Creative Thinking

J.P Guilford 1897-1987

-American psychologist -Helped US Air Force train pilots -Developed Structure of Intelligence (SI) theory 1955 -SI established the difference between convergent and divergent thinking -Developed early divergent thinking tests

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view 2. Smart/naive

-Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time. Furthermore, people who bring about an acceptable novelty in a domain seem able to use well two opposite ways of thinking: the convergent and the divergent. Convergent thinking is measured by IQ tests, and it involves solving well-defined, rational problems that have one correct answer. Divergent thinking leads to no agreed-upon solution. It involves fluency, or the ability to generate a great quantity of ideas; flexibility, or the ability to switch from one perspective to another; and originality in picking unusual associations of ideas. These are the dimensions of thinking that most creativity tests measure and that most workshops try to enhance. Yet there remains the nagging suspicion that at the highest levels of creative achievement the generation of novelty is not the main issue. People often claimed to have had only two or three good ideas in their entire career, but each idea was so generative that it kept them busy for a lifetime of testing, filling out, elaborating, and applying.

The Rules of Brainstorming

-Defer Judgment -Strive for Quantity -Freewheel -Synthesize

MacKinnon's Creative Personality - Comfortable Childhood

-Pleasant and materially comfortable childhoods, although they recalled their childhoods as not having been particularly happy. - MacKinnon hypothesized that their home life was no different from anyone else's, but that the difference was in their perceptions and memories—they were more likely to remember unpleasant experiences because of their reduced repression.

Why divergent thinking tests are important?

-Provides an objective means to measure creativity or divergent thinking in individuals -Distinguishes creativity/divergence from intelligence/convergence -Functions as an alternative to IQ tests (TTCT) - Helps identify 'gifted' students (TTCT) -Allows people to practice divergent thinking -Allows researchers to measure the effectiveness of creativity tools, techniques, methods, teaching strategies, and environments

Trait Theory

-The study of human personality -Traits are the smallest units of individual habits of emotion, thought, and behaviour - Consistent over long periods of time Traits tend to change as you enter different phases of maturity Can change personality traits through practice, dedication, and self-reflexivity

uncreative analogy example within domain

-bracelet is to wrist as -ring is to finger EVERYONE GENERATE A WITHIN DOMAIN ANALOGY

The Unconscious Thought Principle

"...attention is the key to distinguish between unconscious thought and conscious thought. Conscious thought is thought with attention; unconscious thought is thought without attention (or with attention directed elsewhere)."

The Capacity Principle

"...conscious thought is constrained by the low capacity of consciousness. Unconscious thought does not have this constraint because the unconscious has a much higher capacity."

The Convergence Principle

"...conscious thought, and memory search during conscious thought, is focused and convergent. Unconscious thought is more divergent."

Reasoning by Analogy 3

"...involves joint consideration of multiple relationships, such as occurs when distinct relationships are compared, combined, or incorporated into a more complex information structure (i.e. relations among first-order relations)."

Reasoning by Analogy 4

"...some researchers suggest that it is the crucial cognitive mechanism that most distinguishes human cognition from that of other intelligent species. It is a core process in scientific discovery and problem-solving, as well as in categorization and decision-making."

Brainstorming

"Brainstorm means using the brain to storm a creative problem and to do so "in commando fashion, each stormer audaciously attacking the same objective."

Dunbar & Fugelsang, 2004

"One of the most widely mentioned reasoning processes used in science is analogy. Scientists use analogies to form a bridge between what they already know and what they are trying to explain, understand, or discover. In fact, many scientists have claimed that the use of certain analogies was instrumental in their making a scientific discovery and almost all scientific autobiographies and biographies feature an important analogy that is discussed in depth."

Abstract Thought & The Brain

"Solving problems often requires seeing new connections between concepts or events that seemed unrelated at first. Innovative solutions of this kind depend on analogical reasoning, a relational reasoning process that involves mapping similarities between concepts."

Reasoning by Analogy 2

"The ability to recognize and reason with relations is a central component of many complex cognitive tasks. Of particular importance to the most complex and uniquely human mental operations is the capacity to compare or integrate distinct structured mental representations." -

History - Analogy

"Yuen Foong Khong... defines historical analogy as "an inference that if two or more events separated in time agree in one respect, then they may also agree in another..." Analogy is thus used to predict possible outcomes of certain policy decisions and provide prescriptions."

