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LESSON -11: CREATIVITY

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OBJECTIVES

 To understand the various aspects of Creativity

 To learn about the theoretical issues in Creativity
 To understand the various applications of Creativity
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STRUCTURE

11.1. Introduction
11.2. Aspects of creativity
11.3. Characteristics of creative people

11.4. Expressing Creativity

11.5. Theoretical Issues in Creativity

11.6. How to be creative?
11.7. Applications of Creativity
11.8. Summing Up
11.9. Model Questions

11.10. Suggested Readings

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INTRODUCTION

Creativity is a highly valuable resource for humans. Creativity is universally appreciated. This
is a quality that is required in all walks of life, be it in schools, at organizations, at play or at
home. There are differences in the magnitude of creativity among people, wherein some
people may be more creative than the others. Creativity is valued a lot amongst people and
there are various programs that are run to promise instilling creativity in children. ‘Out of
the box’ thinking as we may call it in everyday life is a sign of creativity.
Creativity is a prized possession, wherein individuals who exhibit creativity are given patents
and copyrights to protect their creativity. Creativity is often honoured with prizes,
promotions and awards. There are creative geniuses also who have lived beyond the fate of
time and death for their creative inventions or acts that they have done. Some examples are
such as that of Aristotle, Shakespeare, Michelangelo etc. The word creativity comes from
the Latin term creō which means "to create, make".

Creativity can be defined through the following definitions which are comparatively recent:
Michael Mumford (2003) defined creativity as "over the course of the last decade, however,
we seem to have reached a general agreement that creativity involves the production of
novel, useful products" (p. 110). Creativity can also be defined "as the process of producing
something that is both original and significant. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) has defined creativity
in terms of those individuals judged to have made significant creative, perhaps domain-
changing contributions.

According to Simonton (2002) creativity should fulfil these two conditions:

1. Creativity must be original. The ideas have to be novel, surprising and unexpected or
perhaps even shocking.
2. Creativity must be adaptive. The ideas should be specific and relevant to the current
needs and the times in which the creativity is being brought about.

Thus, general definition of creativity is seen as ‘adaptive originality.’

Aspects of Creativity:
Mel Rhodes (1961) gave various aspects of creativity. They are the Four ‘P’s- process,
product, person and place. Process focuses on the thought processes that go into the
creative thinking process. The main theories describing the creative process are the
divergent thinking as given by Guilford and the stages of creative process as given by Wallas.
As a product it emphasizes on the ability to produce more. As a person it gauges the
intellectual habits, ideation processes, expertise, autonomy etc. The ‘place’ connotes the
context in w takes place, that is, flexibility, non-conforming attitudes etc.
Characteristics of Creative People
Creative people do have a different personality profile. Through various researches (e.g.,
Sternberg & Lubart, 1999; Batey & Furnham, 2006; Batey, Furnham & Safiullina, 2010) a few
of the following personality traits stand out that help define a creative person: open to
experiences, less conventional, less conscientious, self-confident, self-accepting, driven,
ambitious, dominant, hostile, and impulsive.

Expressing Creativity:
There are various ways and avenues in which individuals can express their creativity. A few
of the areas through which one can express one’s creative potential are:
a) Linguistic- creativity through words in the form of poetry, stories, literature etc

b) Spatial- expressing creativity activities such as drawing, architecture, puzzles, etc

c) Musical- creativity expressed through songs, rhythms etc

d) Bodily- creativity expressed through dance, postures, athletics etc.

e) Logical – creativity through numbers and strategic thinking

Theoretical Issues:

Apart from the various empirical research findings in the field of creativity, there are still
some theoretical issues that need to be addressed. One of them is the prevailing Nature-
Nurture issue, and the other is the Small c versus the Big C.

Nature-Nurture Issue
The most common debate for most psychological constructs is the nature-nurture issue.
Creativity can be inculcated or it is something that people are born with. Creativity is an
interactive process of influence of genes and environment. As quoted by Simonton (2002)
“genes may contribute to creativity according to a multiplicative (emergenic) rather than a
simple additive model (Lykken, 1998; Simonton, 1999c). As a further complication, it may
very well be that various environmental influences interact with genetic factors with equally
complex functional relationships (Eysenck, 1995). To some extent, creative development
requires a specific congruence between genetic inheritance and environmental stimulation.
This intricate genetic-environmental determination helps to explain why creativity may
display a highly skewed cross-sectional distribution in the general population (Simonton,
199b). When optimal creative development requires a precise configuration of many
different factors, it becomes more difficult for people to emerge who have the total
package” (pp. 195).

