Approaches to creativity

Some really interesting picks on approaches to creativity from ‘Creative Cognition’ by Ronald A. Finke, Thomas B. ward and Steven M. Smith

Approaches to creativity

Case studies
Most case studies of creative people have consisted of introspective reports, interviews, and biographic studies. For eg. Ghiselin(1952) collected introspective accounts of creative processes by notable writers, artists, composers, and scientists. In this collection Einstein describes his famous thought experiment of imagining how the world would look while travelling alongside a beam of light, and Mozart describes his method of composing major works entirely in the head. Other important case studies include Gruber and Barrett’s(1974) analysis of the conceptual evolution of Darwin’s ideas, based on examination of his notebooks, Gardner’s (1982) study of creative artists, accounts by Miller(1984) and Shepard(1978,1988) of the use of visualization in scientific creativity.

Psychoanalytic approaches
In psychoanalytic theory, creative expression is explained in terms of the sublimation of unconscious conflicts. Perhaps the best example is Freud’s analysis of the symbolic content of the work of Leonardo da vinci (Freud 1916). Koestler (1964) has also suggested that creativity arises out of unconscious conflicts, as contrary ideas of patterns of thought are brought together. Experimental support for such accounts has come from studies showing that highly creative people tend to score higher on various measures of psychopathology.
Kubie (1958), on the other hand, rejected the notion that creativity must be grounded in neurosis or conflict and proposed instead that creative ideas could be generated in a perfectly healthy way, as part of the preconscious activity. Unconscious processes may leave their signature or define an artist’s style, but true creativity comes from the free play of preconscious symbolic processes. In contrast, unconscious processes tend to fixate or stagnate creative thought. There’s thus no fear of losing one’s creativity if ones neurosis is cured. In defending this view, Kubie points out how seldom creative writers and composers actually succeed in overcoming mental illness through creative expression alone.
There’s a reason to think, however, that certain types of mental disorders might contribute to the highest levels of creative productivity. For e.g. Hershman and Lieb (1988) provide a convincing account of the role of manic depression in the creative lives of Newton, Beethoven, Dickens, and Van Gogh. State of mania provides an elevated sense of worth and talent and promote ambition, whereas states of depression cause one to become more introspective, compulsive and isolated from social distraction.

Psychometric approach
The classic psychometric approach to creativity is best represented by the work of Guilford. In his studies on the structures of intellect, Guilford (1956, 1968) developed various tests (such as “unusual uses” test) to distinguish what he called ‘convergent’ and ‘divergent’ thinking, the latter being characteristic of the flexible nature of creative thought. He regarded creativity as consisting of a combination of primary abilities: sensitivity to problems, fluency in generating ideas, flexibility and novelty of ideas, and the ability to synthesize and reorganise information.
Amabile( 1983) considered a variety of cognitive styles, such as breaking mental sets, keeping options open, suspending judgement, using wide rather than narrow categories, and recognising the importance of new ideas, as relevant to creative performance. Hayes (1989) proposed that creative people tend to be intelligent, devoted to their work, independent, driven to be original, and exhibit flexibility in their thinking.

Sociological and historiometric approaches
In these approaches, the main concerns are social, environmental, and cultural effects on creativity. Amabile (1983), for e.g. , found that monetary reward usually resulted in reduced creativity, whereas creativity was enhanced when people could chose a task they were interested in. Amabile proposed a theory of creativity in which background knowledge, cognitive style, social factors, and environmental influences all contribute to the creative act.

Multiple components approach
Some researchers have tried to develop comprehensive theories of creativity, combining cognitive and socioenvironmental factors. Sternberg and Lubart (1991), foe example, have proposed an ‘investment’ theory of creativity, which consists of six major components: intellectual processes, knowledge structures, intellectual style, personality traits, motivational factors, and environmental context. Intellectual style refers to the manner of intellectual ‘government’, global versus local focusing, and conservative versus progressive biases. Creative thinking is a product of appropriate intellectual processes, sufficient knowledge, proper intellectual style, the right emotional and motivational factors, and the availability of necessary environmental resources.

Pragmatic approaches
First there is a technique of attribute listing. In the technique of morphological synthesis (Allen 1962; Zwicky 1957), one lists the important dimensions of an object and the range of possible attributes for each dimension and then considers various novel combinations of those attributes.
The technique of brainstorming is based on the free association of ideas ina group setting.
The technique of synectics, analogies serve as catalysts for creative thinking and problem solving.

Artificial intelligence approach
There has been considerable interest in developing ways of enhancing creativity I artificial intelligence. Langley et al. (1987) have identified various heuristics that can contribute to creative problem solving in computers. Jonhnson-Laird described computer programmes that could improvise music.
Boden argues that such efforts have important implications for the understanding of human creativity, pointing out that computers, like people, can apply various rules or heuristics that can result in creative performance.