Introduction to Creativity - Essay Example

Introduction to Creativity Introduction Creativity can generally be termed as the ability to envision or devise something new (Lau, 2003). People work hard to improve the existing ideas and to get resolutions for the hardships they face through making changes and refining their work. Creativity is highly influenced by personal attitude towards improvement of the existing situation. According to Rothenberg & Hausman (1976), creative people are sure that there is always space for perfection and that they can make the existing situation better. Some creative ideas are quite outstanding and complex while others are simple but unique thoughts. (Sternberg & Williams, 1996) Nature of creativity The nature of creativity can be expounded by focusing on the investment theory of creativity. The theory points out that creative people are those willing to bring out unknown ideas that have potential to grow. In most cases, when unknown ideas are first introduced, they face resistance and therefore a creative individual is expected to ignore the criticism and sail through to next idea. According to Pritzker & Runco (1999), investment theory of creativity entails a combination of six distinct but interconnected resources which are; intellectual skills, enabling environment, strong personality, motivation, sound knowledge and motivation. Intellectual skills are a major drive to creativity and include analytical skill, synthetic skill and practical skill (Sawyer, et al. 2003). The analytic skill aids in identifying which idea to pursue and which one to leave out. The skill allows an individual to examine the available ideas and chose the best among them (Kaufman, Plucker & Baer, 2008). The synthetic skill is essential for it allows an individual to look at problems in a different perspective and evade the shortcomings of conventional thinking. In fact, synthetic skill broadens an individual’s thinking ability to see solution to issue that seem to be difficult to handle. The other important intellectual skill is the practical skill. Practical-contextual skill enables an individual to know how to convince others of the value of an idea (Sternberg, Kaufman & Grigorenko, 2009). The three components of intellectual skills are dependent on each other and for intellectual skills to contribute to creativity; the three must work in unison. For creativity to exists, one must have sound knowledge on the field of exploration (Sternberg & Mio, 2009). It is impossible for one to move beyond a challenge if one is ignorant of its existence. However, knowledge about something may result in a closed or entrenched standpoint, making it hard for an individual to think beyond his/her past view of problems. Therefore, knowledge can promote or hamper creativity. However, knowledge is very crucial component of creativity and need to be evident for one to develop creative ideas. A number of research investigations have pointed out personality as another important element of creativity (Sternberg, 2004). Personality entails the willingness to overcome challenges, willingness to take risk, readiness to put up with ambiguity, efficiency among other issues. In fact, for one to display creativity he/ she must be willing to defy the crowd and purse the idea in mind. Criticism allows an individual to think beyond the challenge at hand. People who never give room for criticism and opposition from others develop poor creative thinking skills. However, one of the risks faced by creative thinkers is lack of appreciation by evaluators if they go against their belief. According to Alder (2005), thinking style is yet another essential to creativity. Basically, thinking styles are assessments about how to deploy the available skills to an individual. Of the many thinking styles, legislative thinking style is very preferable for creativity, that is, a preference for thinking and the decision to think in unique ways. Preference for thinking is different from the ability to think creatively in that, one may be willing to think in a unique but not think fine. In fact, research has shown that legislative individuals tend to be successful in studies than less legislative individuals as far as creativity is concerned. According to Reynolds & Fletcher-Janzen (2007), creativity calls for motivation. A number of researches have shown the importance of intrinsic motivation for creative work and have pointed out that people seldom do creative work in a field unless they have passion for it. In essence, passion is a motivation to creativity and in most cases; people who like to work in areas that do not interest them tend to devise means to make those fields be of significance (Talaska, 1992). Thus, creativity emerges in the quest for such people to make the work more appealing and satisfying to them. According to Weisberg (2006) creative requires an enabling environment. In fact, one might be having all the necessary internal assets for creative thinking but fail due to lack of environmental support (Sriraman, 2008). Importance of creativity Creativity helps in finding lasting solutions to existing problems (Treffinger, Isaksen & Stead-Dorval, 2006). Basically, creativity enhances development of new ideas and as a result unique solution. Consequently, creativity arouses curiosity which enhance invention of new and unique features, for instance, the many scientific inventions are a result of creative thinking and innovation (Smith, 1997). Creativity helps an individual to recognize some previously unidentified and unutilized potential and make good use of it. Additionally, it challenges an individual to solve troubles and work on new tasks (Lenk, 2007). In essences, creativity changes the individual’s view of obstacles and challenges and therefore one is able devise ways out of them. Additionally, creativity helps to improve one’s economic status. This is because one is able to come up with a unique business that is not flooded with many people and therefore make huge profits. In addition, creativity is essential in establishing successful leadership strategies (Preiss, D. & Sternberg, 2010). Implications of creativity Education can be very influential in nurturing creativity (Tan, 2007). In fact, educational context is the most appropriate approach to focus on creativity research. In essence, it is the business of education to determine the extent of creativity (Treffinger & National Association for Gifted Children, 2004). The increased need for creativity has increased demand for new assets and therefore we should maintain an increase in the number of theater production. In addition, the continued use of creative should a positive have impact on the general quality of production. Conclusion Creativity is an essential component of human survival and its proper use leads to a successful life. It is a call for everyone to strive and emerge creative so as to solve the challenges facing the human race. Therefore, challenges and way of live need to be seen from a different point of view, that is, people should not be extremely comfortable with daily life. Reference list: Lau, J. (2003). An introduction to critical thinking and creativity: think more, think better. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Rothenberg, A. & Hausman, C. (1976).The Creativity question. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. Treffinger, D., Isaksen, S. & Stead-Dorval, K. (2006).Creative problem solving: an introduction. Waco, Tex.: Prufrock Press. Pritzker, S. & Runco, M. (1999). Encyclopedia of creativity Vol. 2 I - Z, Indexes. San Diego, Calif. [u.a.] Academic Press. Tan, A. (2007).Creativity: a handbook for teachers. Hackensack, N.J.: World Scientific Pub. Co. Sternberg, R. & Williams, W. (1996). How to develop student creativity. Alexandria, Virg. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Sawyer, R. et al. (2003). Creativity and development. New York: Oxford University Press. Sternberg, R., Kaufman, J. & Grigorenko, E. (2009).The essential Sternberg: essays on intelligence, psychology, and education. New York: Springer Pub. Co. Smith, S. (1997). The creative cognition approach. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.]: MIT Press. Reynolds, C. & Fletcher-Janzen, E. (2007). Encyclopedia of special education: a reference for the education of children, adolescents, and adults with disabilities and other exceptional individuals. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Alder, H. (2005). Boost your creative intelligence. London: Kogan Page. Kaufman, J., Plucker, J. & Baer, J. (2008). Essentials of creativity assessment. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Weisberg, R. (2006).Creativity: Understanding Innovation in Problem Solving, Science, Invention, and the Arts. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Sriraman, B. (2008). Creativity, giftedness, and talent development in mathematics. Charlotte, NC: IAP - Information Age Pub. Lenk, H. (2007).Global technoscience and responsibility: schemes applied to human values, technology, creativity and globalisaton. Berlin; London: LIT. Treffinger, D. & National Association for Gifted Children (2004). Creativity and giftedness. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press. Preiss, D. & Sternberg, R. (2010).Innovations in educational psychology: perspectives on learning, teaching, and human development. New York: Springer Pub. Talaska, R. (1992). Critical reasoning in contemporary culture. Albany : State University of New York Press. Sternberg, R. & Mio, J. (2009).Cognitive psychology. Australia; Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning/Wadsworth. Sternberg, R. (2004). Definitions and conceptions of giftedness. 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