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The Philosophical Roots of Western and Eastern Conceptions of Creativity
Abstract
This essay reviews the philosophical roots and the devel-opment of the concept of creativity in the West and East. In particular, two conceptions of creativity that originated in the West – divinely inspired creativity and individual creativity—are discussed and compared to the two East-ern conceptions of creativity that are rooted in ancient Chinese philosophical thought — natural and individual creativity. Both Western and Eastern conceptions of indi-vidual creativity come from a theistic or cosmic tradition of either divinely inspired or natural creativity. However, a defining feature of the Western concept of creativity— novelty—is not necessarily embraced by ancient Chinese concepts of creativity, but does exist in both modern Eastern conceptions. Reasons for cultural differences are explored and discussed. The influence of culture on people's conceptions of creativity has been one of the most exciting topics in the recent literature on creativ-ity. It has attracted the interest of many psychologists (e.g., Lubart, 1999; Niu & Sternberg, 2002; Lau, Hui & Ng, 2004; Rudowicz & Hui, 1997; Rudowicz & Yue, 2000). A review of contemporary research has shown that people from the East and West hold similar, yet not identi-cal conceptions of creativity. In general, Easterners are more likely to view creativity as having social and moral values, and as making a con-nection between the new and the old. Their Western counterparts focus more on some special individual characteristics in understanding the concept of creativity (Niu & Sternberg, 2002).
... 4 (cf. Niu & Sternberg, 2006) In other words, regardless of whether it's held that the origins of creativity are divine or worldly, it's common to think that creativity centrally involves the generation of something substantively new or original. Indeed, it's so common that this view is considered by some to be a truism, or at least the product of an emerging consensus (cf. ...
... This conception of creativity can hence be understood as making connections between the new and the old, and therefore as evolutionary, rather than revolutionary 7 (cf. Niu, 2012;Niu & Sternberg, 2006). 6 For more on strategies ad hoc, see Valmisa (2021). ...
... Additionally, however one chooses to characterize the cosmic view of creativity's origins, it can nonetheless be contrasted with the latter, worldly (sub-cosmic) view, according to which creativity resides in single worldly entities or sets of single worldly entities (falling short of the whole of Tian or Dao) (cf. Niu & Sternberg, 2006). ...
This article explores how aspects of traditional Chinese thought regarding creativity can influence and enrich contemporary thought about related topics: specifically, how creativity can be construed as an epistemic or intellectual virtue, and the benefits of considering it as such. It proceeds in three parts. First, I review a conception of creativity suggested by aspects of the Zhuangzi that centrally involves forms of spontaneity and adaptivity engendered by embracing you 遊, or “wandering”, contrasting it with more conventional conceptions of creativity that emphasize novelty or originality. Second, I explain how this conception of creativity illuminates how creativity can be an epistemic virtue of a surprising sort: one that concerns a disposition to—borrowing an expression from Chris Fraser—“ride along with things”. This “riding along” is ironically engendered by letting go of what David Wong has characterized as “the obsession with being right”, about which the Zhuangzi expresses concern. I argue that, while this conception of creativity eschews fixed goals, including epistemically-oriented goals like apprehending truth or developing knowledge, there are nevertheless good reasons to count creativity (so understood) as an epistemic virtue. Third, I connect these explorations with current conversations (begun by Matthew Kieran and C. Thi Nguyen) that already treat creativity or, relatedly, play as an epistemic or intellectual virtue, and explore how engaging the Zhuangzi in the manner outlined promises to help extend them.
... "Mittelmaß", sagte die CDU-Politikerin, "kann nicht unser Anspruch sein." (Munzinger, 2019) Sie befinden sich auf einem ähnlichen Leistungsniveau wie Gleichaltrige in Frankreich, Großbritannien, den USA oder Japan, sind aber schwächer als die Champions aus Estland, Kanada, Finnland und Polen. (Mayer, 2020) Sich selbst als ‚leistungsschwach' zu beschreiben, ist im deutschen Mediendiskurs bei fast allen PISA-Runden zu sehen. ...
... Auch die Leselust nehme in Deutschland stärker ab als im weltweiten Durchschnitt. PISA 2018 zeige, dass "mehr als die Hälfte […] nur liest, wenn sie muss" (Munzinger, 2019). Auch die Anwendung des erworbenen Wissens falle deutschen Schüler*innen schwer. ...
... Im Bereich der Lehrkräfte wird zum einen bemängelt, dass es einen Lehrkräftemangel an benachteiligen Schulen gäbe (vgl. Munzinger, 2019). Zum anderen bestehe ein Verbesserungsbedarf in der Qualifizierung der Lehrkräfte an deutschen Schulen, z. ...
In der öffentlichen Diskussion zur PISA-Studie wird vielfach auf andere Teilnehmerländer verwiesen, deren Ergebnisse in Relation zu den eigenen gesetzt werden. Diese Verweise auf andere Bildungssysteme haben jedoch in der Regel mehr mit der von vorexistierenden Stereotypen beeinflussten Beobachter*innenperspektive zu tun als mit den Bildungssystemen, auf die verwiesen wird. »Der Mediendiskurs zu Referenzgesellschaften und PISA« unterzieht diese Verweisungsprozesse in den Mediendiskursen Deutschlands und Festlandchinas (2001–2020) einer genaueren Analyse. Das Buch geht den Fragen nach, inwiefern die Entstehung der hier im Spiel befindlichen Stereotype im Kontext der globalen Kolonialgeschichte zu verstehen ist und welche Funktionen solche Stereotypisierungen in der aktuellen Diskussion über lokale Bildungsreformen sowie die Weltordnung erfüllen.
... However, some insights from the creativity and cross-cultural psychology literature may shed light on this topic. Researchers have argued that culture can exert an influence on the evaluation criteria of creativity (Karwowski, 2016;Niu & Sternberg, 2006). The two fundamental criteria of creativity are the originality and appropriateness of ideas or products (Runco & Jaeger, 2012). ...
... When it comes to the valuation of these two aspects, it is suggested that Westerners think highly of originality, whereas their Eastern counterparts emphasize appropriateness or usefulness (Adair & Xiong, 2018;Morris & Leung, 2010;Nijstad et al., 2010;Xie & Paik, 2019). This divergence in priorities can potentially be explained by the different philosophical roots and cultural orientations of the two cultures (Niu & Sternberg, 2006). Western culture tends to be more individualistic and regards creativity as a form of divine inspiration; thus, people brought up in this culture may believe that creativity refers to things which are groundbreaking. ...
... One explanation for the discrepancy is the different cultural orientations (individualism vs. collectivism) of the two groups, a classic argument in interpreting cross-cultural variations in creativity research (Lubart, 2010;Niu & Kaufman, 2013;Niu & Sternberg, 2006). Specifically, distinct cultural contexts may influence individuals' evaluation process. ...
