What is Creativity?

Creative Modeling for Technology Visionaries Qualitative & Simplified Quantitative Modeling for Product Creation Module 2: What is Creativity? David E. Goldberg University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois 61801 [email_address]

“Creative” is Common Term
“Creative” and “creativity” commonly used:
He/she is creative .
That was a creative design.
Wasn’t that a creative presentation that was?
He/she has creative ideas.
But not always clear what we mean.
What is creativity? Explore different senses of the term.

Roadmap
What is creativity? Class’s viewpoint.
Dictionary definition.
Aside on linguistic rigidity and naiveté
Other views:
C as individual thought process.
C as group brainstorming.
C as socially enabled/mediated process.
C as history.
C as generative vision.
C as heuristic inventive process.
C as eliminating resistance/blocks.

What is Creativity to You?
What does it mean to be creative?
Who are creative people? Exemplars.
What do they do?
Do they think differently?
Do they act differently?
How do you know creativity when you see it?

Web Definitions: Creativity
Not the right answer.
A “standard” answer. Where do dictionary definitions come from?
Web definitions:
The ability to solve problems that are worth solving. It is the ability to create knowledge. Creativity is subject-specific: it is the meta-knowledge of how to solve a specific class of problems. So there is no such thing as “raw”, undifferentiated creativity.
The experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative and idiosyncratic way which is characterized by a high degree of innovation and originality, divergent thinking, and risk taking.
One can define creativity as the mental phenomena, skills and/or tools capable of originating (and subsequently developing) innovation, inspiration or insight. Pop psychology generally may associate it with right or forehead brain activity or even specifically with lateral thinking.

Merriam-Webster: Creative
Main Entry: 1cre·a·tive Pronunciation: krE-'A-tiv, 'krE-" Function: adjective 1 : marked by the ability or power to create : given to creating <the creative impulse> 2 : having the quality of something created rather than imitated : IMAGINATIVE <the creative arts> 3 : managed so as to get around legal or conventional limits < creative financing>; also : deceptively arranged so as to conceal or defraud < creative accounting>

Merriam-Webster: Create
Main Entry: 1cre·ate Pronunciation: krE-'At, 'krE-" Function: verb Inflected Form(s): cre·at·ed ; cre·at·ing Etymology: Middle English, from Latin creatus, past participle of creare; akin to Latin crescere to grow -- more at CRESCENT transitive verb 1 : to bring into existence <God created the heaven and the earth -- Genesis 1:1(Authorized Version)> 2 a : to invest with a new form, office, or rank <was created a lieutenant> b : to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior <her arrival created a terrible fuss> < create new jobs> 3 : CAUSE , OCCASION <famine creates high food prices> 4 a : to produce through imaginative skill < create a painting> b : DESIGN < creates dresses> intransitive verb 1 : to make or bring into existence something new 2 : to set up a scoring opportunity in basketball < create off the dribble>

Aside on Linguistic Rigidity/Naiveté
Math, science & engineering training encourages precision.
Look for “the” definition of a term.
Story: Use of the term “swap.”
Terms are like overloaded operators in programming languages.
Different meanings in different contexts.
X is Y versus X as Y.
Creativity demands flexibility & associative power.
Rigidity not good, early in the process.
Weak perspectivism: Useful to think in terms of perspective of others.

Creativity as Individual Thought
Early classic in creativity literature.
Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.
Professor of Political Science, University of London.
Chapters:
Psych & Thought
Consciousness & will
Thought before art
Stages of control

4 Stages of Control
preparation
Incubation
Illumination
verification.

Preparation
“Our mind is not likely to give us a clear answer to any particular problem unless we set it a clear question, and we are more likely to notice the significance of any new piece of evidence, or new association of ideas, if we have formed a definite conception of a case to be proved or disproved.”

Incubation
First part, “…we do not voluntarily or consciously think on a particular problem”
Second, “..is the positive fact that a series of unconscious and involuntary mental events take place during that period.”
We can operate in the preparation phase of a thought, while in the incubation phase of another, to make more effective use of time.

Illumination
The proverbial “light bulb” or “click” as the idea come to fruition.
“ I find it convenient to use the term ‘Intimation’ for that moment in the Illumination stage when our fringe-consciousness of an association-train is in the state of rising consciousness which indicates that the fully conscious flash of success is coming.”

