectual ability
  • Creative ability to think about problems in new ways
  • Analytic ability to recognise which ideas are worth pursuing
  • Practical skills to persuade others of these new ideas
  • Personality traits like openness to new experiences, willingness to take sensible risks, and tolerance for ambiguity
  • Sufficient knowledge about the subject to contribute meaningfully, but not so much that ideas are entrenched in established thinking
  • Willingness to think along new lines, and to think both globally and locally
  • Intrinsic, task-focused motivation orientation
• High levels of 'creativity' will only emerge when all of these conditions are met (Sternberg & Lubart, 1996)
• Educational settings can be a promising context for the development and expression of student and teacher creativity, but schools and classrooms may also be sites of creative suppression
• Contradictory view


  Using curricular time to provide opportunities for creative expression takes away from more pressing and basic academic goals
• Ancillary view


  Viewing creativity as a valued, but minor aim of education. Teachers tend to value creativity but typically believe it is limited to the arts and feel unprepared to foster it in their classrooms
• Complementary view


  Views the development of creative productivity as being compatible with academic learning and academic learning as being compatible with fostering creative expression; potential for mutual reinforcement
• Primary view


  Creativity as a primary educational goal. "Creativity now is as important as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status" (Sir Ken Robinson, TED talk)
• Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenged the way we educate our children, championing a radical rethink of how our school systems cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence (TED Talk 2006)
• Professors Deb McGregor and Helen Wilson are excited about the potential for encouraging children's creative thinking through their primary science lessons, with pupils as young as 5 engaging in open-ended science activities (Oxford Brookes University)