3 Points for today

1
3 Points for todays lecture

• Definition what is creativity?
• Scientific approaches to creativity
• Cox Guilford Torrance Mednick Weisberg
  Finke Sternberg
• Practical approaches
• De Bono Osborne

2
Definition

• Reed Creating a novel and useful product or
  situation.
• Sternberg Ben-Zeev (2001) Creativity is the
  ability to produce work that is novel (original
  and unexpected), high in quality, and appropriate
  (useful and meets the task constraints of tasks).

3
Scientific Approaches to Creativity

• Guilford (1950) reported that on 2/10ths of 1 of
  entries in Psychological Abstracts up to 1950
  were studies of creativity.
• Sternberg Ben-Zeev (2001) reported that about
  5/10ths of 1 of entries in Psychological
  Abstracts for the years 1975-1994 were studies of
  creativity. 1.5 of entries for that period (3
  times as many) were studies of reading.

4
Scientific Approaches to Creativity

• Psychodynamic approach
• Freud creativity arises from the tension
  between conscious reality and unconscious drives.
• Creative work provides an acceptable way to
  express unconscious wishes publicly.
• These wishes refer to things like power, wealth,
  fame, love

5
Psychodynamic Approach

• Kris (1952)
• adaptive regression intrusion of unmodulated
  thoughts into consciousness
• elaboration reworking of those thoughts into
  reality-oriented thoughts
• This approach used case studies only, so has not
  been central in scientific study of creativity

6
Psychometric Approach - Cox

• Cox (1926)
• estimated IQ for 301 eminent people who lived
  between 1450 and 1850. (Average ratings)
• found correlation between IQ and rank order of
  eminence .16. Simonton (1975) r 0.
• Cox Highest persistence OK intelligence gt
  Highest intelligence OK persistence

7
Psychometric Approach - Guilford

• Guilford (1950) Its difficult to study only
  eminent people such as Einstein or Michelangelo,
  because there are so few of them.
• Guilford suggested studying creativity in
  ordinary people using tasks like the Unusual Uses
  Test (e.g., think of as many uses as possible
  for a brick).

8
Psychometric Approach - Torrance

• Torrance (1974) Tests of Creative Thinking.
• simple tasks requiring divergent thinking and
  problem-solving
• scored for fluency, flexibility, originality,
  and elaboration
• e.g., Asking Questions, Circles, Product
  Improvement, Unusual Uses

9
Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

• Asking questions write out all questions you
  can think of based on a drawing of a scene.
• Circles expand empty circles into different
  drawings and give the drawings titles.
• Unusual uses list interesting and unusual uses
  of a cardboard box.
• Product Improvement ways to change a toy monkey
  to make it more fun

10
Psychometric Approach - Mednick

• Mednick Remote Associates Test
• Creative thinking involves forming new relations
  among elements, such that relations are useful or
  match a standard. Example test items
• Cake Blue Cottage _____?
• Surprise Line Birthday _____?
• Task find word that goes with all three in a
  line.
• Quick objective test but is it a good theory?

11
Psychometric Approaches - Sternberg

• Sternberg Ben-Zeev on IQ and creativity
• Creative people tend to have IQs gt 120.
• Above 120, IQ does not seem to matter
• Role of IQ varies depending upon which aspect of
  intelligence is involved, as well as field of
  creativity (e.g., art music vs. science math).

12
Research on Creativity Cognitive Approaches

• Goal is to understand mental representations
  underlying creativity and process that operate on
  those representations.
• Weisberg (1999) products of creative processes
  are remarkable, not the processes themselves.

13
Cognitive Approach Weisberg Alba
Weisberg Alba (1981) Asked subjects to solve
the nine-dot problem
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Weisberg Alba (1981)

• Solution of the problem depends upon going
  outside the box.
• But people given that insight still had trouble
  solving this problem.
• Weisberg Thus, extraordinary insight is not
  the explanation. Solver goes through a set of
  ordinary cognitive processes insight doesnt
  help.

15
What might those processes be?

• Finkes Geneplore model
• There are two main processes in creativity
  generation and exploration.
• Generation create pre-inventive structures
• Exploration use those structures to produce
  creative ideas.

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Finkes Geneplore Model

• Person creates mental representations of objects
  that emphasize certain qualities. (Generative)
• Then, person uses these repns. to create new
  ideas or objects. (Exploratory)
• Because this is a cognitive theory, it emphasizes
  processes like retrieval, association, analogy,
  transformation, categorical reduction.

17
Confluence Approaches

• Csikszentmihalyi (1988, 1996) creativity
  requires interaction of individual, domain, and
  field
• Domain stores information, problems
• Individual guided to a problem by a domain,
  draws on information in that domain, transforms
  and extends it through cognition, personality,
  and motivation
• Field people who control or influence domain
  evaluate and select new ideas (e.g., critics).

18
Confluence Approaches

• Sternberg Lubart (1995) Investment Theory
• Creative people buy low and sell high in the
  world of ideas
• Buying low pursuing ideas that are unknown or
  unfashionable.
• Selling high convincing people the idea is
  great.

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Sternberg Lubarts Investment Theory

• Requires confluence of six resources
• knowledge
• intellect
• thinking style
• personality,
• motivation
• and environment.

20
Sternberg Lubarts Investment Theory

• Knowledge To know domain without being bound by
  that knowledge
• Intellect be synthetic, analytic, practical
• Thinking preference for thinking in new ways
• Personality persistence, willingness to take
  sensible risks, tolerance for ambiguity, SE
• Motivation Intrinsic, task-focused you must
  love what you are doing dont focus on rewards
• Environment supportive providing a forum

21
Practical Approaches

• Primary concern is developing creativity
• Secondary concern is understanding creativity
• No concern with testing ideas empirically
• Does the commercial success of some practical
  approaches damage the scientific study of
  creativity, as Sternberg Ben-Zeev claim?

22
Practical Approaches

• Edward De Bono Lateral Thinking
• taking a broad view, with multiple viewpoints
• PMI plus, minus, interesting
• po as in hypothesis, suppose, possible, poetry
• hats data, intuition, criticism, generation

23
Practical Approaches

• Osborn (1953) Brainstorming
• Ad-man developed Brainstorming to encourage
  people to open up.
• Recommended non-judgmental atmosphere where all
  ideas would be considered.
• Wheres the filter? Do you reject an idea before
  offering it publicly? Or offer it publicly
  perhaps to be rejected by group?
• He argued that critical approach is inhibitory