Renaissance (1350-1600s)

"rebirth" After black plague Resurgence of classical ancient knowledge and focus on creativity and intellectualism New conception that creation was domain of individual:

Brain-based Evidence

"the frontopolar cortex (Brodmann's area 10)... is disproportionally larger in humans relative to the rest of the brain than it is in the ape's brain..." - it is what make human cognition differ from that of other speices

Creative and Not (Analogy)

- All analogies must have common relations amongst elements -...but can vary in the extent to which superficial similarity exists between them Within vs. cross domain

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

- American Psychology Professor (started by studying sociology) - Flow - Sociocultural Model of Creativity *Creative Person* *Creative Press* *Creative Product*

MacKinnon's Creative Personality -Balanced Personalities

- Creative men gave more expression to the feminine side of their nature than less-creative men. - Did not appear effeminate or homosexual. - Really good mental health.

What was the name of the psychology researcher who conducted the first big study of personality and creativity?

- Donald McKinnon Above average intelligence Comfortable childhood Preference for complexity Risk taking Open to experience Balanced personalities Discernment, observance, alertness

MacKinnon's Creative Personality - Discernment, Observance, and Alertness

- Highly creative people are experts at identifying important problems in their domains. - They can quickly scan ideas and select those that are relevant to solving their problem. - They have a wide range of information at their command. - Very knowledgeable in their domains.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view

- More nuanced view (not one or the other) - Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. - Personality is complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an "individual," each of them is a "multitude."

How do you define "creative products"?

- Novel, unique, original - Appropriate, useful

MacKinnon's Creative Personality - Above Average Intelligence

- Professions scored differently on different submeasures of intelligence. - Writers scored highly on verbal intelligence. - Architects scored highly on spatial intelligence. - Very talented in their domains.

Donald W. MacKinnon

- Psychology Professor - Theorized Structure of Personality - Developed Creative Personality *Creative Person*

Identify and describe one divergent thinking test that was introduced last week.

- The Consequence Tests - The Alternative Uses Task

MacKinnon's Creative Personality - Openness to Experience

- They defer judgment when learning about new ideas. - Willingness to try new and different things.

MacKinnon's Creative Personality - Preference for Complexity

- They enjoyed discovering unifying principles that can bring order to complex, unfinished phenomena. - Curious people who enjoyed abstract and metaphorical thought. - A tolerance of ambiguity and contradictions.

Offer two reasons why divergent thinking tests are important.

- help identified gifted students - measure creativity or divergent thinking -Function as Alternative to IQ test (TTCT) - Distinguish creativity from intelligence

The Enlightment (1620-1780s)

Age of Reason Science Skepticism

What is insight?

Aha moment - the sudden perception of relationships among various parts of a problem, allowing the solution to the problem to come quickly

Inventor of the creative process of "brainstorming"

Alex F. Osborn (1888-1966) - Invented the Orborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process (CPS)

Personality: defined

An individual's unique constellation of consistent behavioural traits Personality traits: durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations, e.g. friendly, anxious, impulsive

Ancient Greece

Assumed that all original ideas came from divine inspiration Inspired thoughts originate with the gods Don't come when a person is rational, but when someone is "beside himself," when "bereft of his senses." Since the gods took away reason before bestowing the gift of inspiration, "thinking" might actually prevent the reception of divinely inspired revelations. "inspiration" is based on a Greek word meaning "the God within."

Divergent thinking tests

CTS: Produce and Consider Many Alternatives - J.P. Guilford's Alternative Uses Task (Brick test) J.P. Guilford's Consequences Test (If dog can sing)

Personality: purpose

Concept of personality used to explain: 1) stability of a person's behaviour over time and across situations consistency 2) the behavioural differences among people reacting to the same situation distinctiveness

