Theories of Creativity and Creative Problem Solving Process - Essay Example

Theories of Creativity and Creative Problem Solving Process Name Institution Affiliation Theories of Creativity and Creative Problem Solving Process Introduction Creativity is the ability to define a problem, identify alternative ideas for the problem and implementing the best one. It may also be referred to us the process of combining existing work, objects and ideas for the sole reason of coming up with something new. Notably, there are varying definitions of what creativity entails. Importantly, the process of creative thinking can only take place when three conditions are met; the creative person, creative product and creative person. In order to understand the creative thinking process, it is crucial to understand these three concepts. A creative person is regarded as someone who is full of ideas and is characterized by possessing the desire to develop new solutions. Also, individuals who are creative are believed to be optimistic, tolerant of uncertainty and are always exploratory. On the other hand, a creative product is that item that has been there before. Such products or ideas have a more efficient outcome towards a certain problem than the existing ones. The creative process involves the act of combining efforts and tools to produce a creative product. Since, the creative thinking process has emerged to be an important asset in various fields of studies, this report seeks to provide an analytical review of the theories of creativity and the creative process models. Theories of Creativity The theories of creative thinking process are many. Different perspectives regarding creativity have been existing and each one of them holds some water. Creativity is a very wide concept and any field of research or study would conceptualize it in a manner that would be beneficial in policy formulation under a particular professional discipline. Nonetheless, many theories of creativity are aimed at providing an understanding of the mental mechanism since it believed that creativity is a subconscious mental process. There are ten theories that were developed by various researchers and schools of thought and are discussed as follows: Development Theory Development theory of creativity is one of the most practical theories. It was developed to provide an understanding that creativity starts at a certain point and then develops overtime. According to Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco (2010), development theory does not only help to discern the root cause of a problem, but it also facilitates social reconstruction so that the environment where children develop in, influences their creative potential positively. Under this theory, it is noted that the creative thinking does not come naturally but requires the efforts of a person both physical and mental so as to keep the creative thinking ability developing. Notably, the interaction between a person and the environment is fundamental and hugely considered in this theory. Like many other early theories, development theory suggests that the childhood development experience of a person correlate directly with the level of creativity. For instance, it is likely easy to find that parents who exposed their children in various life situations or experiences have their children very creative (Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco, 2010). Thus, the developmental process is determined by the extent or nature of creative potential, which is in turn dependent on the environment of development. The independence of a person is a key validator of development theory. Creativity often requires one to workout things by themselves. The reason is that the mind adopts a culture of inventing new ideas to problems overtime when it is constantly exposed to some level of autonomy. Parents of creative thinking children at some point gave their children the independence of solving certain issues on their own. Hence, since creativity involves a mental process, it becomes very imperative to always give room for independence of mind. Psychometric Theory Unlike development theory which focuses on the individual, psychometric theory measures the creativity in terms of assessing the reliability of the creative product. It is a unique theory that does not rely on any specific model. In fact, its application cuts across various creativity models. The main concern in this theory is the validity of measurement criteria to assess the level of creativity. According to Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco (2010), the reliability or consistency of measure involves the inter-judge within a particular test and the inter-item reliability (p.29). While measuring the creativity, both the discriminant and predictive validity are used. The discriminant validity allows one to identify distinct features between the creative and the non-creative persons. Psychometric theory holds that creativity is domain-specific. Creative cognition can be domain specific but this depends on the type of test environment that measurement is conducted. For instance, a poet’s creativity may be different from a musician or an author of a book. But since there is the issue of reliability of the measurement it becomes very difficult to say that a poet is more creative than the musician or vice vasa. Hence, the question as to whether creativity is domain-specific is a contested issue. While some scholars or of the opinion that the three aspects of creativity (novelty, appropriateness and impact) can be used to measure the level of creativity, it cannot go without being said that the matter is subjective and whether one is creative or not depends on the skills of an expert or social recognition (Piffer, 2012). However, it is equally important that creativity be measurable since it will provide an avenue for human resource policies formulation in organizations. Economic Theories The economic theory of creativity articulate a new and useful perspective about creative thinking. This theory takes into account the macro-level processes and also offers testable hypothesis concerning creativity (Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco, 2010, p.30). Generally, the economic theories correlate the market behavior and creativity. For instance, the psychoeconomic theory suggests that the functioning of the market affects creativity in terms of the costs and benefits it provides. In a study conducted in Florida’s market of creativity, it was found that the presence of the unconventional people together with the technology and talents boosted the creativity of its people (Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco, 