An Analysis of Creativity

Author(s): Mel Rhodes

Source: The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 42, No. 7 (Apr., 1961), pp. 305-310
Published by: Phi Delta Kappa International
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 An of
Analysis Creativity
The problems of modern life cry out for creative solutions.
Hence the growing interest in creativity.
But what is it?
Can it be taught?
Mr. Rhodes takes some of the fuzz off the
concept of creativity and assures us that it can
indeed be developed in children.

By MEL RHODES

JUST as I finished writing the first draft of this Likewise with art. Art was defined, after lengthy
paper I had
an
irrepressible urge
to start over. trials in the highest courts of our land, as concept
rather than object. The a
I knew suddenly that I could reorganize and shipping charges for
rewrite my material for greater clarity. Then I of metal are based on But in the
piece weight.
to myself, isn't this experience an example now-famous court trial of 1927, Roumanian-born
thought
Brancusi made art
of the creative process? Isn't creativity, in simple Constantin history when he
the process of reorganizing knowledge contested the decision of United States customs
language,
or
specific knowledge), and of articulat officials concerning the proper charges for a curving
(general
so that other can under brass column which he labeled Bird in Space.
ing that synthesis people
stand the meaning. Also, I thought, haven't I in The customs officials contended the object was
this instance visualized the key to the secret nature metal.Brancusi contended it was art. When sculp
of creativity? That secret being that original ideas tor Jacob was asked if a
Epstein good mechanic
are the of ( 1 ) a human mind grasp could not polish up a brass rail and pass it off as
by-products
ing the elements of a
subject, (2) of prolonged art, he replied, "He can polish it up, but he can
about the and their to not conceive of the object. That is the whole
thinking parts relationships
each other and to the whole, and (3) of sus point." The court agreed. Its decision: "Objects
tained effort in working over the synthesis so which portray abstract ideas (in this case, "flight"),
that it can be embodied or articulated competently. rather than imitate natural objects, may be classi
The United States Supreme Court has ruled in fied as art."
numerous cases that an invention is an idea rather My answer to the question, "What is creativ
than an object. If a man can prove that an idea is word a noun nam
ity?", this: The creativity is
was his or evidence ing the phenomenon in which a person communi
by demonstrating providing
that only he had the knowledge from which it was cates a new concept (which is the product).
can claim patent to the invention. Mental mental is implicit
synthesized, he activity (or process)
Collaborators who might have helped to embody in the definition, and of course no one could con
the idea into object, provided it can be proved ceive of a person living or operating in a vacuum,
so the term press is also
that they lacked the basic knowledge components implicit. The definition
as to how new the
in the idea?even though they do all of the craft begs the questions concept must
classified as technicians or craftsmen. be and to whom it must be new.
ing?are

Surge of Interest
in Creativity
MR. Rhodes
(Alpha Zeta 756) is an assistant pro
The big push of interest in the subject of creativ
fessor of education at the College of Education, Uni
of Arizona, Tucson. His Ph.D. dissertation ity began in 1950 when J. P. Guilford of the
versity
(Arizona, 1957) was titled <(TheDynamics of Creativ University of Southern California was
president
ity."
of the American Psychological Association. Guil