Evaluative skill is the ability to accurately judge ideas on creativity (or originality), which is a critical component of creativity. Various aspects of creativity have been examined cross-culturally, but little research has focused on evaluative skill. The first goal of this study was to examine the measurement invariance of evaluative skill assessments, which were based on two types of divergent thinking tests (Line Meanings and Uses), between American (n = 341) and Chinese (n = 345) college students. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor model based on two types of evaluation tasks, and this model satisfied configural and weak invariance. However, partial strong invariance was satisfied only for the Uses evaluation task. Based on this evidence, our second goal was to explore the differences in evaluative skill between these two groups. Via latent mean comparisons, we found that American participants had better performance on evaluative skill based on the Uses evaluation task than their Chinese counterparts. Taken together, this study is one of the first to examine the cross-cultural differences in evaluative skill between American and Chinese adults. This study offered preliminary results showing some invariance in evaluative skill assessments across cultures and indicating cross-cultural differences in this ability.
Keywords: creativity, evaluative skill, cross-cultural, measurement invariance
... Amabile, 1982;Boden, 2004;Craft, 2001;Csikszentmihalyi, 1996;Elliott, 1971). Nevertheless, recent researches have shown that such association, or even its approximation to human productive doing, is a socioculturally built and historically dated elaboration (Albert & Runco, 1999;Lan & Kaufman, 2012;Lubart, 1999;Niu & Sternberg, 2006). When reviewing literature, Weihua Niu e Robert Sternberg (2002) observed that the conceptions of creativity in the East, present different characteristics, tending to express social and cultural values, while in western territory the focus is on individual assumptions 1 . ...
... When reviewing literature, Weihua Niu e Robert Sternberg (2002) observed that the conceptions of creativity in the East, present different characteristics, tending to express social and cultural values, while in western territory the focus is on individual assumptions 1 . In the West, the notion of creativity is exclusively assigned to the individual, and not inspired by God or gods, it is a modern conception (Dacey, 1999) from Enlightenment, which enabled the exaltation of individual rights and accompanied science and technology's growth (Niu & Sternberg, 2006). Considered by the Greeks as an attribute of the poets 2 , creativity is now inscribed in many spheres of life (in sciences, arts, literature etc.), also including daily life (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007;Boden, 2004;Runco, 1996). ...
... Considered by the Greeks as an attribute of the poets 2 , creativity is now inscribed in many spheres of life (in sciences, arts, literature etc.), also including daily life (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007;Boden, 2004;Runco, 1996). Due to its individualistic characteristic (in contrast to the collectivist culture present in the East), the western culture emphasizes an individualistic notion of creativity, still in the 17th century being driven by tributes (awardings, patents etc.) offered by some countries to individuals that obtain solutions to technological problems (Niu & Sternberg, 2006). ...
This article aims to problematize the position of the "creative subject" category in contemporary times, as well as its relations with the standards established by market practices. Two media discourses were analyzed, one uttered in the Saia Justa (GNT) TV show and the other in a commercial from the Shark Tank (ABC) TV show, both of them focused on creativity and entrepreneurship in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis methodology was based on the French approach of Discourse Analysis. The results show a creative subject built from a neoliberal mechanism that (a) discursively silences the inequality-universality contradiction; (b) assigns value to creativity (and to the creative subject) based on the market logic (expenditure and competition); and (c) through the process of interpellation, induces the subject to identify him/herself with this neoliberal Other and regulate his/her creative volitions based on it.
... Amabile, 1982;Boden, 2004;Craft, 2001;Csikszentmihalyi, 1996;Elliott, 1971). Contudo, pesquisas recentes têm evidenciado que tal associação, ou mesmo sua aproximação com o próprio fazer produtivo humano, é uma elaboração socioculturalmente construída e historicamente datada (Albert & Runco, 1999;Lan & Kaufman, 2012;Lubart, 1999;Niu & Sternberg, 2006). Ao realizarem uma revisão de literatura, Weihua Niu e Robert Sternberg (2002) observaram que as concepções de criatividade no Oriente apresentam características diferenciadas, tendendo a expressar valores sociais e morais, enquanto que, na contraparte ocidental, o foco está em pressupostos individuais 1 . ...
... Ao realizarem uma revisão de literatura, Weihua Niu e Robert Sternberg (2002) observaram que as concepções de criatividade no Oriente apresentam características diferenciadas, tendendo a expressar valores sociais e morais, enquanto que, na contraparte ocidental, o foco está em pressupostos individuais 1 . No Ocidente, a noção de criatividade atribuída exclusivamente ao indivíduo, e não inspirada por Deus ou deuses, é uma concepção moderna (Dacey, 1999), fruto do Iluminismo, que possibilitou a exaltação dos direitos individuais e acompanhou o crescimento da ciência e da tecnologia (Niu & Sternberg, 2006). A criatividade, considerada pelos gregos como um atributo dos poetas 2 , agora se inscreve em várias esferas da vida (nas ciências, nas artes, na literatura etc.), incluindo, também, a cotidiana (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007;Boden, 2004;Runco, 1996). ...
... A cultura ocidental, por sua característica individualista (em contraposição à cultura coletivista presente no Oriente), enfatiza uma noção individualista de criatividade, sendo essa impulsionada, ainda no séc. XVII, por meio de homenagens (premiações, patentes etc.) oferecidas por alguns países europeus a indivíduos que obtivessem soluções para problemas tecnológicos (Niu & Sternberg, 2006). ...
O presente artigo visa a problematizar o lugar da categoria "sujeito criativo" na contemporaneidade, assim como suas vinculações com os padrões estabelecidos pelas práticas de mercado. Foram analisados dois discursos midiáticos proferidos no programa Saia Justa (GNT) e em um comercial do programa Shark Tank (ABC), ambos voltados à criatividade e ao empreendedorismo no contexto da pandemia de covid-19. A metodologia de análise teve como base a Análise de Discurso de linha francesa. Os resultados evidenciam um sujeito criativo construído a partir de um mecanismo neoliberal que (a) silencia discursivamente a contradição desigualdade-universalidade; (b) atribui valor à criatividade (e ao sujeito criativo) a partir da lógica de mercado (consumo e concorrência); e (c) induz, pelo processo de interpelação, o sujeito a identificar-se com este Outro neoliberal e regular suas volições criativas a partir desse.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Sujeito; Criatividade; Discurso; Meios de Comunicação de Massa; Neoliberalismo.
... As a result, Westerners tend to consider creativity as an ability that one unleashes from within and expresses outwards. Because the modern concept diverges greatly from the ancient divine beliefs of creativity in the West, the latter is not reviewed here (for more, see the philosophical roots reviewed in Niu & Sternberg, 2006). ...
... These ideas are inevitably evidenced in East Asians' understanding of creativity. Cultural research of creativity broadly accepts that Taoism has a great impact on Chinese creativity (Niu & Sternberg, 2006;Kuo, 1996). Yan (2015) argues that while Western creativity is associated with conquering nature, East Asian creativity is about seeking harmony with nature ("Tian Ren He Yi"). ...