2010). This drives an important point in that, it makes sense that tolerating unconventional persons in the society brings a lot of challenges that make people to use their talent and other resources to address them. Similarly, creative efforts are put by individuals who buy at low prices and sell at higher ones. In other words, from an economic theory perspective, a person is creative if he or she is able to evaluate the costs and benefits effectively when making decisions. Cognitive Theories The cognitive theories tend to explain creativity in relation to one’s mental capability. It is uncontested to say that creativity levels vary due to variations in cognitive abilities. Interestingly, the cognitive perspective assumes that everyone is creative and the degree of creativity simply varies due to certain factors (Amabile, 1993). It is true to say that everyone is creative since the process of cognitive problem solving starts with identifying a problem. It is the existence of a challenge that makes someone to generate ideas and implement so as to solve an issue. The Geneplore model explain three distinct stages in a cognitive process. The first part of the process involves the establishment of the pre-inventive structures. This refers to the construction of mental representations. The pre-inventive structures are then used to explore the creativity in the second stage called the exploratory phase. The creative cognition is then focused on are can be expanded depending on the requirement of the task. There is also an indication that the product of the creative thinking acts as constrain. For instance, the expression of feelings can be achieved through composing a music but the feelings are expressed within the constraint of the music (Pearce & Wiggins, 2002). Similarly, the problems relating to design results to increased research so as to determine the most suitable approach. However, the model has been criticized for its idea of restricting choices. It assumes that creativity increases when the choices are restricted. Stage and Component Theory Like the other theories of creativity, the stage and component theories also focus more on the process than the other P’s. The idea behind this theory is that the creative thinking proceeds through a series of stages. One of the most popular theories is that of Graham Wallas which indicate that creativity goes through preparation, incubation, and illumination and verification stage. The preparation phase is the problem identification part. It is practical that before one has mental representation of something, an issue must be present. Later on, an individual gathers information and understand what the problem entails. The incubation stage follows and this is an important step in the thinking process. The above theories have ignored this part, but it is worthy to appreciate that the issue has to be set aside for some time. The reason is that the creative process is a subconscious mental process. The illumination stage follows after the incubation stage. This is when the idea reveals itself and becomes known to a person. It is worthy of note that the historical experience of the person facilitates the formulation of the new idea. Once it has become known, the creative products must pass through the verification test to ascertain its appropriateness. However, Wallas’ model does assume that the final product is sufficient to solve the problem and one cannot go back to the preparation stage. Modern theories have incorporated the recursion phase since not all ideas are final. One can repeat the entire creativity process several times. Typological theory Typological theory seeks to explain creativity based on individual’s differences, such as creator’s personality, career choice and working methods. The theory focuses on all the P’s unlike the other ones in the previous discussions. The most popular theory that are typological include the Galenson’s theory. It is crucial to discern that typological theory is concerned with individuals’ characteristics. Galenson categorizes the creators of ideas into two; as those who seek and those who find. The two categories differ since each one of them uses a distinct approach towards creativity (Kozbelt, Beghetto & Runco, 2010). Also, their career trajectory plays an important role into their creativity approach. There are differences between the seekers and the finders. The seekers usually have no prior idea about a certain problem. Furthermore, the initial process starts with the identification of the problem, setting of the objectives and drafting a plan of how to achieve a certain creative product. In addition, they spend most of their time researching so that they may have a clue or be able to do something different from those done before. Also, they invest a lot of effort to generate an idea in their initial creativity development. Because of the lack of skills in their initial stages of developing a creative idea, their creative products relies hugely on other experts. Nevertheless, in the long run, they show improvement in the way they reason and handle ideas. On the other hand, finders have the ability to circumvent existing bottlenecks to develop ideas. Besides, they tend to have a well information background concerning an issue. Moreover, finders usually have a clear goal about their work and they do not rely on the existing body of experts. System theory of Creativity The system theories hold that creativity involves a system that comprise of subsystems that interact with the environment to meet an intended object. These theories focus on all P’s of creativity. One of the system theories of creativity is that which was developed by Gruber. Gruber adopts the evolving system approach to describe the creative people in the society. Grubber believes that creative people operate in a complex environment where there is a lot of potential for development process. In addition, there is also a notion that creators like to use metaphors to develop an idea. Importantly, the development of an idea takes time and it is a continuous process. For instance, Darwin’s idea concerning evolution required him to understand the environment the living things and relate their correlation. He achieved this through multiple experiments until he finally justified the correlation. Therefore, creativity evolves depending on the interaction of the subsystems of the creator. Csikszentmihalyi views creativity from a different perspective. He argues that creativity is obtained through three things. Firstly, the domain through which the creative person acquires knowledge and expertise is important in the creativity process (Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). Secondly, there