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view 4.Fantasy/reality

Creative people alternate between imagination and fantasy, and a rooted sense of reality. Great art and great science involve a leap of imagination into a world that is different from the present. The rest of society often views these new ideas as fantasies without relevance to current reality. And they are right. But the whole point of art and science is to go beyond what we now consider real and create a new reality. At the same time, this "escape" is not into a never-never land. What makes a novel idea creative is that once we see it, sooner or later we recognize that, strange as it is, it is true. Most of us assume that artists—musicians, writers, poets, painters—are strong on the fantasy side, whereas scientists, politicians, and business people are realists. This may be true in terms of day-to-day routine activities. But when a person begins to work creatively, all bets are off

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view 8. Rebel/conservative

Creative people are both rebellious and conservative. It is impossible to be creative without having first internalized an area of culture. So it's difficult to see how a person can be creative without being both traditional and conservative and at the same time rebellious and iconoclastic. Being only traditional leaves an area unchanged; constantly taking chances without regard to what has been valued in the past rarely leads to novelty that is accepted as an improvement.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view 3. Responsibility/irresposibility

Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility. There is no question that a playfully light attitude is typical of creative individuals. But this playfulness doesn't go very far without its antithesis, a quality of doggedness, endurance, perseverance.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view 1) Energetic/relaxed

Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest. They work long hours, with great concentration, while projecting an aura of freshness and enthusiasm. This suggests a superior physical endowment, a genetic advantage. Yet it is surprising how often individuals who in their seventies and eighties exude energy and health remember childhoods plagued by illness. It seems that their energy is internally generated, due more to their focused minds than to the superiority of their genes.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's 10. Joy/pain

Creative people's openness and sensitivity often exposes them to suffering and pain, yet also to a great deal of enjoyment. Most would agree with Rabinow's words: "Inventors have a low threshold of pain. Things bother them." A badly designed machine causes pain to an inventive engineer, just as the creative writer is hurt when reading bad prose.Being alone at the forefront of a discipline also leaves you exposed and vulnerable. Eminence invites criticism and often vicious attacks. When an artist has invested years in making a sculpture, or a scientist in developing a theory, it is devastating if nobody cares. Yet when a person is working in the area of his of her expertise, worries and cares fall away, replaced by a sense of bliss. Perhaps the most important quality, the one that is most consistently present in all creative individuals, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake. Without this trait, poets would give up striving for perfection and would write commercial jingles, economists would work for banks where they would earn at least twice as much as they do at universities, and physicists would stop doing basic research and join industrial laboratories where the conditions are better and the expectations more predictable.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view 7. Masculine/feminine

Creative people, to an extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping. When tests of masculinity/femininity are given to young people, over and over one finds that creative and talented girls are more dominant and tough than other girls, and creative boys are more sensitive and less aggressive than their male peers.This tendency toward androgyny is sometimes understood in purely sexual terms, and therefore it gets confused with homosexuality. But psychological androgyny is a much wider concept referring to a person's ability to be at the same time aggressive and nurturant, sensitive and rigid, dominant and submissive, regardless of gender. A psychologically androgynous person in effect doubles his or her repertoire of responses. Creative individuals are more likely to have not only the strengths of their own gender but those of the other one, too.

How did Mihaly's view differ from Donald McKinnon?

Creativity person is a multitude, can go from one trait to the next. it is about adaptability and complexity.

ANALOGY AS THE CORE OF COGNITION

Douglas Hofstadter One should not think of analogy-making as a special variety of reasoning (as in the dull and uninspiring phrase "analogical reasoning and problem-solving," a long-standing cliché in the cognitive-science world), for that is to do analogy a terrible disservice. After all, reasoning and problem-solving have (at least I dearly hope!) been at long last recognized as lying far indeed from the core of human thought. If analogy were merely a special variety of something that in itself lies way out on the peripheries, then it would be but an itty-bitty blip in the broad blue sky of cognition. To me, however, analogy is anything but a bitty blip — rather, it's the very blue that fills the whole sky of cognition — analogy is everything, or very nearly so, in my view.

He's known as the 'father of creativity studies.'

E. Paul Terrance

The Father of Creativity Studies"

E. Paul torrance - Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

Five Factor Model (The Big 5)

Extraversion Neuroticism Openness to experience Agreeableness Conscientiousness

Reasoning by Analogy 1

Find comparisons between two situations and apply the solution from one situation to the other.