305

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 306PHI DELTA KAPPAN April, 1961
ford said in his presidential address to that organ That the faculty of judgment is at stake can be
ization that he found an appalling lack of re shown from a
simple
enumeration:
search on creativity. He said he had searched ?Creative mean the of tech
may neglect
nical a deal of so
Psychological Abstracts for a quarter of a cen competence?witness great
called new new and new art
tury and found that only 186 out of 121,000 writing, painting,
entries dealt in any way with creativity, generally.
imagina ?Creative certain ordi
may falsely dignify
tion, or any topic closely related. of mind, sense of order
nary virtues?quickness
In the years since 1950 more than a dozen and relevance and skill in
using words?all
books have appeared on the subject, and I have of which can be subsumed under
intelligence
300 reference cards to articles and and intellectual training.
approximately
monographs. The research undertaken since Guil ?Creative may suggest modern, fresh, or un
ford gave his speech has yielded results of basic shackled by convention or tradition. In that
sense it can be used to
significance to the field of education and to the justify waste of time,
as when students
archives of knowledge. These studies have ren analyze contemporary writers
and attribute to them as innovations de
dered into baloney many former sacred cows. For literary
vices that are found in Homer and Virgil.
instance, the idea that the IQ is a lump sum and ?Creative also stand a conscious
may for or
that it is constant, the idea that "well-adjusted
unconscious denial of the tremendous of
will be range
children" (often meaning conformers) human ability. If a child in
come the most useful citizens, the idea that peo kindergarten is called
creative for the
finger-painting he produces, the
are born to be either creative or lacking in distance between him and Rembrandt has some
ple
creative ability, the notion that creativity is more how been shortened.
Through a likening of po
a way of than a way of thinking, the idea tential and actual, a kind of democratic
feeling equality
that creativity is something mysterious, and the has been restored.
... If small talents are
notion that the word creativity applies to a simple, creative, then since
everyone has them, has a Leonardo-like
mental process that operates in everyone
uncomplicated mind.
unrestraint.
It is now clear that, instead, intellect is complex, I understand what Barzun is
that divergent thinkers and people of complex saying. Indeed,
the words creative and
have more ideas than con creativity have been loose
temperament original ly used and overused. In many examples "creative"
formers and people of placid temperament, that means or
factors at all times in life form a implies nothing more than emotional
environmental
that be either construc
freedom, relaxing of tensions, disinhibition, or
psychological press may freedom from of such usage
tive or destructive to creativity, that the technique censorship. Examples
occur in like "creative dancing" (when
of getting ideas can be learned and can be taught. expressions
the referred to is "creative
It is also clear that whatsoever factors of person activity shimmying),
art" (when the referred to is
or of intellect, of learning process or think activity finger-paint
ality
or of environment are congruent with ing), and "creative writing" (when the activity
ing process, is "kitsch"?i.e., stories that follow a formula and
the same are congruent also with the are
creativity, essentially the same, even though slightly dif
educative process in general. ferent in details, as in
to describe pulp magazine trash).
It would be difficult the scope of
What is happening here is that a word which
the contributions to knowledge and to the field
should be reserved to name a
of education rendered during the last ten years by complex, multi
faceted phenomenon is misused to name
scholars on the trail of creativity. This is why I only one
part of a It is like a
was when I read in the October, phenomenon. explaining
perturbed 1960, hurricane wind or a
by describing explaining
issue of Harper's magazine what Jacques Barzun, bird's its perchings.
flight by describing But
at Columbia
provost and dean of faculties Uni
creativity cannot be alone in terms
about "The Cults of 'Re explained
versity, had written of the emotional component of the process or in
search' and 'Creativity'." Here is a quotation from terms of any other no matter
the article: single component,
how vital that component may be.
What "creative" means in common usage is
About five years ago I set out to find a defini
clear?it seems to to the idea
hardly correspond tion of the word I was interested also
of fullness, to the
completion
of effort, a
syn
creativity,
in imagination, and
thesis of parts, while it also conveys, like "re originality, ingenuity. In time
I had collected of creativity and
search," the notion of
something
new and un forty definitions
. . .Use of the word sixteen of imagination. The was
expectedly good. creativity profusion enough
is a device which we ourselves sat to give one the that is a
by give easy impression creativity
isfactions while avoiding necessary judgments. for
province pseudo-intellectuals.

