Creativity

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Creativity

• Psyc 494
• Talia Ben-Zeev

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An example of creativity
C
A
B
Pappus proof that the base angles of an Isoceles
triangle are equal
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What is Creativity?

• Novel
• Appropriate

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Where does Creativity originate from?

• Mystical approach
• Psychodynamic approach
• Cognitive approach
• Social-Psychological Approach

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Mystical Approach
Muse or divine intervention Kipling My Daemon
was with me
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Psychodynamic approach
Primary vs. Secondary processes
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The Cognitive Approach
Guilford Divergent Thinking How many uses can
you think of for a brick? You have 2 minutes to
write your answers.
The Torrance Test -Fluency the ability to
produce a large number of ideas -Flexibility the
ability to produce a large variety of
ideas -Elaboration the ability to develop,
embellish, or fill out an idea -Originality the
ability to produce ideas that are unusual,
statistically infrequent, not banal or obvious
Other current approaches Problem definition
skills
10
8
The Social-Psychological approach

• Amabile (1983)
• Independence of judgment
• Self confidence
• Attraction to complexity
• Risk taking
• Intrinsic motivation

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Implicit Theories of Intelligence, Creativity,
Wisdom
Sternberg et al. (1985) Exp 1 Correlations
between intelligence, Creativity, and wisdom
across professors from Art, Business, philosophy,
Physics, And laypeople
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Implicit Theories of Intelligence, Creativity,
Wisdom
Sternberg et al. (1985) Exp 2 college students
sorted behaviors that Were likely to be found
together in an Intelligent Creative Wise individu
al
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Are Implicit theories assessed by explicit tests?

• Sternberg et al. (1985)
• Exp 4 college students asked to generate
  traits of highly
• Intelligent
• Creative
• Wise
• individuals and then rate themselves on these
  traits. Using that information, each student
  received an intelligence, creativity, and wisdom
  score. These scores were then correlated with
  tests of general intelligence and social
  intelligence

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The inherent paradox of creativity
If something is truly creative can most
people recognize its contribution at the
time? Defy the crowd (Sternberg Lubart)