Creative Thinking

11 Key excerpts on "Creative Thinking"

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  Psychology

  Modules for Active Learning

  • Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, , Dennis Coon, John Mitterer, Tanya Martini, (Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  There is one correct answer and the problem is to find it. Convergent thinking Thinking directed toward discovery of a single established correct answer; conventional thinking. Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. PSYCHOLOGY MODULES FOR ACTIVE LEARNING 328 In contrast, creativity is the ability to combine mental elements in new and useful ways. It is usually best achieved through divergent thinking , in which many possibilities are developed from one starting point. (See ■ Table 39.1 for some examples of convergent and divergent problems.) Fur-thermore, divergent thought tends to be illogical thought — intuitive, associative, or personal. Whereas problem solving is usually a consciously reflective processing activity, cre-ativity more likely involves apparently unconscious experi-ential processing (Ritter, van Baaren, & Dijksterhuis, 2012). Creative Thinking also involves fluency , flexibility , and originality . Let’s say that you would like to find creative uses for the billions of plastic containers discarded each year. The creativity of your suggestions could be rated in this way: Flu-ency is defined as the total number of suggestions that you are able to make. Flexibility is the number of times that you shift from one class of possible uses to another. Originality refers to how novel or unusual your ideas are. By counting the number of times that you showed fluency, flexibility, and originality, we could rate your creativity, or capacity for divergent thinking (Runco, 2012; Runco & Acar, 2012).

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  Creativity: A Handbook For Teachers

  A Handbook for Teachers

  • Ai-girl Tan(Author)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • World Scientific

    (Publisher)

  Therefore, the major components of Creative Thinking processes and creativity should include a knowledge base (both general as well as domain-specific); metacognitive skills in planning, monitoring, and evaluation (critical thinking); personality factors; as well as the envi-ronmental stimuli. Again, in this model, the two main cognitive com-ponents include the creative and critical thinking. Torrance (1962) once said that “Creative Thinking appears to be important, even in jobs which appear to be quite routine.” Usually creativity is manifested in one’s power to break away from the usual sequence of thought into altogether different pattern of thought. It is only then we can expect our results (problem solution) to be different or new or original. Albert Einstein once said that “there is nothing that is a more certain sign of insanity than to do the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different.” How true! It is unrealistic to expect our routine thinking methods to produce creative problem solution. To break away from the routine means to move away from the familiar patterns toward a divergent approach in problem-solving. However, merely breaking away from routine and ‘thinking out of the box’ alone is not sufficient to produce appropriate and effective solutions. We need critical thinking to analyse and evaluate the potential ideas and solutions. Only then, we can be more certain of the usefulness and appropriateness of out solutions. In conclusion, we can say that critical and Creative Thinking are inter-related and complementary aspects of thinking, especially when comes to propelling the complex process of problem-solving. Almost all of the thinking, which we undertake contains some critical and some creative aspects. For example, when we try to solve real life problems we move 323 Siew-Lang Kong back and forth several times between creative and critical reflection as we develop solutions or weigh the consequences of any one solution.

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  Creative Problem Solving for Managers

  Developing Skills for Decision Making and Innovation

  • Tony Proctor(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  In 1842, Alexander Bain devised a machine – developed five years later by Bakewell – for transmitting drawings by electric wire. In the receiver, electrolytic action was used to draw the picture. Over fifty years later, the German physicist Arthur Korn modernised the system by substituting photo-electric action for the electro-chemical. Once photo-telegraphy was established, the transmission of live pictures seemed a possibility. It was simply a problem of speed – of scanning the scene to be transmitted, sending the impulses to the receiver, and assembling them there so quickly that the eye would accept them as an image of a real-life scene. A crude but practical solution of the scanning problem had been discovered by Paul nipkow in 1882. Two developments had stimulated his thinking: the invention of the telephone and the discovery that selenium allows an electronic current to pass more freely when the sun is shining on it (which later led to the invention of the photo-electric cell). nipkow realised that variations of electrical resistance according to the amount of light falling on selenium pointed to the possibility of transmitting a scene by electricity. This was the beginning of electronics, and it prompted other inventors to approach the problem of television from a different angle. Many of the technological achievements we see today are the product of a chain of creative thought and problem solving conducted by several different researchers. To understand how these achievements have been brought about we need to understand the nature of Creative Thinking and creative problem solving.

  Introduction

  Notions about creativity and creative problem solving are complex. There is no one standard authority on the subject, and information about these processes is therefore scattered and to be found in different disciplines. In this chapter I try to pull together some of the ideas which pertain to the subject in the hope of providing some background against which to appreciate the various steps of the creative problem-solving process which are described in subsequent chapters. Figure 3.1 provides an overview of the main thread of the discussion that occurs in this chapter.