History of Creativity Studies

Focus on the Creative Person and Process Over time, humanity's view of the creative process has changed, which in turn has altered who we think can be creative and whether we are in control of the process

Who wrote "Hereditary Genius"?

Francis Galton

Hereditary Genius

Francis Galton - Victorian polymath: geographer, meteorologist, tropical explorer, founder of differential psychology, inventor of fingerprint identification, pioneer of statistical correlation and regression, convinced hereditarian, eugenicist, proto-geneticist, half-cousin of Charles Darwin and best-selling author. - suggests strong hereditary influence upon genius

Diversifying experiences

Gives new memories and context to connect to your experience Allows you opportunity to observe and reflect on your cognition

What was ancient Grecian view of creative inspiration?

Gods or divine inspiration

MacKinnon's Creative Personality

Identified 7 traits associated with the creative personality

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view 6. Humble/proud

It is remarkable to meet a famous person who you expect to be arrogant or supercilious, only to encounter self-deprecation and shyness instead. Yet there are good reasons why this should be so. These individuals are well aware that they stand, in Newton's words, "on the shoulders of giants." Their respect for the area in which they work makes them aware of the long line of previous contributions to it, putting their own in perspective. They're also aware of the role that luck played in their own achievements. And they're usually so focused on future projects and current challenges that past accomplishments, no matter how outstanding, are no longer very interesting to them. At the same time, they know that in comparison with others, they have accomplished a great deal.

Who introduced distinction between convergent and divergent thinking?

J. P. Guilford

Creative Thinking Skill

Keep Open: resisting premature closure; resisting the tension to complete things in the easiest, quickest way or to not consider things in different ways.

What was the creative thinking skill we talked about in the context of this creativity tool? (Alex Obsborn)

Keep open.

Why are insight important?

Less constraint, making it more easy for a person to have a creative idea

little c' vs. 'Big c' Creativity

Little C "Creativity is a new mental combination that is expressed in the world." Efflect in a smaller scale. Big C "Creativity is the generation of a product that is judged to be novel and also to be appropriate, useful, or valuable by a suitably knowledgeable social group."

little c vs. Big C

McNerney - Emphasis on little c is misplaced, as Big C cannot be reduced to small techniques - To assume so is to underestimate the eminence of Big C creators Gautam -Big C important, but little c sheds light on the general principles underlying such innovation - Agrees that Big C is important, but does not think that little c should be sacrificed

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view9. Involved/detached

Most creative people are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. Without the passion, we soon lose interest in a difficult task. Yet without being objective about it, our work is not very good and lacks credibility. Here is how the historian Natalie Davis puts it:"I think it is very important to find a way to be detached from what you write, so that you can't be so identified with your work that you can't accept criticism and response, and that is the danger of having as much affect as I do. But I am aware of that and of when I think it is particularly important to detach oneself from the work, and that is something where age really does help."

Ancient China

Nature provided inspiration Inspired by surroundings rather than given an idea Although still outside source, more credit given to "creator" than in Greek conception

Creativity studies

Need to do both in-lab tightly controlled creativity experiments to uncover basic foundation of creative thought and real world cases of people being eminently creative E.g. cognitive processes underlying insight E.g. study famous creators

How is creativity defined

Novel, unique, useful, appropriate

How do we determine if something is creative? by Mihaly Chickenmihaly (PERSON)

Person Draws and expands upon the great novelties in the domain to create an innovative product. Usually takes 10 years or '10,000 hours' to learn the knowledge and skills within the domain. Submits the creative product to the field for evaluation.

4 Ps of Creativity Studies

Person, process, product, and press

MacKinnon's Creative Personality - Risk Taking

Relative absence of repression and suppression mechanisms that control impulse and imagery.

Insight Task

Remote associates - cream/skate/cheese CAKE

What are some insight tests?

Remote associates, the candle, the dots, and the screw drivers

What era is known as "Age of Reason"?

The Enlightenment

How do we determine if something is creative? by Mihaly Chickenmihaly (The Field)

The Field A group of recognized experts who evaluate if the creative product is novel and appropriate. Expert knowledge of the domain. Decide if the creative product is innovative compared to those in the domain. Decide which new innovations enter the domain.

What era saw a new conception that creation was domain of individual?