... Ancient creative problem solvers in China are often depicted as situationattending "observers" (Langer, 2009;Rudowicz & Yue, 2000) who can draw connections from the past (Niu & Sternberg, 2002) rather than being "bolt from the blue" unconventional thinkers. According to the Taoist classics, the creative process is a process of "the inner apprehension of dao, when all the distinctions between subject and object vanish" (Niu & Sternberg, 2006). Chu argues that, "[Chinese] creativity is related to meditation, because it helps one to see the true nature of the self, an object, or an event" (Chu, 1970, p. 340). ...
While people around the world constantly come up with ingenious ideas to solve problems, the expressions of their ingenuity and their underlying motivations and experiences may vary greatly across cultures. Currently, the role of culture is often overlooked in research and practice aimed at understanding and promoting creativity. The lack of understanding of cultural variations in creative processes hinders cross-cultural collaboration in problem-solving and innovation. We challenge the unexamined American perspectives of creativity through a systematic analysis of how ideas, policies, norms, practices, and individual tendencies around creative problem-solving are shaped in American and East Asian cultural contexts, using the culture cycle framework. We share initial findings from several pilot studies that challenge the popular view that only agentic change-makers are seen as creative problem solvers. In the context of design, designers are culturally shaped shapers who are motivated to solve problems in creative ways that resonate with their cultural values. Our research seeks to empower designers from non-Western societies. We urge design educators and practitioners to explicitly incorporate culturally varied ideas about creative problem-solving into their design processes. Our ultimate goal is to ground the theories and practices of design thinking in cultural contexts around the world.
... Carlile & Jordan, 2012;Lubart, 2010;Morris & Leung, 2010;Ng, 2004;Kaufmann & Beghetto, 2009;Rudowicz & Yue, 2000). However, the focus of Eastern perspectives of creativity has largely been confined to Confucianism (Kim, 2005;Niu, 2013;Niu & Sternberg, 2006;Tan, 2020a). Although Confucianism has undeniably moulded the development of creativity in Eastern societies for millennia, it is not the only philosophical tradition that is salient to creativity. ...
... To date, there is limited research on Daoist interpretations of creativity. A literature review shows less than a dozen of publications on the relationship between Daoism and creativity (Bracken, 1993;Chang, 2011;Chung, 2022;Hall, 1978;Niu, 2003;Niu & Sternberg, 2006;Wang, 2021;Wang & Chen, 2021;Yang, 2017), including one paper published in this journal (Kuo, 1996). Of these, most discussed Daoism in general terms and did not engage in a detailed exposition of philosophical concepts through a textual analysis of Daoist texts. ...
This paper elucidates a Daoist perspective of creativity by focussing on novelty and usefulness. Drawing on the thought of Zhuangzi, it is noted that he advocates original and unorthodox views by challenging social norms and traditional practices. He also questions the prevailing notions and assumptions concerning the usefulness and uselessness of things and people. To liberate humans from conventional commitment and judgement, Zhuangzi recommends two Daoist concepts. The first is 'fasting of the heart-mind' (xin zhai) where a person empties oneself of preconceived ideas and practices. The second Daoist notion is 'wandering' (you) where one responds to people, things and situations in an open-minded, appreciative, playful and spontaneous manner. There are three major implications arising from a Zhuangzian conception of creativity: it contributes to an existing literature gap on the philosophy of creativity, extends the research on Eastern formulations of creativity that hitherto has centred on Confucianism, and challenges and reconstructs the prevalent Western understandings and presuppositions concerning creativity and related terms.
... That is, instead of providing an intuition-driven dilemma for agential notions of creativity, we'll demonstrate how a non-agential conception can be adopted with minimal cost 5 . 4 Boden (2018) argues that certain kinds of originality are not required for creativity, and see Niu & Sternberg (2006) and Niu (2012) for arguments that originality and value are disconnected in Eastern traditions. Hills & Bird (2018) argue against the idea that creative products must be valuable and there is a long discussion concerning whether immoral creations may be creative (see for instance Novitz 2003for no, Cropley, Kaufmen, Caropley 2008 for yes). ...
... That is, instead of providing an intuition-driven dilemma for agential notions of creativity, we'll demonstrate how a non-agential conception can be adopted with minimal cost 5 . 4 Boden (2018) argues that certain kinds of originality are not required for creativity, and see Niu & Sternberg (2006) and Niu (2012) for arguments that originality and value are disconnected in Eastern traditions. Hills & Bird (2018) argue against the idea that creative products must be valuable and there is a long discussion concerning whether immoral creations may be creative (see for instance Novitz 2003for no, Cropley, Kaufmen, Caropley 2008 for yes). ...
Common philosophical accounts of creativity align creative products and processes with a particular kind of agency: namely, that deserving of praise or blame. Considering evolutionary examples, we explore two ways of denying that creativity requires forms of agency. First, we argue that decoupling creativity from praiseworthiness comes at little cost: accepting that evolutionary processes are non-agential, they nonetheless exhibit many of the same characteristics and value associated with creativity. Second, we develop a ‘product-first’ account of creativity by which a process is creative just in case it gives rise to products deserving of certain forms of aesthetic engagement.
... In turn, such different values endorsed in scientific fields suggest that perceptions of scientific creativity can vary within fields. In addition, previous studies (Morris & Leung, 2010;Niu & Sternberg, 2006) have reported differences in the Eastern and Western views on scientific creativitythe former view emphasizes usefulness, and the latter view emphasizes noveltywhich indicates varying perceptions of scientific creativity in different cultures. The current study aims to examine Korean scientists' perceptions of scientific creativity in different research fields, contributing to the development of an understanding of scientific creativity in different contexts. ...
... A representative issue in relation to the contextualised aspect of scientific creativity concerns the different perspectives on creativity between the East and West. Previous studies (Morris & Leung, 2010;Niu & Sternberg, 2006) have found that novelty is more emphasized in Western perspectives, whereas Eastern perspectives prioritise usefulness. Differences between the two cultures have also been highlighted in the processes of generating creative ideaswhile meditation or mindfulness is viewed as key to creative processes in Eastern cultures, Western cultures consider creative ideas to be achieved more through social communication (Shao et al., 2019). ...
Creativity is considered a key element of the scientific infrastructure and a driving force of scientific advancement. This study aims to present Korean scientists’ voices regarding scientific creativity by investigating their perceptions of scientific creativity and education for it. Extending the phenomenography lens through activity theory, we interviewed eleven scientists in various science research fields and investigated the structural features of the situations that influenced their perceptions. The results show that scientists’ perceptions of scientific creativity were developed by the different epistemic cultures in their research fields. In addition, their perceptions of education for scientific creativity centred on the accumulation of resources to generate novel and valuable ideas and the facilitation of open discussion on knowledge construction. We discuss their perceptions of creativity in the context of their research fields’ epistemic cultures and the design of science education for scientific creativity. We conclude by discussing the implications of this study for developing science education to cultivate creative scientists.