  Figure 3.1 Overview of the chapter

  In this chapter we look at general observations about the ideation process. This is followed by an examination of some of the ideas of those who think that creativity is best explained by the neuro-physiological functioning of the brain. Whole-brain and two-brain theories exemplify this approach. We shall see a connection between the neuro-physiological functioning of the brain and the cognitive theory of creative problem solving discussed later in the chapter. Before looking at problem solving and creative problem solving, however, we pay attention to two other important contributions to the theory of Creative Thinking. First we look at the notion of divergent and convergent thinking, and then we consider a suggestion that the conditions under which ideation takes place are very important. We finish the chapter by examining ideas about analogical reasoning. Analogical reasoning is a strong feature of some of the techniques we will look at in later chapters (lateral thinking, synectics and the paradigm-breaking techniques) and needs to be grasped in order to fully understand what they are about. The theoretical issues raised in this chapter act as a background for appreciating the elements of the next chapter, which introduces creative problem solving.

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  Creativity

  An Introduction

  • James C. Kaufman, Robert J. Sternberg(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  7 Creativity and Cognition, Divergent Thinking, and Intelligence ANNE M. ROBERTS, ROBERT J. STERNBERG, MARK A. RUNCO, SELCUK ACAR, THOMAS B. WARD, YULIYA KOLOMYTS, AND JAMES C. KAUFMAN INTRODUCTION Creativity appears to be an important part of cognitive capacities and problem solving. Creativity is one’s ability to generate ideas that are novel, surprising, and compelling (Kaufman and Sternberg, 2010). This chapter will focus on the creative-cognitive approach, which seeks to further understand how human minds produce creative ideas. Other species exhibit innovative behaviors that fit the definition of creativity presented above (see, e.g., contributions to Kaufman and Kaufman, 2015), but the cumulative production of ever more complex concepts and artifacts is unique to humans. For example, many species use and modify found objects as tools to accomplish particular goals, but only humans have extensively refined those types of initial innovations, developed new ones, systematically changed the materials from which such tools are made, and so on (Kaufman, 2016). This chapter will explore in depth the relationship between cognition and creativity. First, we will explore the relationship between creativity and intelligence. Intelligence is one’s ability to learn, think, and adapt to the environment (Sternberg and Kaufman, 2011; Sternberg, 2021). Next, we will discuss cognitive theories and studies of the creative process. Finally, we will highlight divergent thinking (DT), or the ability to think of as many different possible solutions as possible to an open question or problem. As part of creativity research, divergent thinking has been studied for its relationship to intelligence. Creativity and Intelligence How do we distinguish between what it means to be creative, intelligent, and wise? Sternberg (1985b) performed a series of studies to investigate the relationships among intelligence, creativity, and wisdom.

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  Learning Throughout Life

  • Robert D. Strom, Paris S. Strom(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Information Age Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Learning Throughout Life: An Intergenerational Perspective, pp. 245–269 Copyright © 2012 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 245 Creative Thinking AND INNOVATION Public opinion about Creative Thinking is rooted in mythology. Explana-tions about the inventive mind and production of novel ideas have usually been derogatory. Ancient man supposed that people demonstrating cre-ative thought must be possessed, driven to originality and unconventional behavior by an unseen divine source that chose them as a medium for rev-elation. The possibility that innovative views might be a product of learn-ing was overlooked. Instead, because the forces of good and evil were believed to be in constant conflict, nontraditional thinking was always sus-pected as a possible sign of the dark side. Divergent perspectives were usually interpreted as a form of deception, particularly when creative per-sons challenged prevailing beliefs and customs of their time (Campbell, 2004; Kaufman & Sternberg, 2010). The goals of this chapter are to explain how the stigma experienced by people who express imagination is gradually shifting to encouragement. Understanding why Creative Thinking should be valued to the same extent as intelligence is considered. Progressive steps in the Creative Thinking process are defined and illustrated along with implications for individuals and institutions to arrange conditions conducive to creativity. CHAPTER 11 246 P. S. STROM and R. D. STROM MODERN VIEWS OF CREATIVITY Negative evaluation of creative people continued until the late 20th cen-tury when a new interpretation emerged about the reasons for unconven-tional behavior. This view linked imaginative functioning with mental break down. Creative people were no longer seen as the pawns of some invisible deity but instead were personally responsible for their deviation from norms of society. Creative Thinking was accepted as an internal func-tion but unrelated to learning.