The Renaissance

Person

The creative person or team that is submitting a creative product to the field for evaluation. Needs to learn everything about the domain (knowledge) and to excel at the associated skills.

FIELD

The gate keeper The group of recognized experts who judge who or what is creative. They have an expert knowledge of the domain Film: movie critics, award committee members, film scholars, influential actors, directors, producers, etc

Creative Product

Theoretical What is an example of creativity? How do we evaluate a product's creativity? How do we determine if an idea or product is creative and/or innovative? Practical How can evaluate how a creative product will be assessed in different domains?

Creative Press

Theoretical What teamwork dynamics and interpersonal relationships nurture creativity? How do environments impact creativity? What organizational structures promote creativity? Practical How can I produce a teamwork environment conducive to creativity? How can I design a workplace that nurtures creativity?

Creative Person

Theoretical: What are the characteristics of a creative person? How do we measure an individual's creativity? Practical: How can I modify my behaviors and attitudes to nurture a creative personality? How can I measure my and others' ability to generate creative ideas?

Creative Process

Theoretical: What methods facilitate the generation of creative ideas and solutions to problems? What processes have a proven track record of generating many novel ideas? Practical: How can I apply creative processes to enhance my and/or my team's ability to generate novel and appropriate ideas?

Trait vs. State

Trait: Enduring, long lasting dispositions, Relatively constant across situations State: Momentary, non-permanent "states of mind" Can vary depending on situation

Dual-process theories

Type 1 "intuitive" processing - fast, automatic, low-effort, high capacity Type 2 "analytic" processing slow, controlled, high-effort, low-capacity

Conceptual pairings/combinations

Unifying two things can yield a never before seen entity -examples, Food, Dog Breed

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 's view 5. Extroversion/introversion

We're usually one or the other, either preferring to be in the thick of crowds or sitting on the sidelines and observing the passing show. In fact, in psychological research, extroversion and introversion are considered the most stable personality traits that differentiate people from each other and that can be reliably measured. Creative individuals, on the other hand, seem to exhibit both traits simultaneously.

Domain

What is already out there/ the knowledge "all the created products that have been accepted by the field in the past, and all other the conventions that are shared by members of the field." Great works Shared terminology, jargon, and processes Shared skills, talents, and practices Literature: (great works) Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Rushdie, Atwood, Achebe; (terminology) metaphor, sonnet, cliché, epic poem, romance, historiographic metafiction, etc.

Functional Fixedness

a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used

What is a trait?

a consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving

creative analogy examplecross-domain

bracelet is to wrist as moat is to castle --- lion is to pride as student is to class Added value by crossing domains!

What are three themes of Out of Our Minds?

i) We are living in times of revolution ii) If we are to survive and flourish we have to think differently about our own abilities and make the best use of them iii) We have to run our organizations and especially our education systems in radically different ways.

Wallas' stages in creative thinking

i) preparation (preparatory work on a problem that focuses the individual's mind on the problem and explores the problem's dimensions), (ii) incubation (where the problem is internalized into the unconscious mind and nothing appears externally to be happening), (iii) intimation (the creative person gets a "feeling" that a solution is on its way), (iv) illumination or insight (where the creative idea bursts forth from its preconscious processing into conscious awareness); (v) verification (where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied).

Convergent thinking

involves directing action towards a single solution by: -Analyzing possibilities -Critically evaluating options -Refining and developing -promising possibilities -Choosing the best options

Divergent thinking

involves moving from a single starting point and extending our search in many different directions by: -Identifying opportunities -Generating varied ideas -Imagining many different perspectives -Seeking novel, unusual, or 'out there' solutions

Studying little c and Big C

little c: -Psychological laboratory experiments -Psychological reviews -Descriptive analysis of behaviour Big C: Biographies of eminent creators Historical analysis Large scale surveys and interviews with innovators

What was ancient Chinese view of creative inspiration?

nature

Creative insights

occur by making unusual connections... All of our existing ideas have creative possibilities. Creative insights occur when they are combined in unexpected ways or applied to questions or issues with which they are not normally associated. Arthur Koestler describes this as a process of bi-association: when we bring together ideas from different areas that are not normally connected, so that we think not on one place as in routine linear thinking but on several planes at once. Creative thought involves breaching the boundaries between different frames of reference.