... Chinese philosophy emphasized that creativity is a process of self-cultivation/learning and contributing to social values (Niu et al., 2006). Teachers who live under Chinese context would find it hard, if not problematic, to perceive creativity to be independent from creative characteristics that are related to self-cultivation, learning process, and making contribution to society. ...
While the Chinese government is in full force to narrow the gap between its rural and urban areas in all facets of development, it has been suggested that there are disparities in teacher quality in the two dichotomous territories, especially in terms of promoting children’s cognitive trajectory. To unpack specifically the differences of the two groups of teachers’ capacities to foster children’s creativity, this study investigated the impact, namely the moderating effect, of the urbanicity construct (i.e., in terms of the extent of urbanization of the teachers’ living and working environment) on the relationship between teachers’ perceived creativity characteristics of children and teachers’ intention of creativity fostering teaching. Such was done through comparing the teachers’ perception of creative characteristics (teachers’ CC), vis-à-vis teachers’ intention of creativity fostering teaching (teachers’ CFT intention). In total, 104 teachers from two parts of Guizhou province participated in the study. Results showed that teachers’ CC positively associated with CFT intention. However, urbanicity did not directly associate with teachers’ CC and CFT. Instead, higher urbanicity decreased the association between teachers’ CC and CFT intention. Implications and the significance of these findings will be discussed.
... The Mini-C-creativity is especially important for this article because it focuses on students and their creative abilities in domain-specific learning situations (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014). In summary, the Four-C-Model emphasizes the essential difference between the individual creativity (Niu & Sternberg, 2006) of students and that of professional mathematicians. ...
Both educational policies and current mathematics education research highlight that all students should be given the opportunity to be creative in mathematics class. However, if creativity is of such significance to mathematics learning, how can we describe the mathematical creativity of school children? Conducting an integrative literature review, this article aims to answer this question by synthesizing conceptual aspects and research results on the mathematical creativity of young school children working on mathematical open tasks. Here, concepts of creativity in mathematics education based on a divergent production approach are emphasized in detail. This leads to the introduction of the term “individual mathematical creativity” and to the suggestion of a framework to qualitatively characterize the individual mathematical creativity of school children working on open tasks. Its relevance and application as a scientific and/or educational tool to analyze and foster the creativity of students are explained exemplarily using the creative task processing of the 6-year-old student Jessica.
... Maybe, it is the legacy of the biblical concept of God creator, who was considered in turn the source of human creativity. It is also part of the Ancient Greek tradition (Niu and Sternberg, 2006). The view of people living in Far East countries is fundamentally different. ...
... The cultural connotations of creativity largely boil down to (Freud's, 1961) theory of sublimation (1961), which speaks to an adaptive talent for a unique expression or a complex articulation of a particular experience or conflict. Historically, there has always been a belief that creativity is the result of a "divine gift" that few possess (Niu & Sternberg, 2006), but in recent years psychological research has begun to observe creativity less as a rarefied artistic prowess and more as a complex and omnipresent trait (Wanot, Wanot, & Fil, 2019). The lens of creativity now expands well beyond the realm of the artistic, touching on a universal drive to innovate and adapt in order to better navigate through life in ways large and small. ...
Creativity has been conceptualized not just as a measure of artistic ability, but also as an adaptive trait of everyday innovation. We posit the relevance of “everyday creativity” to the field of psychotherapy. Although creativity has been theorized in psychotherapy models of change and the therapy process, little empirical research has examined patients’ and therapists’ creativity in psychotherapy treatments. Moreover, creativity research has been hampered by the vast array of definitions and operationalizations of the construct. Despite a lack of direct evidence, there appears to be substantial overlap between the empirically observed characteristics of creativity and the aims of psychotherapy treatments. First, research on characteristics of creative individuals, by way of personality, cognition, emotion, and psychopathology might overlap with what we know about individuals who benefit from psychotherapy. Second, the therapeutic process might resemble a creative process, suggesting that creativity could be a mediator of treatment outcomes. Third, creativity may be seen as a treatment outcome in that it reflects the achievement of more open-minded thinking, cognitive and emotional flexibility, as well as diminished psychopathology. We take a hypothesis-generating stance, suggesting future research that could test a potential mediating/moderating role of creativity in psychotherapy.
... The way that creativity has been understood and conceptualised has typically differed between the East and West. From an Eastern perspective, the source of creativity is generally located outside the individual within the sphere of the universe and as such, in order to enhance one's creativity, an appreciation of one's relationship to others, to nature, and to tradition and the past is considered vital (Niu and Sternberg, 2006). Some Western philosophers similarly put forward spiritual and religious theories to posit Introduction 5 that creativity manifests through people as an expression of the Divine or by 'the will of the gods' (ibid., p.21). ...
... Additionally, cultural differences exist in determining creativity. According to Niu and Sternberg (2006) ...
Stress is unavoidable and impacts daily life. College students experience academic stress and are not always prepared to cope effectively. A 2015 survey by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors found that 60% of students reported feeling "overwhelmed" by their experience (Reetz, Bershad, LeViness & Whitlock, 2016). Different creative aptitudes may be related to differences in outcomes of coping strategies. The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping published by Lazarus and Folkman in 1984 was used to link student coping styles to academic achievement levels (Struthers, Perry, & Menec, 2000). Students who utilized creativity performed better academically (Nami, Marsooli, & Ashouri, 2014). The Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale was used to measure everyday creativity (Kaufman, 2012) to evaluate which creative domains are most related to coping with academic stress. The domains of creativity identified by Kaufman include Self/Everyday, Scholarly, Performance, Mechanical/Scientific, and Artistic creativity. The Original Academic Stress Scale measures subscales of stress related to academics (Kormi-Nouri, Macdonald, Farahani, Trost & Shokri, 2015) and was used to measure college student stress. The researchers hypothesized that Self/Everyday creativity would be most related to stress in college students from difficulties in and outside of class and from interactions with the university. Scholarly creativity was most predictive of in-class stress, but Self/Everyday creativity was also a significant predictor. None of the creative domains were significant predictors of stress outside of class. Self/Everyday creativity was most predictive of stress from interactions with the university. This research can be used to design and implement programs for effective creative coping for college students to reduce stress and improve performance. By implementing such programs, universities could save money and increase retention rates, GPAs, and quality of life for students.
... Amabile et al. 1986). Furthermore, creative employees may think that the expression of creativity includes a focus on social values (Niu and Sternberg 2006); as such, they are motivated to demonstrate their creativity by proposing new ideas that can benefit others and contribute to society as a whole (Niu and Sternberg 2002;Rudowicz and Yue 2000). Finally, existing research has shown that highly creative children can exhibit greater prosocial behavior (Roeper and Silverman 2009;Silverman 1994), which also provides indirect supporting evidence. ...