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  Personality and Individual Differences

  • Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • BPS Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  For example, school teachers are more likely to ask pupils what the capital of France is than what name they would give to the capital of France (if the answer were not Paris). brainstorming a tech- nique for generating ideas in a group setting that involves individuals saying everything that comes to mind about a topic, without self- censorship or inhibition. convergent thinking the generation of a response to a problem that requires a single, “correct” answer, e.g., “Paris” for the question “What is the capital of France?” (compare with divergent thinking). divergent thinking widely regarded as an aspect of creativity, divergent thinking refers to the generation of mul- tiple, “unique” answers to a problem, e.g., “Find as many uses as you can for a piece of string” (com- pare with convergent thinking). Behavioral Biological Cognitive Developmental Educational Differential Insight, Creative Thinking processes, observable products, associations Physiological correlates, brain evolutionary functions, hemispheric activity Abnormal behavior, mental disorders, observable, “mad genius” Cognitive processes, attention, focus, flexibility, learning Changes throughout lifespan, family, birth-order, gender differences Teaching styles, assessment methods, learning, knowledge acquisition Personality, intelligence, assessment, testing, performance Clinical FIGURE 10.4 Creativity across different paradigms 310 PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES The differential or psychometric paradigm represents the leading approach to the study of creativity. Although the concept of creativity developed in the context of early intelligence theories and preliminary attempts to predict academic performance, it soon expanded to the field of personality traits and eventually became consolidated as an independent area of individual differences. There are four major perspectives by which differential psychologists conceptualize creativity (Rhodes, 1987/1961; see also Runco, 2004).

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  Rethinking Creativity

  Inside-the-Box Thinking as the Basis for Innovation

  • Robert W. Weisberg(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Components of Analytic Thinking: Conclusions When we say that a person is thinking, we are referring to the skills just enumerated, plus others. One perhaps surprising conclusion that arises from this brief exposition is that many of our “ordinary” thought pro- cesses contain within them a grain of creativity, since carrying them out can result in a novel outcome. Producing a major creative advance like Guernica, for example, involves many of those processes working together in a complex manner in which each process may be called on multiple times. Creative Thinking and Problem-Solving The discussion of the components of analytic thinking provides support for the proposal that we can begin to understand Creative Thinking, even genius-level Creative Thinking, using the methods of psychological science. We now turn to perhaps the most important question facing the psycho- logical study of creativity: How is Creative Thinking able to formulate new ideas? One way to begin to answer that question is to review laboratory research on problem-solving, which may be the simplest situation in which Creative Thinking is carried out. Problem-Solving 91 Is All Creativity Based on Problem-Solving? Studying problem-solving may also be important for understanding crea- tivity for another reason: Newell and Simon, pioneers in the study of problem-solving, proposed that all Creative Thinking is problem-solving (Newell, Shaw & Simon, 1962; Newell & Simon, 1972). That proposal may be too strong, because one can question whether every painter when painting a picture is solving a problem; or whether every poet when writing a poem is solving a problem (Weisberg, 2006). Nonetheless, we have seen that problem-solving played a significant role in the Dunkirk rescue, IDEO’s development of the new shopping cart, and Picasso’s creation of Guernica. Even if problem-solving might not be relevant to all creative advances, there is no doubt that it is relevant to a wide range of them.

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  Creativity in Education and Learning

  A Guide for Teachers and Educators

  • Arthur Cropley, Arthur (Emeritus Professor of Psychology Cropley(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  2

  The role of thinking in creativity

  Thinking involves:

    structures (internal representations of the external world such as patterns, categories, or networks) that are built up on the basis of information coming in from the outside;

    processes such as exploring, recognizing, organizing, interpreting, associating and applying, through which this information is processed;

    control mechanisms such as perceptual styles, combinatorial tactics, decision-making rules, or evaluation strategies that guide the processes and affect the kinds of structures they lead to.

  The present chapter will review the special forms these must take in order to lead to creativity.

  Creative cognitive structures

  The nature of internal structures

  Cognitive structures are internal representations of the external world that are built up on the basis of experience – they reflect and summarize the accumulated experiences of the individual and are stored in memory. Thanks to the phenomenon of language they also contain much of the accumulated experience of the whole society, passed on mainly by means of language by parents, teachers, books, media and similar sources of information. The structures make it possible to interact with the external world without direct physical action via what is usually called ‘thinking’. As a result, when they receive information about a situation people can work out what will probably happen next, try out one or more courses of action in their head, rehearse what to do if certain further events occur and so on. Of course, the conclusions reached are not always accurate and they are sometimes even catastrophically wrong. None the less, in general cognitive structures make it possible to perceive the world as systematic and largely understandable, not as an unpredictable chaos, although there are substantial differences from person to person and within an individual person from situation to situation in the accuracy, efficiency, flexibility, or similar properties of cognitive structures. Some of these differences are of great importance in creativity (see below).