Small c versus Big C Creativity

Small c creativity connotes creativity that is for everyday life and Big C creativity is has its
contributions for culture and history. These two levels of creativity lie on the same
continuum of creative activity. Big C creativity emerges out of creative geniuses and the
small c out of creative persons. Small c creativity is what happens with us in daily lives. The
‘Aha’ moments of creating a new dish, finding way outs in non-conventional manner, kids
coming up with various products that may be made with waste stuff etc. people may not
pay so much attention to the small c creativity. Small c creativity is mostly inspired by the
environment that we live and the surroundings that we are a part of.
How to be Creative?
Creativity is a must for a progressive world. Innovative ideas solve problems, make things
easier and contribute to development. Small efforts can help make people get a creative
mind. Following are a few tips that can help:
Thinking differently- creative people usually think differently. They have views that stand
apart from the usual ones. Curiosity also ignites the creativity in a person.

Independent thought- having the courage to have an independent thought is very

important to be creative.

Removing mental blocks- not restricting oneself from expressing the ideas that come to
our mind; having an attitude of speaking out one’s mind, irrespective of how impossible that
idea may sound.

Flexibility- being flexible in one’s problem-solving acts. Thinking outside the box can make
one open-minded and flexible and result in creativity.
 Playing with children- this is one of the easiest to do. As mentioned earlier, children
happen to be very creative and this spark of creativity is contagious and helps us in
developing our creativity.

Try new things- it is very important to break the monotony in life to stay creative.
Engaging with different products or even engaging with the regular products but in a
different manner also helps.

Another set of techniques was given by Nickerson (1999) who provides a summary of the
various creativity techniques that have been proposed:
Establishing purpose and intention
Building basic skills
Encouraging acquisitions of domain-specific knowledge
Stimulating and rewarding curiosity and exploration
Building motivation, especially internal motivation
Encouraging confidence and a willingness to take risks
Focusing on mastery and self-competition
Promoting supportable beliefs about creativity
Providing opportunities for choice and discovery
Developing self-management (metacognitive skills)
Teaching techniques and strategies for facilitating creative performance
Providing balance

Applications of Creativity:
As creativity is a highly desirable quality amongst individuals, it thus becomes imperative to
start early in honing these qualities. However, the development and enhancement should
be aimed at every stage of life, be it children, young adults and adults.

In childhood
Children are creative. Their creativity exhibits in the form of play, imaginative stories,
learning etc. However, this creative spirit usually declines as they grow. This is mostly due to
the fact that their imagination is labelled as childhood and parenting soon forces them to
start acting and behaving like adults. Thus, their creative plays soon get replaced with most
adult-like behaviour that lacks that spark of creativity. Thus, it is imperative to start early at
home where the parents should encourage their children’s creative acts. Also, at school the
curriculum should be such that encourages and relies on heavy weightage given to
creativity. Also, it has been found that heritability factors do play a role in creativity
development along with the environmental influences (Simonton, 1999c). Thus, following
this viewpoint, creative development programs can aim at identifying children who have
creative spark and then subsequently providing them proper environment to nurture
creativity.
In adults
There are tremendous individual differences in adults for creativity. Some adults may be
very creative so as to be labelled as ‘creative genius’ whereas others may not be, be it work
or at home. Various factors seem to influence creativity in adults, for example, it was found
by Amabile (1996) that creativity is affected by extrinsic reward, evaluative supervision and
time pressure. In various other fields such as marketing, creativity develops as a group
phenomenon. Creativity can flourish under rich conditions of brainstorming. Thus,
organizations can put in efforts to enhance such creative influences. Also, Simonton (1975)
has shown that certain conditions such as military conflict, political anarchy, depress
creativity in most domains
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SUMMING UP

Creativity is a prized possession, wherein individuals who exhibit creativity are given patents
and copyrights to protect their creativity. Creativity is often honoured with prizes,
promotions and awards. There are creative geniuses also who have lived beyond the fate of
time and death for their creative inventions or acts that they have done. Some examples are
such as that of Aristotle, Shakespeare, Michelangelo etc. This unit gives an understanding of
the various theoretical issues and applications of Creativity.

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MODEL QUESTIONS

1. Define creativity and discuss the characteristics of creative people.

2. Discuss the Small c versus Big C Creativity.
 3. How to be creative?
4. Elaborate on the applications of Creativity

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SUGGESTED READINGS

Snyder, C. R., Shane J. Lopez, and Jennifer Teramoto Pedrotti. Positive Psychology: The
Scientific and Practical Explorations of Human Strengths. 2nd ed.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-5914.2007.00322.x