CREATIVTY

Definition of creativity:
- Discovery of something that is novel or useful or relevant or economical or elegant or valuable. - The outcome of a creative effort should be significant and strikingly different from the beaten track. - The outcome should be adaptive to reality ie it should solve a problem, fit the needs of given situation, accomplish certain goal. - The creatively produced product must be developed, evaluated and communicated. - It is the mental ability - It is divergent thinking, the seeking of relationships between previously unrelated concepts. - It involves wide search and exploration For example R&D work and Arts are more creative (due to divergent thinking) than problem solving related to factory work or accounting. This is because in factory work, the laymen are not required to be creative - It is better ways of doing things. It means insight and new perceptions that at once make sense.

- It is open ness in expressing feelings, receptivity to ideas, concern for others, desire to grow as a person, actualise ones potential.

Variety and level of creativity:

- Creativity manifests in different areas dress, food, appearance, manners, conversation, entertainment, sports, games, arts, sciences, technologies, professions.

- A childs creativity in painting a sketch is representational. It directly paints with its available skills what it feels and thinks.
- The scientist groping towards a discovery of formula is abstractive and inferential, he tries to discover the hidden patterns and codes of things. - The novelist/building designers creativity is elaborative - It requires strength in associative thinking ie in the capacity to think of interesting associations of ones own idea, the ability to develop an idea, see its consequences and interesting applications etc. PRIMARY CREATIVITY - Spontaneous creation Ex: childs art SECONDARY CREATIVITY - More deliberate and skilled Ex: application of ideas and insights to inventions

Other varieties of creativity: Expressive creativity: Similar to childs art Technical creativity: Involves striking improvements in a process that increases the level of proficiency or efficiency Inventive creativity: Involves ingenious new combinations of materials or ingredients. Ex: Edisons light bulb, Bells Telephone Innovative creativity: far reaching applications of more basic ideas such as managements applications of principles of psychology to develop an effective system for motivating staff. - The quality or level of creativity of the different varities depend on novelness and appropriateness to a context. - A high quality creativity need not have a great impact on society. Ex: Creativity of Mr. Hero who invented the steam engine 2000 years back was no less than that of James Watt. But James Watts steam engine ushered in the industrial revolution.

CREATIVITY vs INTELLIGENCE: CREATIVITY - A number of mental abilities get Exercised Ex: associative thinking wide search compression of thought - Degree of divergent thinking is more - High creatives are less risk aversive - Degree of convergent thinking is more - More risk aversive INTELLIGENCE - Solutions fit the problem snugly

- High creatives are more venturesome,

more imaginative, humorous -There is no certainity that the solutions are best possible or even good - Imagination is required in solving the problems Ex: Guess the word given the following four clues LAW CHAIR BANGLE SWORD

- Serious in nature

- Logic and vocabulary is required in solving the problems Ex: Find the word that does not fit with the rest MBAOBY DNOOL COWSOM ATR

CREATIVE ABILITIES: Creativity is a cluster of abilities. They are 1) Fluency: - measures the persons ability to come up with a number of solutions to a given problem. Ex: Use of bricks Use of teaspoon 2) Flexibilty: It is the ability to use a variety of approaches in problem solving Ex: Bricks may be used for a number of construction activities - other uses such as weapons, stepping stones - door steps etc

3) Originality: Ability to comeup with unusual but appropriate responses.

Ex: Bricks as - hiding places for jewellery - as dumb bells - substitute for pillows 4) Ability to sense the problems. - Scientists often dismiss data inconsistent with their pet theories as noise. However scientists such as Alexander Fleming are very sensitive to the problems. Alexander found the use of fungus which forms in a bio chemical culture for treating infections

5) Ability to grasp the causes and visualise the consequences: 6) Ability to elaborate: The ability to elaborate is indispensable in putting a creative idea to work 7) Ability to restructure the problem: Ex: Problem faced by an ambulance, blocked on a long narrow bridge by a flock of sheep. How to get the ambulance to overtake the sheep?. The problem can be restructured as below: How do you get the ambulance ahead of the sheep? Sol: The sheep flock can be turned around and driven past the stationary ambulance.

Creativtiy and Madness:

- People think that creative individuals are cranky and odd, but it is not so. - The creative often thinks the unthinkable and does the undoeable - The creatives are odd in being original. Ex: Mr. Galileo was original in thinking that planets revolve around the sun. However people called him mad. - The creative people lead normal life - The creative people are both mad and mature - Ordinary people choose between a life of imagination and practicality

The ordinary people can be trained to be more imaginative without relinquishing their hold on practicality

The people need to be helped to learn not to censor strange ideas prematurely
The excessive concern about what is socially right and wrong and other inhibitors such as fear of failure and aversive to uncertainty

- Once the blocks are removed, the person can realise that there is no risk in using

ones imagination.
Determinants of creativity: 1) Genetic inheritence: - The more genetically remote the relative, the greater the discrepency in giftedness. Ex: 300 families containing 1000 eminent persons was studied, of them 31% had an eminent father 41% had an eminent brother

48% had an eminent son

3% had an eminent great grand father 13% had an eminent first cousin

- It is also practicable to produce a highly gifted race of men by judicious marriages - In another survey, two types of twins viz fraternal and identical twins were studied. - Fraternal twins are from two independently fertilized eggs. - The identical twins come from a single egg and split after fertilization.They share the same genetic structure. The IQs of identical twins were found to be having high.