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 April, 1961 AN ANALYSIS OF CREATIVITY 307
But as I inspected my collection ]? observed intelligence is made up of 120 or more kinds of
that the definitions are not exclusive. abilities and has devised tests to measure
mutually approxi
and intertwine. When as In the future he hopes to
They overlap analyzed, mately fifty factors.
a the content of the definitions build instruments to measure additional factors
through prism,
form four strands. Each strand has unique identity of intellect. Guilford's studies indicate that peo
but only in unity do the four strands as creative
academically, ple who stand out [from their fellows]
operate functionally. It is this very fact of syn thinkers, are characterized to
by sensitivity prob
thesis that causes fog in talk about creativity and lems, fluency of ideas, mental flexibility, divergent
this may be the basis for the semblance of a thinking, and ability to redefine familiar objects
"cult." and concepts.
One of these strands pertains essentially to the Getzel and Jackson note that children with
as a human Another strand humor are more creative.
person being. pertains quick
to the mental that are operative in Frank Barron found that people of complex
processes
ideas. A third strand to the in temperament are more creative than people of
creating pertains
fluence of the ecological press on the person and simple temperament.
upon his mental processes. And the fourth strand Mary Cover Jones submits the guess that late
are maturers are more flexible thinkers than early
pertains to ideas. Ideas usually expressed in
the form of either language or craft and this is maturers, possibly because they have to be quick
what we call product. Hereafter, I shall refer to to
keep up.
these strands as the four P's of creativity, i.e.,
How Important Are Attitudes and Habits?
(1) person, (2) process, (3) press, (4) products.
Eric Fromm observes that a creative person
has the capacity to be puzzled, the ability to con
PERSONS
centrate, a genuine sense of self and confidence
term person, as used here, covers informa in self, the ability to accept conflict and tension.
THE tion about personality, intellect, temperament, Fromm accepts the concept that equality does not
traits, habits, attitudes, mean sameness. A person who is truly creative
physique, self-concept,
value systems, defense mechanisms, and behavior. is one who is willing to be born everyday. He is
are: What
Basic questions in this department willing to let go of all "certainties"
is and illusions.
the coefficient of correlation between intelligence Tuska, in his book Inventors and Inventions,
test scores and says, "If you would
creativity? Is everyone potentially invent, acquire the good
creative, to some extent? Is creativity a function habit of observing. Observe and question! Ask
of temperament as well as
intelligence? More than yourself questions: Why did that happen? Why
or not something
intelligence? Do physique physiological factors did happen? What started that?
have any bearing on creativity? How What that? For why can a
important stopped example,
are attitudes, habits, and value And walk on its own web without
systems? spider getting
what kinds of habits, attitudes, and values? In tangled? To what can I attribute the wonderful
what way are they significant? What about characteristics of a spider's thread? Where might
neurotic personality?is neuroticism essential or is I use such a thread to advantage? Could a
spider's
it detrimental to creativity? thread be synthesized? How? In brief, daydream
Lewis Terman of Stanford made extensive psy with a purpose."
studies of 1,000 Thomas Edison said that invention is 1 per
chological approximately gifted
children over a cent inspiration and 99 per cent
period exceeding thirty years. perspiration.
He observed a difference between high intelligence
and high creativity and said in one of his last Can a Creative Person Be Identified?
that not more than Almost any group of people,
papers one-third of his people including school
with IQ's over 140 showed a marked degree of children, can name individuals among them who
creativity. On the East Coast, Leta Hollingworth have off-beat ideas. Often the group will argue
observed essentially the same thing with children that so-and-so's ideas are crazy. But the question
of 180 IQ or better. In Chicago, Thurstone studied is, how crazy? Crazy enough to be useful? Crazy
the Quiz Kids and remarked afterwards that they enough to change a trend? to
Crazy enough
had phenomenal memories for details but that revolutionize an industry?or a way of life?
were in his book Sociology
they noticeably lacking in creativity. Gilfillan, of Invention,
Guilford hypothesized that intelligence tests talks about the great lapses of time that have
were not measuring creative factors. Now he occurred between the time when ideas for great
on the basis of factorial studies, that inventions were first mentioned and the de
hypothesizes, merely

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 308PHI DELTA KAPPAN April. 1961

velopment of the first working model or patent.