Research shows that the effects of creative personality on moral disengagement and unethical behaviors are mixed. To reconcile the disparate findings, we draw on interdependence theory to unravel how and when creative personality is related to moral disengagement through countervailing pathways. Specifically, we propose competitive motivation and prosocial motivation as two distinct mechanisms that explain the double-edged effects of creative personality on moral disengagement and subsequent unethical behaviors. Furthermore, we hypothesize a cross-level moderating effect of competitive climate on the relationships between competitive/prosocial motivation and moral disengagement. Results based on three-wave data from 753 employees showed that creative personality increased moral disengagement and subsequent unethical behaviors through competitive motivation, but decreased moral disengagement and subsequent unethical behaviors through prosocial motivation. In addition, competitive climate weakened the negative relationship between prosocial motivation and moral disengagement and the negative indirect relationship between creative personality and unethical behaviors via prosocial motivation and moral disengagement.
This study examines generative artificial intelligences (GAI), as popularised by ChatGPT, in standardised creativity tests, uncovering what we called the “creative AI-Land”. As the study of creativity was metaphorically seen as a trip across the seven seas (C’s) by Lubart, we conceptualise AI creativity as uncharted territory in the creativity field. Benchmaking GAI against human performance, results show that ChatGPT demonstrates remarkable fluency in content generation, though the creative output is average. The random nature of AI creativity and the dependency on the richness of the training database require a reassessment of traditional creativity metrics especially for AI. Our findings highlight the integral role humans play in guiding AI to foster genuine originality, suggesting the need for future research in human-AI co-creation and the development of robust AI creativity measurement mechanisms.
Biological adaptations appear designed for a purpose, and so they result from a “creative process” almost by definition. Traditional evolutionary theory assigns a special role in this process to natural selection, with theorists invoking selection both to explain the appearance of purpose, and to predict what the purpose of adaptations will be. At the same time, traditional theory recognizes that many other factors might influence the evolution of adaptations. These factors might, for example, increase evolvability and accelerate adaptation, or bias evolution towards a subset of the possible adaptive outcomes. Such factors are also creative in a sense, but not in the same sense as natural selection. Challenges to traditional theory have sometimes championed organisms as a neglected source of creativity in evolution. This could be interpreted as the radical claim that non-human organisms—like people—are novel sources of purpose in nature, generating apparently designed outcomes that are not directed at reproductive success. But it might also be interpreted as the uncontroversial claim that organisms—like many other things—sometimes act in a way that accelerates adaptation or makes some adaptive outcomes more probable than others. Ambiguity about their claims has led to theories attracting unwarranted enthusiasm and unwarranted scepticism, and distracts us from the criteria by which the theories should be judged.KeywordsAdaptationEvolvabilityGenetic assimilationNiche construction
Astyanax mexicanus
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
This chapter suggests that culture and evaluation are inextricably linked. Therefore, culture should not be regarded as a phenomenon that needs to be controlled for in assessments; rather, it should be regarded as a fundamental component of assessment, beginning with its conceptualization and continuing through its design, construction, and interpretation of student performance. This study aims to discuss the relationship of culture to language assessment, teachers' awareness of cultural and linguistic bias in testing, and the negative effect of test bias on learners' motivation and performance; the ways of minimizing linguistic and cultural bias in language tests and maximizing cultural validity in classroom-based language assessment; to find out how learners and teachers from different cultures view success from a language learning perspective; and to find out how learners and teachers from different cultures view success from a cultural perspective.
The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity and Emotions provides a state-of-the-art review of research on the role of emotions in creativity. This volume presents the insights and perspectives of sixty creativity scholars from thirteen countries who span multiple disciplines, including developmental, social, and personality psychology; industrial and organizational psychology; neuroscience; education; art therapy, and sociology. It discusses affective processes – emotion states, traits, and emotion abilities – in relation to the creative process, person, and product, as well as two major contexts for expression of creativity: school, and work. It is a go-to source for scholars who need to enhance their understanding of a specific topic relating to creativity and emotion, and it provides students and researchers with a comprehensive introduction to creativity and emotion broadly.
Lewis Carroll’s books about Alice reflect the experience of coaching clients who go through the process of using creative activities in a coaching space. Like Alice, the client faces the known and not so clear, as the acts of creativity entwine the conscious and unconscious states towards journeyed resolutions. Creativity in coaching affords a chance to connect through the transpersonal self within and beyond an assumed life position. Clients work with creative acts surfacing their emotions, assumptions, perceived blocks, and opportunities moving between the edges of fatalism and agency. The creative process acts as a third position between the coach and the client, this helps the coaching client face what they may feel uncomfortable with and evokes curiosity that acts as a lens and mirror for personal examination. In conclusion, this paper argues that realisation transforms us, also in some cases transports us, transcending to another state, an acceptance of the self, future belief, and clearer purpose. In essence, agency is being able to move within your own dream, to become authentic and not to be caught in the dream of someone else, which eventually traps and confines us. Lest not be caught in the dream of the Red King.
A música é considerada a mais antiga forma de comunicação humana e tem a capacidade de evocar significação, imaginação, criatividade e inovação. A lira é um instrumento musical muito antigo e surge associada ao mundo imaginário e mitológico da Grécia Antiga. As suas qualidades elegem-na como um dos instrumentos dos poetas, dos filósofos, dos educadores. Para além ser um veículo de convergência dos planos celestial e humano, a lira é um instrumento educativo, catártico e purificador de almas e simboliza a paz e o silêncio profundo. Revisitar a lira foi das experiências mais sublimes não apenas pelo seu peso simbólico no imaginário ocidental coletivo, mas também pelo oceano de possibilidades que oferece neste mundo contemporâneo tão repleto de vicissitudes e contrariedades e onde a liberdade surge como a busca incessante da realização humana. Revistar e resgatar a lira para fins educativos é o propósito deste nosso artigo.
The article observes the interrelation between intercultural interaction and creativity. The topic considered is of immediate interest in foreign psychological studies and has received an extended coverage in contemporary scientific journals. In many studies it have been stated that, in general, intercultural contact stimulates creativity. Nevertheless, a single unified model describing the mechanism of such effect occurrence has not been created. Four main groups of factors influencing the relations of intercultural contact and creativity have been formulated, based on the approaches presented in the foreign literature: cognitive factors associated with new knowledge and its’ processing; factors related to self-identification and intergroup relations in a heterogeneous society; factors of acculturation; personality factors.