Verification
Period where the validity of an idea is tested.
The new idea is expounded upon to come up with the final solution.
Whole process may iterate.

Creativity as Group Brainstorming
Much creative activity takes place in groups or teams.
Social rather than individual process.
Osbornian brainstorming:
Theory
Practice
Alex Osborn (1888-1966)

Day in a Life of a Meeting
Trying to solve a problem, what happens?
Unproductive loop:
Some makes a suggestion.
Someone else says why that can’t be done.
Go to step 1.
Meeting going nowhere, so leader announces solution he/she wanted to begin with.

Structured Brainstorming
Overcomes these problems through meeting process design.
Osborn (1953) developed brainstorming technique.
Many variants, but principle is sound.
Create first, criticize later.
Much in common with good writing and presentation prep.
Need props, roles, and process.

Socially Mediated/Enabled Process
Creativity as a complex social psychological phenomenon.
Two major proponents of this view:
Theresa Amabile
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Amabile’s Definition
Teresa Amabile, Social Psychology of Creativity, Springer, 1983.
Creativity: A response will be judged as creative to the extent that (a) it is both a novel and appropriate, useful, correct, or valuable response to the task at hand and (b) the task is heuristic rather than algorithmic.
Teresa Amabile

Creativity: Flow & the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: HarperCollins.
Was professor of psychology at University of Chicago. Now at Claremont College.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (b. 1934)

Creativity Too Big a Term
Three senses:
Those who express unusual thoughts.
Those who experience world in novel ways.
Those who have changed culture in some important respect.
Two other terms: “talent” and “genius.”

Process
1990-1995 Videotaped interviews with 91 exceptional individuals
Make a difference to culture and >60 years old.
275 contacts. 1/3 declined, 1/3 accepted, 1/3 did not respond
14 Nobel prizes.
Rejections as interesting.
Too good to be true?

Creative Process
Where is creativity?
The creative personality
The work of creativity
The flow of creativity
Creative surroundings

Systems Model of Big C Creativity
3 elements:
Domain: symbolic rules and procedures.
Field: individuals who are gatekeepers to the domain.
Person: the creative one.
Creativity defined: Creativity is any act, idea, or product that changes an existing domain, or that transforms an existing domain into a new one.

Consequences of the Theory
Not a personal theory. Domain + Field + Person important.
Must know the domain.
Must take place in extant domain-field.
Field acts as filter (consider art or music).

Creative Personality
Genetic predisposition doesn’t hurt.
Curiosity, wonder, and interest.
Access to a domain.
Access to a field: Bottlenecks.
Complexity as key.

10 Dimensions of Creative Complexity
Physical energy versus quiet at rest
Smart and naïve
Disciplined and playful.
Fantasy versus reality.
Extroversion versus Introversion
Humble and proud
Masculine and feminine.
Conservative and rebellious
Objective and passionate.
Suffering and enjoyment

Work of Creativity
Extended Wallas framework: preparation, incubation, insight, evaluation, elaboration.
Emergence of problems.
Sources: personal, domain requirements, social pressures.
Presented versus discovered problems
Incubation as the mysterious time.

Theories of Incubation
Freudian: pursuit of acceptable versus unacceptable sexual desire.
Cognitive theories: associative and parallel processing.
Field, domain, and unconscious thought: Need to take stand against received wisdom.

The Flow of Creativity
The joy of invention.
Flow experience:
Clear goals
Immediate feedback
Balance between challenge and skills
Actions and awareness merged.
Extractions excluded
No worry of failure.
Self-consciousness disappears.
Distortion of time
Activity feeds on itself (autotelic).

Pleasure in the Right Things
Flow and complexity.
Aristotle’s definition of the good.
Living a life of intricate complexity.
Richness of variety.

Creative Surroundings
Place matters.
Pager experiments: Most creative when walking, driving, or swimming. Semiautomatic state.
Complex sensory stimuli as diversion.
Rhythm: patterns of work can be important.

Bottom Line
Creativity is a Rorschach test.
Defined for ourselves.
“Standard” definitions.
Linguistic naiveté, rigidity & perspectives.
Individual  group  social process.
Next up: Historical, then micro-perspectives & some exercise.

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What is Creativity?

by David E. Goldberg on May 27, 2007

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