"A number of courses have beeti in
the time gap between large
Also, he discusses patent stituted in this country whose aim is to de
and commercial use. The average time elapsed . . . no one
[but] knows at
velop creativity
between first mention of the idea and commercial this stage what are the most effective ways
use of the same for nineteen inventions voted of bringing about greater creative perform
most useful (who voted was not stated) was 226 ance."?/. P. Guilford, 1958

years. (These were inventions introduced between

1888 and 1913.) Studies regarding theories of
and scientific mystery as 'what makes our heart tick?' At the
government, philosophical insights,
discoveries confirm the fact of time delay in com same time, I submit that
creativity is an art?an
such ideas to the masses. applied art?a teachable art?a learnable art?
municating an art in which all of us can make ourselves more
This fact of inability or reluctance on the part
of the social group to accept new ideas, particular and more proficient, if we will."

ly unfamiliar concepts, complicates the task of Yes, the creative process can be taught. It is
creative thinkers. But is not an in being taught in hundreds of classes across the
identifying
dividual who thinks differently from his associates nation?in colleges, universities, business organ
and from sources of information own izations, military schools, and industries. Osborn's
doing his
not book has gone into twelve printings and over
thinking? And is he the person who is likely
to be creative? 100,000 copies have been sold. There is consider
able research evidence to support the statement
that the creative process can be
PROCESS taught. And in
1954 the Creative Education Foundation was
term process applies to motivation, per formed solely for the purpose of encouraging a
THE ception, learning, thinking, and communicat more creative trend in American education.
ing. Essential questions about process include:
What causes some individuals to strive for original PRESS
answers to while the majority are sat
questions
isfied with conventional answers? What are the term press refers to the be
relationship
stages of the thinking process? Are the processes THE tween human and their environment.
beings
identical for problem solving and for creative Creative production is the outcome of certain
thinking? If not, how do they differ? Can the kinds of forces playing upon certain kinds of in
creative be taught? dividuals as as they function.
thinking process they grow up and
When the German and A person forms ideas in response to tissue needs,
physiologist physicist
Hermann Helmholtz was seventy years old, he sensations, perceptions, and imagination. A per
was asked at his son receives sensations and
birthday party to analyze his perceptions from both
thought processes. Later, Graham Wallas, in his internal and external sources. A person possesses
book The Art of Thought, formulated Helmholtz's multi-factorial intellect, including ability to store
ideas into the familiar four stages: preparation, in memories, to recall and to synthesize ideas. Each
cubation, inspiration, and verification. The prep idea that emerges reflects uniquely upon the origi
aration step consists of observing, listening, ask nator's self, his sensory equipment, his mentality,
ing, reading, collecting, contrasting, his value systems, and his conditioning to the
comparing,
analyzing, and relating all kinds of objects and everyday experiences of life. Each person per
information. The incubation process is both con ceives his environment in a unique way; one man's
scious and unconscious. This step involves think meat is another man's poison and vice versa.
ing about parts and relationships, and Studies of press to measure congruence
reasoning, attempt
often a fallow period. Inspirations very often ap and dissonance in a person's ecology. Stern and
pear during this fallow This ac Pace have introduced instruments designed to
period. probably
counts for the popular on take two the climate of a par
emphasis releasing temperatures?(1)
tensions in order to be creative. The step labeled ticular environment, and (2) the reaction of a
verification is a period of hard work. This is the person to his environment. If and when these two
process of converting an idea into an object or into scores can be obtained they
can be coordinated
an articulated form. to show the congruence and dissonance between
In an address at M.I.T. in 1955, Alex Osborn, individuals and their environment.
author of the popular book titled Applied Imagi Liphshitz, writing for the Journal of the Patent
nation, summed it up as follows: "I submit that Office Society, opened fire, a few years ago, on
will never be a science?in fact, much the authors of most histories and of biographical
creativity
of it will always remain a mystery?as much of a studies of inventors for treating the inventor as

