Intelligence and creativity - Research Paper Example

Intelligence and creativity Introduction In the modern epoch of innovations and high-speed development, there is a need to look for new templates of thinking. Different options of thinking are available for the contemporaries and the minds of the modern people are ready for creativity and intelligence. Creativity and innovation are the basis of economic development. There are numerous options and opportunities for people with a large luggage of knowledge and those, who are able to think openly and in a flexible manner (Carter, 2004). Very often these two categories of people are positioned as two poles apart. In reality, it is possible to find correlation between creativity and intelligence. There is a need to relate the concept of intelligence and creativity. In case an individual has different intellectual abilities, this may be a way towards beneficial ways of development. This paper is focused on the relationship between creativity and intelligence. IQ levels, tests for intelligence and tests for creative abilities are very important in the context of the study. The first section of the paper considers the concepts of intelligence and creativity. The second section discusses modern tests applied for intelligence measurement and creativity potential analysis. Finally, the fourth part of the paper provides examples of correlation between intelligence and creativity. The relation between intelligence and creativity The relation between intelligence and creativity has often been considered as independent relation. There are a lot of theories that propose to consider creativity as a subset of intelligence; to find direct dependence between creativity and intelligence or to consider these two constructs separately. Both intelligence and creativity are positioned further on as two independent and distinct mental constructs. Nevertheless, both of these two mental constructs influence a perfect and outstanding performance of an individual. The following aspects are taken into account when we talk about creativity: verbal/analytic skills of reasoning, dominant specific skills together with emotion-related abilities. There is a need to consider these two mental constructs in relation to the basic psychological components, contained in them. First of all, these are metacomponents, which are dominant for both intelligence and creativity. For example, in order to solve a certain problem, an individual should be able to define the problem, develop strategies for their solutions etc. In case of intelligence the problem is solved in relation to the similar contexts. Creativity does not imply much of theories of intelligence, and the mind is not focused on abstract or verbal solutions of the problem. The creative individual is more triggered by his freedom of spirit and he has no bounds to the social canons. The role of aesthetic taste is a crucial factor in the process of the problem defining and solving in terms of a creative mind of an individual. The following issues are applicable for creativity: metaphorical thinking, flexibility, fluency, elaboration, originality, visualization, problem definition, and evaluation (Zimmermann, 2010). Intelligence implies the performance of mental tasks by means of comprehension, reasoning, knowledge, memory, manipulating figures, applying concepts (Dipietro, 2004). Creativity refers to discovery, imagination and potential invention ability. The concept of intelligence is more focused on logic, memory etc. The history of humankind and the history of psychology depend on both of these two mental constructs (Li, 1996; Lynn, 2007). Many authors claim that there is no need to consider creative and intellectual people together. They are different and show various mental abilities. Some of the psychologists underline potential success of people with creative potential in arts and other creative areas.  There is even a need to differentiate creativity and intelligence within them: big C creativity means evident and essential shifts in the field of arts or creative world, such as Einstein did, for example. Expertise and creativity can be correlated, but the latter concept does not change the domain. The real and valuable creative potential is the one, which makes other people think. Let us contribute much to the practicing of novel and unusual decision making strategies, which require innovative ideas. Therefore, the modern context requires people with open minds and freedom in their hearts, because conservative models and templates of thinking are worn out on the modern globalized background. The same can be said about the human intelligence. This mental construct implies possibility of having different mental capacities instead of one single capacity (Bringsjord and Ferrucci, 2000). The intellectual mental development depends on school and contribution into intellectual development. Thus, in the countries with high level of income and a low level of poverty (Scandinavia, Finland, Japan) the schools are more demanding that in America and the level of intellectual development among students is higher. Person is considered intelligent if he is able to look at things wider than a person with plain mental abilities. One is considered creative if he is able to go beyond plain consideration of something, find new ways, and consider things from different point of view. This effort can certainly alter the primary context. Wallach and Kogan, two scholars, implemented a thorough and interesting research and formed four groups of students, who had to answer the questions and then divided in to groups according to their answers. The research shows the connection between creativity and intelligence (Henshon, 2006). These groups are the following: High Creativity-High Intelligence: the answers of the students from the first group showed their high intelligence. Their responses were also very creative, full of original propositions. The conclusion can be made that their answers were so creative because of their high intelligence. Intelligent responses were presented with great creativity. High Creativity-Low Intelligence: such students are usually ignored by their instructors. They need teachers who can value their creativity that also can be useful like any other. If they get instructors who ignore them, they usually become irritable and angry. Low Creativity-High Intelligence: students of the given group are usually thoroughly concentrated on what they learn from their textbooks. They respect achievements and conclusions made by other scholars and simply do not want to waste time for imagination and are not going to think creatively. They try to be as successful in learning as it is possible and treat every bad mark seriously. Their goal is academic success, not creativity. But