Growing isolation and labour precarity in media work (Deuze 2007, 2011) has
generated novel forms of collectivism and activism within the Creative
Industries. This chapter discusses Enspiral (NZ), an entity that draws on a
blend of digital literacies to mediate participant experience of unstable
livelihoods and professional identities, whilst fostering social
entrepreneurship. This organised network, or “orgnet” (Lovink, 2007;
Rossiter, 2006; Lovink & Rossiter) has created relatively fluid, hybridised
structures and practices to move beyond the rigid hierarchical interaction that
characterises corporate organisations. An example is cloud-based software
that permits cohesive, carefully governed and recorded horizontal —
“democratic” — decision-making by a spatiotemporally distributed group.
The stability of the network is performed in various modes that demonstrate
consensus around ethical boundaries, and members write commentary and
host and participate in public via a range of physical and digital platforms,
reformulating activism as an interventionist narrative that promotes the global
whilst valorising and nurturing the local.
I begin with my inspiration: a career in the Creative Industries, starting in
agencies before taking the leap with my own business and participating in the
inspiring culture of coworking spaces. I then introduce Lovink and Rossiter’s
concept of the “orgnet”, a move that permits me to explain the primary causes
of uncertainty in a present and future world, whilst locating the discussion in
the Creative Industries and tracing a genealogy for socio-technical and
environmental conditions that have given rise to increasingly coherent and
and stable organised networks of media workers. Here, global systems and
conditions have generated labour precarity in the (proposed) geological
epoch, the Anthropocene, and the post-industrial circumstances ofcontemporaneous media work. Finally, I describe Enspiral’s history,
technology use and cultural features before drawing tentative conclusions
about what this orgnet reveals of the future, and the growing importance of
precarity to researchers and creatives alike.
Keywords: future work, collaboration, social enterprise
How we see ourselves and how we want others to see us affect our behaviors. We often act in ways that support and protect our valued identities and self-perceptions. Research on the creative identity supports this idea. If we see ourselves as creative people, we act in ways that we associate with creativity. This might mean engaging in idea generation or other creativity-related behaviors. However, depending on what people subjectively associate with creativity, it also can lead to behaviors that we often associate with people who are creative like being unconventional or counter-normative. Engaging in those behaviors can lead to both moral and immoral behaviors in order to support one's creative identity.
The creativity-morality nexus has come to the forefront of research with increasing interest from the scientific community and the general public, having many managerial and organizational insights as well as interdisciplinary theoretical implications. From the complexity perspective, the present chapter, building on our well-described definitions of creativity and morality, summarizes the main research approaches in this regard, highlighting the difficulty in achieving a definitive conclusion. Three often-reported relationships on this topic, namely no relation between creativity and morality, positive association, and negative association are reviewed. Based on these findings, a more comprehensive research measure and approach including meta-analysis and multitrait, multimethod route is recommended for future research in the domain.
The introductory chapter to Creativity and Morality outlines the relationship between the constructs, summarizing the AMORAL model of dark creativity (Kapoor & Kaufman, in press). Specifically, the Antecedents, Mechanisms (individual), Operants (environmental), Realization, Aftereffects, and Legacy of the creative action are theorized and described within the context of general and dark creativity. We present real-life and simulated examples to illustrate the application of the theory across multiple domains, from law enforcement to interpersonal relationships, from the initial idea to the impact of the eventual action. The AMORAL model will help introduce the main concepts that will be addressed in subsequent chapters.
As interest in creativity explodes, it has become more complicated to decide how to best nurture creativity in our schools. There are the controversial Common Core Standards in many states. Meanwhile, the classroom has become increasingly digital; it is easier to access information, communicate ideas, and learn from people across the world. Many countries now include cultivating creativity as a national educational policy recommendation, yet there is still debate over best practices. Indeed, many well-intentioned educators may institute programs that may not reach the desired outcome. The notion that schools 'kill creativity' has become a widespread social meme. We view such beliefs as both hyperbolic and problematic: they allow us to recognize there is a problem but not solve it. In this book, a wide array of international experts addresses these issues, discussing theories and research that focus on how to nurture creativity in K-12 and college-level classrooms.
Zusammenfassung
Ausgehend von der Darstellung verschiedener mathematikdidaktischer Bezeichnungen für Aufgaben, welche die individuelle mathematische Kreativität von Schüler*innen anregen, wird der Begriff der offenen Aufgabenbegründet ausgewählt und dieser Aufgabentyp mit Blick auf eine kreative Bearbeitung konkret charakterisiert. Damit alle Schüler*innen ihre individuelle mathematische Kreativität zeigen können, werden nachfolgend arithmetisch offene Aufgaben spezifiziert, die mithilfe des Zahlenblicks kreativ bearbeitet werden können.
Zusammenfassung
Um erste unterrichtspraktische Konsequenzen zur Gestaltung eines Mathematikunterrichts abzuleiten, in dem Schüler*innen bei der Bearbeitung offener Aufgaben kreativ werden können, wurde zum einen die Auswahl der arithmetisch offenen Aufgaben fokussiert. Die Analyse ergab, dass die individuelle mathematische Kreativität ein aufgabenspezifisches Konstrukt ist. Zum anderen zeigen die Ergebnisse aus der Analyse der verschiedenen eingesetzten Lernprompts, dass eine individuelle Unterstützung der Elaborationsfähigkeit der jungen Schulkinder insbesondere durch metakognitive Prompts möglich und bedeutsam war.
Zusammenfassung
Die umfangreichen Kontingenzanalysen konnten keine Abhängigkeiten zwischen den individuellen Voraussetzungen der Erstklässler*innen und ihrer individuellen mathematischen Kreativität aufzeigen. Dagegen verdeutlichten die weiterführenden qualitativen Analysen einen gewissen Zusammenhang zwischen den mathematischen Fähigkeiten der Erstklässler*innen und ihrer Kreativität beim Bearbeiten arithmetisch offener Aufgaben.
Zusammenfassung
Um in dieser Studie die individuelle mathematische Kreativität von Erstklässler*innen facettenreich zu beschreiben, wurde eine Mixed Methods-Studie geplant und durchgeführt. Dabei wurde zunächst ein quantitatives Sampling-Verfahren gewählt, um gezielt junge Schulkinder für diese Studie auszuwählen. Während sich zudem bei der Datenerhebung, d. h. die Durchführung von Einzel-Unterrichtsepisoden, qualitativen Methoden bedient wurde, bestand die Datenauswertung sowie -interpretation aus einer gezielten Kombination von qualitativen und quantitativen Methoden.
Zusammenfassung
Als zentrales Forschungsergebnis wurde zunächst eine Charakterisierung der individuellen mathematischen Kreativität von Erstklässler*innen vorgenommen, aus der dann vier qualitativ verschiedene Kreativitätstypen entwickelt werden konnten, die das Spektrum kreativen Handelns junger Schulkinder bei der Bearbeitung arithmetisch offener Aufgaben abbilden. Als Ergänzung wurde zudem die statistische Zuordnung der Aufgabenbearbeitungen der 18 Erstklässler*innen zu den Kreativitätstypen betrachtet und eine vertiefende mathematisch-inhaltliche Analyse der Kreativitätstypen auf Ebene der von den Kindern gezeigten arithmetischen Ideentypen vorgenommen.