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 April, 1961 AN ANALYSIS OF CREATIVITY 309

something apart from the world in general. He scope. From any one of these theories thousands
said that an intensive study of the history of in of inventions may germinate. Therefore ideas in
ventions makes clear that they originate in a re theory
are of
higher order in the scale of creativ
sponse to social needs and that there must be a ity than ideas for inventions. After inventions
advanced stage of culture and a proper appear, numerous innovations or new twists in
sufficiently
technical heritage to foster or allow an invention design or structure are suggested by
users. Thus
to be made. History proves that great inventions the idea for an invention is of higher order in the
are never, and great discoveries seldom, the work scale of creativity than an idea for an innovation
of any one mind. Every great invention is either an to an
existing invention. The significance
of this
aggregate of minor inventions or the final step of to ideas of newness
suggestion classify by degree
the progression. is that it would place emphasis on higher mental
Gilfillan said, "Inventions are not just accidents, processes rather than on dazzling objects.
nor the inscrutable of sporadic genius, In the history of the sciences,
products every branch
but have abundant and clear causes in prior sci floundered until facts were organized and classi
entific and technological And fied. After a classification
development. they system was devised, the
have social causes and retarding factors, both new branch advanced rapidly. When astronomy group
and constant, of changed needs and opportunities, ed the heavenly bodies, outside of the sun and
growth of technical education, of buying power, of moon, into planets and fixed stars, it took a
capital, patent and commercial systems, corpora considerable step forward. When physics sepa
tion laboratories and what not. All such basic rated its phenomena into the broad categories of
factors causing invention give means of predicting sound, heat, light, electricity, and mag
dynamics,
the same.
netism, the way was clear for more penetrating
"The existing and overwhelming influence of devised the system of
analyses. When Linneaus
causes for invention is proved by the frequency binomial became a sci
nomenclature, biology
of duplicate invention, where the same idea is ence. This bit of seems to suggest that
history
hatched by different minds about be dis
independently the mystery surrounding creativity could
the same time." artifacts into categories,
sipated by organizing
first by kinds and then within each kind by degrees
PRODUCTS of newness. If this were to be done, data could
word idea refers to a thought which has be collected concerning the person responsible for
a the circumstances
THE been communicated to other
people in the given idea, concerning leading
form of words, paint, clay, metal, stone, fabric, up to the idea, and concerning the mental activity
or other material. When we the idea.
speak of an original producing
Ideas have been described in various ways for
idea, we imply a degree of newness in the con
an idea becomes different purposes. One system distinguishes ideas
cept. When embodied into
a media of for instance, music, art,
tangible form it is called product. Each product by expression:
of a man's mind or hands presents a record of poetry, and invention. Another system recognizes
his thinking at some point in time. Thus an idea mood: for example, pastoral, satiric, and didactic
for a new machine reflects the inventor's specific moods in poetry, and allegro, andante, and adagio
moods in music. Still another system recognizes
thoughts at the moment when the concept was
born. And by probing backward from the moment values: in art, pictures are classified according to
of inspiration it may be possible to trace the their utility or their associative or esthetic value;
and the events while in the realm of mechanics, machines are
thoughts leading up to the idea.
Products are artifacts of the to the use to which
thoughts. Through recognized according they
are to be put. There are other classification
study of artifacts, archeologists reconstruct the sys
of life of extinct officers of the law tems based on form, as for example sonatas,
way peoples,
reconstruct the events a crime, concertos, and symphonies in music; and ballads,
leading up to
and psychologists reconstruct the mental processes sonnets, odes, and elegies in poetry.
of inventing. Objective into the na Notwithstanding these several ways of classify
investigation
ture of the creative process can in only ing products, there is no standard system for or
proceed
one direction, i. e., from product to person and artifacts according to idea value or
ganizing
thence to process and to press. degree of originality. Consequently, any artifact
A system is needed for ac is called "a creation" and mystery surrounds
classifying products
to the of newness. For them all.
cording scope example,
theories such as relativity or
electromagnetic Above the entrance toWashington Station these
waves or mechanical are of tremendous words are carved in stone, "Man's
flight imagination

