Creativity Theories

The Emerging of Creativity Theories

Although the concept of creativity can be traced to ancient time in all cultures, the systematic study of creativity emerged in the late 19th century. Graham Wallas proposed a four-stage model in 1926 to describe the process of creativity: a preparation stage, an incubation stage, an illumination stage, and a verification stage. At the same time, the psychodynamic approach proposed by Sigmund Freud also had profound influences on arts and literature. However, Joy Paul Guilford is recognized as the pioneer and major contributor in the field of creativity research. His description of creativity was based on the ability to manipulate ideas in fluent, flexible, elaborate, and original ways. Because his viewpoint was primarily embodied in the structure of intellect model, creativity is not an individually specific module, that is, creativity is not independent from intelligence. It is a manifestation of a basic mental function's manipulation. Guilford's position about creativity has great influence on this area even today. Empirical studies have shown a moderate relationship between creativity and intelligence, and many concepts of giftedness are based on this implication, such as Joseph Renzulli's three-ring concept of giftedness. Another great influence from Guilford's structure of intellect model is the development of an important measurement instrument of creativity. Following Guilford's work, Ellis Paul Torrance focused on the process of creativity and developed the famous Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Torrance's definition of creativity has been transformed into instructional guidelines for many creative-thinking training programs.

A Framework to Understanding Creativity Four PS

The ubiquitous four-Ps approach proposed by M. Rhodes in 1961 is a framework for understanding what to study regarding creativity. The four approaches are exploring (1) the person who is creative, (2) the process of creativity, (3) the product of creativity, and (4) the environmental press for developing creativity. The focus of a study can be categorized into these four domains. For example, based on the research literature, the creative personality traits are as follows: tolerance of ambiguity, openness to new experience, possessing unconventional values, independence of judgment, curiosity, preference for challenge and complexity, self-confidence and unconformity, propensity for risk taking, intrinsic motivation, and so on. However, because creativity is a complex phenomenon that is multidimensional and requires interactive examination, most of the creativity theories are multivariate or multidimensional theories. Another holistic approach to describe the producing experience of creativity was introduced by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, as the flow theory. Creativity is from this kind of optimal experience of discovery and invention.

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