of course if they try to be creative, they would succeed. Low Creativity-Low Intelligence: the students of this group have many problems and need careful attention of their teachers. The inferiority they feel makes them behave like little children all the time. They have many psychological problems, so need more care. Motivated and correspondently treated, they can improve their results. Literature reveals a controversy about intelligence and creativity. The subject of this controversy is if they relate to one definite mental process of to different processes. The study provided by Wallach and Kogan and other corresponding studies show that there is no obvious connection between creativity and intelligence. Thus they can be certainly recognized as belonging to different processes. However, some scholars consider creativity and intelligence to be the products of the same mental process, at the same time as creativity is called “creativity” only because it brings something new to mental context. A supposition that was accepted by many scientists was made by Ellis Paul Torrance. It was called "the threshold hypothesis". According to it, high intelligence is very important but not the only condition for good creativity. This idea was readily accepted but it also faced a challenge. For example, the research made by Getzels and Jackson showed that high intelligence and high creativity can be hardly met with one person. The scholars implemented the study among the students of high school and it revealed that students were either intelligent or creative but the both qualities were met very seldom. Thus, the relationship between intelligence and creativity is still unexplained. "The threshold hypothesis" was again disproved in 2005 by conducted meta-Analysis that revealed a very slight connection between the level of IQ and creativity. Renzulli stated that in order to be creative as well as intelligent, the person must be gifted. There is also a supposition that creativity is connected to fluid intelligence. Tests for intelligence and creativity As a rule, intelligence is measured by special tests (the Stanford-Binet test or Wechsler Scales). There is a direct correlation between the levels of IQ and the intelligence. Still, these tests are inapplicable for measuring the levels of creativity, for example. The first relevant framework to consider creativity and intelligence is PASS theory. When a child has high levels of talents and his abilities to learn more, it is rather hard to differ between intelligence and creativity he has. There is an interesting process, witnessing the correlation of creativity as the generative process. Moreover, it is possible to consider creativity following the model presented by Amabile (1998): “three components are domain-relevant skills (i.e., knowledge, technical skills), task motivation, and creativity-relevant skills” (cited by Chan, 2005). There are particular skills, which are responsible for development of new ways of innovative thinking, having response options open for a long period of time, and suspending judgment (Chan, 2005). Under these conditions creativity can be defined and the option of its planning as well. In the process of metacognition the individual follows his own cognitive processes and thus he develops his creative strategies. We can illustrate this by the following example: a student who has high planning scores is able to develop task-strategy relationship, which contributes much to the strategy success. Therefore, very often metacognition is presented as the central concept of creative problem solving or the central concept of the creativity process. Consequently, we took into account different options of intelligence and creativity processes testing and planning. Further on we will focus on the central oppositions between these two mental constructs. There are the following conditions of creativity and intelligence measurements: C/I is a subset of the other; C/I are correlated and can be found only together; high IQ is the option of creativity presence (Sternberg, 2009). Creative person is able to find new ways and unique solutions. People are usually creative by nature. Some individuals prefer to consider creativity to be the same as intelligence, however, these are too different concepts. Facts shows that people with not very high level of IQ can be very creative, while individuals with high level sometimes do not demonstrate much creativity. This testifies that there is no close connection between creativity and intelligence. According to scientists, the environment is very important factor that affects creativity. Parents and teachers can encourage individual’s creativity. The IQ tests can’t be related to creativity anyhow as they make conclusions about convergent and not divergent thinking applied by creativity. Creative people have many common features. For example, they are more unprompted, more eccentric. They are not afraid to make experiments, to express their ideas. They are self-confident and make statements even if they contradict the generally accepted norms. Creativity has no certain definition, so it is not very easy to measure it. Thus the tests directed on creativity measurement measure not creativity but the features peculiar to people who can be called creative: originality, flexibility, etc (Henshon, 2006) . Some people consider creativity to be the highest form of intelligence. It can be explained by the fact that creativity does not require only learning and recollecting of but the invention of new knowledge that can be further learned by others. Really, according to results of some studies, people with high level of intelligence are not always creative, but people with high level of creativity are almost always very intelligent. The supporters of this supposition provide an example: people do not become famous because of their intelligence but because of their creativity and imagination. Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge”, and his achievements were made really due to his imagination, not only to his knowledge. Another quote by Einstein: “Creativity is intelligence having fun” that means that creativity is really a highest form of intelligence. All the innovations even created in the world were created due to imagination. Something new is created every day and these creations can be considered the expression of people’s intelligence. The thing I realized after reading numerous researches and studies, I can claim that creativity and intelligence cannot always be positioned as two separate mental constructs. There can be a harmonious relation between these two mental constructs. To be intelligent does not always mean to be a creative individual and to be creative does not always means to be an intellectual one. ThereforeКонец формы, there is a need to consider the relation between the intelligence and creativity and find out the points of differences between them. Creativity and intelligence are both related to divergent thinking. In accordance with creativity test it is claimed that there are the following criteria, which should be based on flexibility, originality, fluency etc. The name of this test is TTCT. It consists of both verbal and figural parts (Zimmermann, 2010). In the result of the reflection of these issues, the process of problem solving should be considered from different perspectives. The individual is able to show various perspectives, which he can apply for problem solving, to establish various perspectives and to take a novel approach and develop innovative strategies of problem solving. These steps are possible in terms of creative thinking. There is a direct relation between creativity and originality. Extraordinary ideas are usually related to creative people and not to intellectuals. Creative potential is described in the interesting manner by Oscar Wilde: “all art is useless; we can forgive man for making a useless thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely”. It is creative thinking process that defines the criteria of aesthetics and beauty. There is a certain perspective in the scientific field, when intelligence (and creativity) is referred to the various types of minds (Naglieri & Kaufman, 2001).  There are even two kinds of different minds: “algorithmic mind is associated with inductive part of Gf- fluid intelligence) and reflective mind (associated with rational or critical thinking – the deductive part of Gf)” (Zimmermann, 2010). Examples of creativity and intelligence It is possible to illustrate different relation between creativity and intelligence in the following way: an individual can be intelligent, but he cannot be creative. As a rule, successful scientists, businessmen are positioned as intellectuals. Then, Buddha was not an intellectual person at all. He did not know about technological innovations and novelties. Nevertheless, his wisdom is still admired by the contemporaries. The intellectual abilities of Einstein can be also criticized, because he was rather a forgetful person, but he managed to deal with a great deal of innovative scientific work. Creativity is another form of mental ability. It is a different side of our minds. Creative potential of Indian writers and poets enchants many people in the world, but if we look at these people we will see that they may be clumsy people. We may claim that in such a way the true creativity and a true intelligence are related to the inner essence of human minds. I think that a complete person is the one who is able to show his intellectual and creative potential. There is another interpretation of intelligence, which is named a Darwinian one. This theory implies that there are certain cognitive abilities, which make individuals able to adapt to different environment and conditions, under which the individuals are leaving. In case an individual is intelligent, he is able to reach success. From this perspective, intelligence is a narrower concept that creativity. The latter form of mental activity is a broader concept and it even can be considered from two different perspectives. Big C creativity implies that an individual is able to generate innovative ideas in order to impress people around him. In accordance with Simonton Big C creativity “involves motivation, it involves expertise in a particular domain, it involves certain kinds of abilities in regard to imagination, free association, remote association, and so forth” (Simonton). Still, the concept of intelligence is also complicated and challenging. There are many different aspects, which should be taken into account when considering intelligence. For example, if one has intellectual abilities for music, he may have different abilities for leadership. Therefore, the point of intelligence can be different for the President and for the musicians, for example. Therefore, it is rather challenging to differ between creativity and intelligence. There are common links between these two mental phenomena. Creativity is beyond logic and very often the limits of creativity exceed the limits of intelligence and a power of mind and thinking. For example, the paintings of Van Gogh or Da Vinci exceed the limits of an ordinary mind and are beyond logic: “people frequently think of creative souls as those sitting around all day painting, making sculptures, and unable to get a "real job."  In our culture, somehow, being an artist can be viewed almost as deviant behavior” (Simonton). In such a way, there are different contextual changes exerting influence on the perceptions of creativity and intelligence. We live under conditions of the modern Information Age and there is a need to change conservative representations of templates of thinking. Moreover, to contribute much into development and advancement of creative thinking is a way to open new horizons. Conclusion The findings of this research paper confirm the importance of both intelligence and creativity. In the modern context the features of creative an intelligent thinking are of high importance. It is necessary to focus the attention of the contemporaries on their intellectual development and creative potential improvement. Though these two mental spaces are considered as incompatible ones, we can see that there is a need for the modern creative and intellectual employees in the modern context. Therefore, we claim that creativity and intelligence are two basic components of human cognitive performance. A creative individual should have his inventive and productive potential, while intelligent individual tends to show more acute and academic knowledge in solving the problem. Why not to establish a perfect and harmonious conglomerate between creative and intellectual modern people in the modern globalized world? Very often modern employers are focused on creative employees and not only on those, who have high levels of IQ tests. References Bringsjord, S., & Ferrucci, D. A. (2000). Artificial Intelligence and Literary Creativity: Inside the Mind of BRUTUS, a Storytelling Machine. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved March 7, 2012, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=22910050 Carter, R. (2004). Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk. New York: Routledge. Retrieved March 7, 2012, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107525689 Chan, D. W. (2005). Self-Perceived Creativity, Family Hardiness and Emotional Intelligence of Chinese Gifted Students in Hong Kong. 47+. Retrieved March 7, 2012, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5014216492 Dipietro, W. R. (2004). 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