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 310PHI DELTA KAPPAN April, 1961
has conceived all numbers and letters?all tools, he knows what the speaker is talking about?
vessels, and shelters?every art and trade?all will the pseudo aspect of the subject of creativity
philosophy and poetry?and all politics." disappear.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Every reform as educators we
was once a My appeal is that recognize
private opinion." the of continuing our interest in the
Within a year of our nation's the U. importance
founding, nature of that we be appreciative of
S. Patent Office was established?on the concept creativity,
the spade work that has been done in the decade
that the country would profit by protecting the
of individuals to their ideas and just past, that we continue to identify the factors
right profit by associated with the creative process, and above
inventions. Between 1776 and 1960 more than all that we do not throw out the baby with the
3,000,000 were
patents granted. bath water just because the water is cloudy.
In the last decade, as a direct response to Guil
ford's speech to the APA about the need for The subject of creativity has interdisciplinary
research in the area of creativity, new and tre appeal. This is true because the phenomenon to
has been collect which the term creativity applies is the phenom
mendously significant knowledge
ed and put to use?and this knowledge, as fast as enon of for greater
synthesizing knowledge. Hope
it is being disseminated, is causing fundamental unification of knowledge lies in the continuance
of studies of creativity. There are adventures
changes throughout Academe.
the word has been over ahead in researching the four P's of creativity, in
Granted, creativity
worked. And it is used loosely. Also, the formal to the creative person, in teach
learning identify
of has not reached the stage ing the creative process, in learning how to take
study creativity yet
of advancement which reached when the temperatures of a person and of his environ
botany
Linneaus flora into and into ment under changing circumstances and of ar
organized phyla
classes. Students of creativity have not yet taken ranging for congruence between the two, in de
a scale for
the time to distinguish the strands of the
phenom veloping classifying products by de
enon and then to classify new knowl grees of newness within a scheme of like kinds
carefully
to the pertinence thereof to either of products. And ultimately there will be a new
edge according
or I submit that perspective of education with a backdrop of uni
person, process, press, product.
the time has come for more precision in definition fied knowledge.
and usage, that only when the field is analyzed Now is the time for every teacher to become
and organized?when the listener can be sure more creative!

Publications Dealing with Creativity associate curator of ethnology, American Museum

of Natural History; Henry A. Murray, professor
Readers interested in further refinement of the of clinical Carl R. Rob
psychology, Harvard;
concepts of creativity will find a variety of approach ers, professor, Departments of
Psychology
and
es in and Its Cultivation,
represented Creativity
Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin; Edmund W.
edited by Harold H. Anderson and published by
Sinnott, dean of the Graduate School, Yale; and
Harper and Brothers in 1959. The book includes
George D. Stoddard, chancellor, New York Uni
papers from interdisciplinary symposia on creativity versity.
held between April 19, 1957, and July 9, 1958, at An NE A Journal feature on creativity (March,
State University.
Michigan 1961) includes a list of other publications dealing
Contributors include most of the leading figures in with creativity. All may be obtained from NEA
this area of growing interest: Alden B. Dow, an Publications Sales: Creating a Good Environment for
architect; Henry Eyring, dean of the Graduate Learning, 195A yearbook of the ASCD; Creative
School, University of Utah; Erich Fromm, profes Dramatics, by Margaret S. Woods, the March, 1959,
sor of psychology, Michigan State; J. P. Guilford, Elementary Instructional Service leaflet; Creativity,
professor of psychology, University of Southern Cali the October, 1960, issue of Educational Leadership,
fornia; Ernest R. Hilgard, professor of psychology ASCD journal; Creative Writing: Each in His Own
and associate director, Laboratory of Human De Way, the November, 1960, newsletter, Keeping Up
velopment, Stanford; Harold D. Lasswell, pro with Early Education; Human Variability and Learn
fessor of law and
political science, Yale; Abra ing, an ASCD publication; Language Arts Can Be
ham H. Maslow, professor of psychology and chair Creative, by Elinore Milstein; and Learning Through
man of the department, Brandeis University; Rollo Creative Sharing in theMiddle Grades, by Evelynne
May, psychologist and psychoanalyst; Margaret Mead, H. Maxwell.

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