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Creativity is the ability to imagine or invent something new. Creativity is not the ability to create out of nothing, but the ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing, or reapplying existing ideas. Some creative ideas are astonishing and brilliant, while others are just simple, good, practical ideas that no one seems to have thought of yet.
Creative people work hard & continually to improve ideas & solutions, by making gradual alterations & refinements to their works. Contrary to the mythology surrounding creativity, very, very few works of creative excellence are produced with a single stroke of brilliance or in a frenzy of rapid activity.
Characteristics of the Creative Person:
- curious
- seeks problems
- enjoys challenge
- optimistic
- able to suspend judgment
- comfortable with imagination
- sees problems as opportunities
- sees problems as interesting
- problems are emotionally acceptable
- challenges assumptions
- doesn't give up easily: perseveres, works hard
Three approaches to defining creativity:
1. Psychometric approach: uses objective problem-solving tasks to measure creativity, focuses on the distinction between two kinds of thinking - Convergent thinking - one solution, Divergent thinking - many solutions (creative).
2. Case study approach: analyzes creative persons in great depth and thus provides insight into their development, personality, motivation, & problems
3. Cognitive approach: (newest) tries to build a bridge between the objective measures of the psychometric approach & the subjective descriptions provided by case studies. The cognitive approach identifies & measures cognitive mechanisms that are used during creative thinking.
Creative people generally have high IQs but among people with high IQs,
IQ is not a predictor of creativity.
Savants (10% of autistics) have unusual mental abilities.
Creative people have:
• focus
• exhibit flexible cognition
• an independent personality
• high motivation
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