Zusammenfassung
In dieser empirischen Arbeit wird die individuelle mathematische Kreativität von Erstklässler*innen bei der Bearbeitung arithmetisch offener Aufgaben fokussiert. Dazu werden zunächst relevante Ergebnisse aus mathematikdidaktischen Forschungen aufgeführt, die ein aktuelles Forschungsdesiderat aufzeigen, das durch diese Studie geschlossen werden soll. Anschließend werden die zentralen Forschungsziele und -fragen erläutert, durch deren Beantwortung die individuelle mathematische Kreativität von Erstklässler*innen facettenreich erforscht werden soll.
Zusammenfassung
Ein alltagssprachliches Verständnis des Begriffs der Kreativität aufgreifend wird zunächst begründet, warum Kreativität kein Mythos ist und die mathematikdidaktische Betrachtung dieses außergewöhnlichen sowie bedeutsamen Themas herausgestellt. Ziel dieses Kapitels ist die explizite Definition der individuellen mathematischen Kreativität von Schulkindern und die darauf basierende Entwicklung des InMaKreS-Modells für die empirische Beobachtung sowie qualitative Beschreibung kreativer Tätigkeiten von Mathematiklernenden. Dafür werden zunächst grundlegende und inhaltliche Aspekte eines umfassenden Begriffsverständnisses von Kreativität im Mathematikunterricht der Grundschule systematisch präsentiert und für diese Arbeit begründet konkretisiert.
In dieser Open-Access-Publikation wird zunächst die individuelle mathematische Kreativität von Schulkindern (InMaKreS) konkret definiert und darauf aufbauend das InMaKreS-Modell entwickelt, welches bedeutsame Implikationen für das Beobachten und Anregen kreativen Verhaltens in mathematischen Lehr-Lern-Situationen aufzeigt. In einer Mixed Methods-Studie werden daraufhin vier Kreativitätstypen herausgearbeitet, welche die Spannweite kreativer Fähigkeiten von Erstklässler*innen bei der Bearbeitung arithmetisch offener Aufgaben abbilden. Zudem werden Besonderheiten der kreativen Umgebung wie die Auswahl geeigneter offener Aufgaben oder Unterstützungsmöglichkeiten von Lehrkräften durch den Einsatz (meta-)kognitiver Prompts analysiert und vor dem Hintergrund einer heterogenen Schülerschaft diskutiert.
Zusammenfassung
Resümierend kann Jessikas Aussage „Ich sehe auf meinem Kopf so viele Aufgaben.“ durch seine Bildhaftigkeit sinnhaft als das Erleben der eigenen Kreativität gesehen werden und verdeutlichen, vor welcher großen Chance Schüler*innen bei der Bearbeitung offener Aufgaben im Mathematikunterricht stehen. Meine Dissertation darf daher als Einladung zu einem neugierigen Blick auf die individuelle mathematische Kreativität aller Schüler*innen verstanden werden.
Zusammenfassung
Das Teaching Experiment ist eine Methodologie für mathematikdidaktische Forschungen, die das Ziel verfolgt, die Entwicklung ausgewählter mathematischer Fähigkeiten und Denkprozesse von Schüler*innen durch gezielt geplanten Unterricht anzuregen und dadurch zu verstehen. In dem sich die vorliegende Studie an diese Methodologie anlehnt und Einzel-Unterrichtsepisoden geplant werden, in denen Erstklässler*innen zwei arithmetisch offene Aufgaben bearbeiteten, kann deren individuelle mathematische Kreativität im Sinne des InMaKreS-Modells rekonstruiert werden.
Zusammenfassung
Damit Schüler*innen ihre individuelle mathematische Kreativität bei der Bearbeitung offener Aufgaben zeigen können, kommt der unterstützenden Interaktion zwischen Lernenden und Lehrenden eine besondere Bedeutung zu. In diesem Zusammenhang kann das konstruktivistische Unterrichtskonzept des Scaffoldings wichtige Hinweise für die Gestaltung einer kreativen Umgebung liefern. Als geeignete Methode für die Unterstützung von Schulkindern bei der kreativen Bearbeitung offener Aufgaben wird daher insbesondere der Einsatz (meta-)kognitiver Lernprompts beleuchtet.
Zusammenfassung
Im Rahmen einer kritischen und reflexiven Diskussion meiner gesamten Dissertationsschrift werden sowohl forschungsrelevante als auch unterrichtspraktische Implikationen für das Konstrukt der individuellen mathematischen Kreativität von Schulkindern sowie Grenzen der vorliegenden Arbeit aufgezeigt. Dabei liegt der Beitrag dieser Studie zur aktuellen, nationalen mathematikdidaktischen Forschung insbesondere in der umfassenden theoretischen Aufbereitung des Begriffs der individuellen mathematischen Kreativität und der facettenreichen empirischen Beschreibung der Kreativität von Erstklässler*innen beim Bearbeiten arithmetisch offener Aufgaben.
Zusammenfassung
Im Rahmen des quantitativen Sampling-Verfahrens wurden mithilfe einer Clusteranalyse aus dem Grundsample von 78 Schulkindern aufgrund ihrer intellektuellen und mathematischen Fähigkeiten sowie dem verwendeten Lehrwerk 18 Erstklässler*innen für die Teilnahme an der qualitativen Studie ausgewählt. Die Cluster selbst stellen vier verschiedene sogenannte Fähigkeitsprofile der Erstklässler*innen bezogen auf ihre mathematischen und intellektuellen Fähigkeiten dar.
Creativity is recognised through subjective social judgements which are determined by our implicit theories and evaluation criteria. Nudges can be applied to shape, suppress, and activate our various implicit theories and evaluation criteria. We can be primed to seek out creativity, countering our (e.g., teachers, managers, decision-makers) natural bias against novelty. Well-placed reminders can invoke our professed desire for creativity, closing any intention-action gap. While it is a relatively new concept, nudges are at the core of many existing creativity interventions. We argue that a conscious effort to design and test nudge-type creativity interventions will lead to the development of potentially more effective interventions.
Generative AI technologies, both visual and musical, have created conflicts around their authenticity, as well as a concern of AI taking over the art world in recent years. By tracing these concerns back to photography and computer art, it can be observed that the same questions gained the same popularity by creating a societal level of controversy whenever new technologies are presented to art-making. This paper discusses different philosophical perspectives creating this controversy by comparing two ontologic discourses of AI Art. This attempt becomes epistemological and ethical due to the varying prerequisites, assumptions, and possible future implications of ideologies leading them. An opinionated debate is formed between transhumanism and Posthumanism through onto-ethico-epistemological explanations for AI Art and Music firstly as a creativity enhancement tool, and secondly as co-creation of an assemblage consisting of human and non-human parts; to elucidate how these different conceptualising may lead our culture to disparate futures.