has to be the person himself who interacts with the domain to acquire the necessary skills. Lastly, the body of experts that provide the knowledge and skills has to play a role in the creative process. Therefore, it is the interaction of the three subcomponents that produces changes in the existing system. Problem Finding Theories The problem finding approach is also another way of explaining creativity. It looks into the problems that motivate the process of finding solutions. The theory holds that people become creative when they consciously engage in identifying problems in situations whose outcomes are not predetermined. Notably, the problem finding theories are based on the behavioral perspective of creativity. The more a person engages in an activity the more he becomes skilled. Many organizations rely on this notion and that is why they set training and development policies in the human resource practice. The orientation process of the employees help them to familiarize with the organization’s goals and objectives. This continuous exposure to certain tasks during the orientation improves the employee’s way of working. There are empirical evidence regarding the practicality of the problem-finding theory. The general observations in these studies indicate that the creativity in an art is attributable to the exploratory behavior of the creative person. Evolutionary Theories This centers on the Darwinian model developed by Simonton. The theory argues that creativity starts with the development of a hypothetical situation, which is tested and later judged by other people. The Darwin creativity process has attracted various biological and psychological studies in the past. It attracts certain psychological implications in that the creator should have very minimal control over the creative process. Also, the creators are expected to be their own best judges and age should not be factor that determine their acumen of creativity. It is important to understand how the Darwinian process is seen to take place in the creativity process. According to Gabora and Kaufman (2010), it is believed that creativity takes the Darwin process as it is inherited from person to person, that is, from a dual inheritance theory. The Darwin theory of evolution holds that a living organism attain certain characteristics so as to adjust and meet the demands of the environment. Therefore, this characteristic is then shared and transferred from generation to generation. It is the natural creativity in human beings that make them to come up with ideas which are then used by the coming generations. Any modification into the idea in the other generations are facilitated by the initial one. Therefore, the question now is whether the creativity traits are inherited from generation to the other through culture. It is a complicated phenomenon since in the context of the reality creative innovations and inventions do not necessarily rely on previous ideas. Inventing something new occurs due to the occurrence of a contemporary problem. The bottom line is that creativity evolves as a result of communal exchange and self-organization that results from cognitive dissonance which stimulates the creative thinking process (Gabora & Kaufman, 2010). Therefore, creativity is triggered by the status quo and the interactions of the human beings and the environment makes creates a platform for the development of an idea. This culture of responding to the needs of the environment is then passed from generation to generation. Problem Solving and Expert-Based Theories The above theory focuses on the creative process and creative person. It is also cognitive by extension since the creativity of a person is based on the cognitive psychological process. The theory indicate that a person achieves his or her creativity goals when they acquire domain-specific expertise. This means that a cost accountant manager cannot be creative in solving human resource problem but can creatively manage the resources of an organization. The reason is that the cost accountant manager has domain-specific expertise that enables him or her to handle accounting issues or resources. It should be noted that in this case, the creativity development is seemed to be a very long process of acquisition. Creative Problem Solving Process (Graham Wallas model) The above theories provide a fundamental basis of understanding various perspectives of creativity process. While all a number of them do provide varying empirical analysis of the process of being creative, we can generally find out that the creative process at least must start at a certain point. The following are the summary steps in the creative thinking process: a. Preparation This step involves the process of gathering information and identifying the problem. It also involves reading through the problem and preparing on how to handle it. b. Incubation The incubation is a subconscious process where the creative person sets aside the problem first for a certain period of time while brainstorming about alternatives. c. Illumination The illumination phase is also considered as a subconscious stages and it is the arrival of the idea. It is when the idea becomes mentally represented and ready to be verified. d. Verification The idea is then checked out for its validity. Conclusion The theories of creative thinking provide diverse knowledge into understand how one becomes creative. While the ideologies vary, we cannot underestimate the contribution of each of them in the various fields of studies and organizational contexts. Many of these theories articulate a cognitive when looking at creativity from a reductionism perspective. But generally, we can understand that there exists similarities among a many theories of creativity in regard to the process itself. References Amabile, T. M. (1993). What does a theory of creativity require?. Psychological Inquiry, 4(3), 179-181. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Creativity and genius: A systems perspective. In The Systems Model of Creativity (pp. 99-125). Springer Netherlands. Gabora, L., & Kaufman, S. B. (2010). Evolutionary approaches to creativity. The Cambridge handbook of creativity, 279-300. Kozbelt, A., Beghetto, R. A., & Runco, M. A. (2010). Theories of creativity. The Cambridge handbook of creativity, 20, 47. Pearce, M., & Wiggins, G. A. (2002, July). Aspects of a cognitive theory of creativity in musical composition. In Proceedings of the ECAI02 Workshop on Creative Systems. Piffer, D. (2012). Can creativity be measured? An attempt to clarify the notion of creativity and general directions for future research. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 7(3), 258-264. Read More