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  How Designers Think

  The Design Process Demystified

  • Bryan Lawson(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Butterworth-Heinemann

    (Publisher)

  However there are likely to be many steps in any design process which themselves pose convergent tasks. True, such steps may eventually be retraced or even rejected altogether, but it TYPES AND STYLES OF THINKING 107 would be absurd in the extreme to pretend that there are no parts of design problems which are themselves amenable to logical processes and having more or less optimal solutions. Design clearly involves both convergent and divergent productive thinking which is probably what makes it so challenging and satisfying to practise. 9 Creative Thinking It is a well known fact that all inventors get their first ideas on the back of an envelope. I take slight exception to this, I use the front so that I can include the stamp and then the design is already half done. Roland Emett A very great deal has been said and written about the phenomenon of creativity and yet it stubbornly remains one of the most unclear, perhaps even confused, concepts in the literature of the psychology of thinking. Some stress the importance of disecting the act of creation by attempting to chart a map similar to those of the design process already discussed. Other writers concentrate on the apparently enormous individual differences in the level of creative talent which we possess, with some even trying to identify the creative personality. Other writers see creativity as a skill which must be developed and practised. Associated with this group are those who present techniques or systems of promoting creative thought. This variety of ideas leaves us with many problems of definition.

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  Creativity and Mental Illness

  • James C. Kaufman(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Part II Cognitive and neuroscientific perspectives on creativity and mental illness 5 Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying Creative Thinking: indications from studies of mental illness Anna Abraham Creative people who can’t but help explore other mental territories are at greater risk, just as someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk than someone who just walks along a village lane. – R. D. Laing One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. – Friedrich Nietzsche The magnetic appeal of the nexus between madness and creativity has persevered over centuries. The ubiquity of this fascinating idea is no doubt primarily due to the greater incidence of mental illness associated with professions that purportedly involve a high degree of creativity (e.g., Post, 1994). However, its remarkable persistence can be attributed, at least in part, to the shared characteristics of mental illness and creativity. Both are associated with a high tolerance for ambiguity, the ability to go beyond generic conceptual connections, and the adoption of alter- native perspectives. Despite the considerable interest in this theme and concerted efforts to demystify the ineffability surrounding it, the precise manner in which enhanced creative abilities can be related to mental illness has remained a difficult one to pin down. There are several reasons for this. One is that creativity itself is an extremely multifaceted and heterogeneous construct for which few com- prehensive or unifying information-processing frameworks have been proposed (Dietrich, 2004). In addition, while several measures have been developed to assess Creative Thinking, most do not specify which partic- ular facets of creativity are assessed within the tasks because related psychometric work is lacking (Arden et al., 2010). For example, clarifica- tions about the manner in which any creativity measure is comparable to or differentiable from other creativity tasks are usually absent.

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  Cognition

  From Memory to Creativity

  • Robert W. Weisberg, Lauretta M. Reeves(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  While the designs of such studies are impressive, the research so far has been difficult to interpret (Dietrich & Kanso, 2010), because the results are not consistent. First of all, there is considerable variability in the results across studies designed to investigate creativity in the same domain, such as musical creativity. In addition, diverse brain areas are active in different types of creative activities, indicating that there is little support for some general neuropsychological circuitry underlying creativity in all domains. As Dietrich and Kanso note, one difficulty facing researchers studying the neuroscience of creativity is that different researchers work under very different conceptions concerning how the creative process works, which leads them to design very different sorts of studies. Those design differences make it difficult to make comparisons of results across studies. While there is no doubt that there will soon be great advances in our understanding of the brain circuitry underlying creativity, those advances may have to wait until we have a more general agreement concerning how the creative process operates at the level of cognitive processes. Then researchers will be able to determine the brain structures and processes underlying creativity. It is also likely that the neuropsychology of creativity will turn out to be domain-specific, with different parts of the cortex contributing to creative ventures in art versus music versus scientific discoveries.

  Conclusions About Creative Thinking: Ordinary Processes Producing Extraordinary Outcomes

  A basic assumption of those who have studied Creative Thinking, from antiquity to the present, is that new ideas are the product of extraordinary thought processes. It is assumed that ordinary conscious thinking cannot bring about the sometimes radically new ideas that form the basis for many of humanity's greatest achievements. The research reviewed in this chapter has supported the opposite conclusion, that there is nothing extraordinary about the cognitive processes underlying Creative Thinking (although those thought processes may result in extraordinary products). We began with an examination of two case studies, DNA and Guernica

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