Convergent and Divergent Thinking

The distinction between convergent and divergent thinking has now been used in the social and behavioral sciences for more than 60 years. It has proven to be enormously useful for both theory and practice. Tests of divergent thinking can be given to children even before they start school, thus providing an early measure of the potential for creative thinking. Tests of divergent thinking have demonstrated long-term predictive validity. Empirical results indicate that the results of these tests are more strongly related to accomplishments in the natural environment than are scores from measures of convergent thinking, including the IQ and grade point average. Adaptive behavior in the natural environment requires both convergent and divergent thinking, but the latter has received a great deal of attention because ...