This article reviews contemporary studies on the concept of creativity across two cultures—Eastern (Asian) cultures and Western (American and European) cultures — by examining two bodies of literature. One is on people's implicit theories of creativity across different cultures and the other is on cross-cultural studies of creativity. Studies on implicit theories of creativity in the East suggest that many Asians have similar but not identical conceptions of creativity to many people in the West. Cross-cultural studies of creativity reveal that Easterners and Westerners differ, on average, in their divergent-thinking performance and creative expressions. A view of creativity as relatively culture-specific is presented and the appropriateness of using divergent-thinking tests to measure creativity is discussed.
Aspects of creativity concepts across different Chinese populations were examined. A Likert style questionnaire consisting of 60 adjectives was administered to 451 undergraduates from Beijing, Guangzhou, Taipei and Hong Kong. The results show that: (a) the core characteristics of creativity identical in all the samples are: “originality”, “innovativeness”, “thinking” and “observational skills”, “flexibility”, “willingness to try”, “self confidence”, and “imagination”; (b) the Taipei sample, unlike the other three samples, does not associate “wisdom”, “assertiveness”, and “individualism” with creativity; (c) in all Chinese populations the three factors labeled innovative, dynamic, and intellectual were distinguishable in the concept of creativity; (d) “artistic” and “humorous” were missing in the Chinese perception of creativity; (e) creativity characteristics received relatively low ratings on the desirability scale.
People in different cultures have strikingly different construals of the self, of others, and of the interdependence of the 2. These construals can influence, and in many cases determine, the very nature of individual experience, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. Many Asian cultures have distinct conceptions of individuality that insist on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. American culture neither assumes nor values such an overt connectedness among individuals. In contrast, individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. As proposed herein, these construals are even more powerful than previously imagined. Theories of the self from both psychology and anthropology are integrated to define in detail the difference between a construal of the self as independent and a construal of the self as interdependent. Each of these divergent construals should have a set of specific consequences for cognition, emotion, and motivation; these consequences are proposed and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
To such a degree have we grown accustomed to speaking of artistic creativity and to linking up the concepts of artist and creator, that they seem to us inseparable. And yet the study of early periods convinces us that it is otherwise and that these concepts have only recently come to be joined together.
Although many refer to the 1950s as the beginning of modern investigations into creativity, foundational work was done during the 19th century. This article focuses on that work. The 19th-century creativity literature addressed five basic questions: (a) How is creativity defined? (b) Who has creativity? (c) What are the characteristics of creative people ? (d) Who should benefit from creativity? and (e) Can creativity be increased through conscious effort? Authors reviewed in this article wrote from a generalist, often philosophical perspective with little experimental basis for their conclusions. Given that we continue to address these same issues today, one wonders whether these are the enduring questions of the field or if we have not progressed as far as we had hoped.
What does it take to be a great creative writer? What components are important for analyzing and comparing writers? Research on creativity, in gen- eral, has increased over the past few decades, but there are still many questions to be answered about creative writing. A model of creativity proposed by Sternberg and Lubart (1995, 1996) was used as a theoretical framework to examine 6 variables: motivation, intelli- gence, personality, thinking styles, knowledge, and environment. Empirical research on each of these vari- ables was compared and discussed. After reviewing the literature on the creative individual, certain compo- nents stood out as being especially important. The pat- tern of internal variables (e.g., intrinsic motivation, instability, impulsivity) was more relevant than were the external variables (e.g., environment). Poetry indeed seems to me more physical than intellectual. A year or two ago, in common with others, I received from America a request that I would define poetry. I replied that I could no more define poetry than a terrier can define a rat, but that I thought we both recognized the object by the symptoms it provokes in us. —A. E. Housman, The Name and Nature of Poetry (1933)
This study involved 633 Grade 5 Chinese students in Hong Kong. Based on peer nominations, students were divided into 5 status groups: average, popular, neglected, rejected, and controversial. The perception of students' degree of creativeness was obtained by peer nomination and by teacher ratings. Results from 2-way analyses of variance showed significant sex and group differences in peer-nominated creativity and group differences in teacher-rated creativity. Among students, boys were regarded by classmates as more creative than girls. Contrasts of the average group with the other groups were statistically significant except with the rejected group. In regard to teacher-rated creativity, the differences between the average and the other groups were much less extensive, with only the popular group a little higher than the average group. Overall, peer status and perceived creativity were highly related. Students tended to make greater differentiation in judging creativity than did the teachers.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the Hong Kong Chinese perceptions of creative and non-creative individuals and to explore factors associated with variations in these perceptions. In the first study, 367 participants at Hong Kong railway and subway stations were asked to describe a creative and a non-creative individual. In the second study, nine Hong Kong Chinese who were nominated as creative responded to the same questions as the general public. In the third study, 278 participants representing the general population, teachers, students, and parents were asked to rate the importance of characteristics associated with a creative person. Results indicated that the core components of the concepts of a creative individual highly overlapped across sex, age, education, and occupational status variables. Differences were found between the implicit concepts of the general public and that of highly creative people. Five strong factors emerged from the analysis of ratings of characteristics of a creative person. They were: innovative abilities, intellectual abilities, dynamism, boldness, and social style. Some differences between the Hong Kong Chinese perception of a creative person and the Western concepts are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The first part of this paper presents a theoretical framework which includes the independent and dependent variables that should be considered in studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of cross-cultural training. Six kinds of training-general or specific, affective, cognitive or behavioral-plus self-insight training are considered. In addition, the quantity and timing of the training, and attributes of trainers and trainees are considered. The second part considers strategies for the evaluation of the effects of these independent variables. Controversies in evaluation research are reviewed to find out what can be learned from past experience that might be applicable to cross-cultural training. This review shows a trend toward the broadening of evaluation research, using many more dependent variables, with measurements obtained from many kinds of people. New methodologies that permit the incorporation of diverse points of view and a broad analysis of the effects of the training program are examined. Questions are also raised concerning who should have the information acquired during an evaluation study. Finally, the paper examines ethical problems that cannot be ignored by those evaluating cross-cultural training.
Results of 3 experiments examining the relationship between creativity and left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere EEG activity are reported. Creativity has been hypothesized to involve the use of primary-process cognition, and such cognition is hypothetically accompanied by activation of the right cerebral hemisphere. In light of these hypotheses, we predicted that highly-creative people should exhibit greater right-hemisphere than left-hemisphere EEG activity during creative performance and that this pattern would not be found in less-creative people. All 3 experiments supported this prediction. This difference in asymmetry was specific to creative performance. It was not present during basal recordings or during a non-creative task.
This studyâbridging contemporary theory, Chinese history, comparative literature, and culture studiesâanalyzes the historical interactions among China, Japan, and the West in terms of âtranslingual practice.â
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