- However creativity is found to have varying influence due to genetics

Ex: For identical twins, adaptive flexibility was found to be stronger For fluency and originality, it was equal with fraternal twins 2) Environment: Environment also effects creativity Ex: Jagadish Chandra Bose demonstrated that plants feel and react to various stimuli like a human. The environmental factors for his success are as follows. - His father was a magistrate and Bose had two servents at his disposal - Boses father was an entrepreneur, amateur physicist, botanist, promoter of technical education, part time engineer, a sportsman, a part time social worker. - Father was a reformist, a member of Bramho Samaj

- Mother was a devout of Hindu

- Bose had a broad range of influences at home, western scientific, hindu reformist, hindu traditional.

- Boses wife had studied medicine and she encouraged Bose to take up research.
- Bose also came in contact with Upanishadic a hindu philosophy. It encouraged him to look for common factors between animate and inanimate life. 3) Motivation: - Motivation improves creativity

Ex: - Scores on test of creativity goes up when subjects are exhorted to be creative by the experiments
- Evaluation tends to dampen creativity because it creates anxiety 4) Physiological states: - Trnascendental Meditation (TM) found to lower anxiety levels and create a state of relaxed alertness. -It was found that TM increases both convergent thinking ability (intelligence) and diveregnt thinking ability (fluency)

CAN CREATIVITY BE INCREASED?

- High motivation, appropriate training and encouraging environment can lead to increased creativity - Creativity training found to increase the divergent thinking ability

By designing a creativity nurturing environment, taking up creative hobby or activity, by finding creative friends and mates, or by getting into a more creative job or occupation In the class room, be respectful to imaginative, unusual ideas, show students their ideas have value, let students do something for practice without the threat of evaluation.

Creative thinking techniques: 1. Structure the problem so that it is well understood. Identify some key dimensions for innovative exploration. 2. Separate the phase of idea production from idea evaluation. Do not evaluate critical ideas. 3. Ideate copiously. Churn out a large number of ideas because this heightens the possibility of hitting upon some really good ones, also to let one idea to another and to still another and so on. 4. Create constructive psychological strain by continuously enticing the person to go from the familiar to unfamiliar terrian and back to the familiar such as by coming up with analogies, metaphors. 5. Force wide shifts of perspective by asking such questions as what could be the opposite of current situation? Is there a radically different way of looking at the problem?

6. Out of the large number of ideas or solutions, identify the ones with the greatest potential by some sort of assessment and selection procedure

Collective Creativity:
- Creativity of bodies of people such as organisations, communities and societies are also important. Beyond a certain point, creativity is a team effort Ex: A novelist may write a distinctive novel. But for it to be read widely, it needs to be edited, printed, published and this requires the cooperation and coordination of a large number of people. - If the other people do not hold the value of the authors creativity, the end product may be sullied.

- A number of industries are getting involved in creativity training to improve the inventing and innovative capability of the people.
- We can see creative societies too. Ex: America as a culture is more innovative than India Societies undergo periods of growth, change and innovation - When they are faced by challenges - there are some individuals and groups within these societies that are prepared to respond to these challenges actively

- Challenges may be through foreign aggression, calamity, internal discontent, invasion of culture etc

- In the socities which are open, democratic, where reward, merit, there is greater likelihood of the right individuals in the position of power and responsibility and respond innovatively to challenges.
- In close authoritarian societies, the chances of innovative individuals taking higher positions will be less. -The organisational quality of major institutions in society such as the government and its various organs, educational institutions, economic enterprises are also important - These institutions must be properly managed so that innovative ideas are effectively implemented. - The institutions must have appropriate organisational structures, procedures, systems of planning, control and coordinating. -A society/community/organisation is likely to be innovative if

1) It has a challenging environment

2) It has a culture that is open, democratic, meritocratic 3) Management is well designed for innovations or implementation of innovation If any of these factors is weak, the collectivitys response to challenge will not be innovative

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

THE CREATIVE OUTCOME: A number of minimum conditions help us determine whether an act or product or outcome is creative or not.
1) Does it have surprise value for the reasonably well informed in the relevent field? - The product of human labour if surprises the expert, then the product could well be creative a) The works of many pioneers in fine arts and literature b) Scientific theory that the universe originated in a big bang c) Pasteurs thoery that invisible germs caused disease and not the evil spirits

However mundane creations such as new food recipies, fashion designs, hair styles, jewellery do not have much surprise value
There is no uniform measure for the utility of a creation A vaccine that reduces mortality rate is useful A kitchen appliance that makes cooking enjoyable is also creative Depending on the nature of creation, different scales/tests of productivity, efficiency have to be used for measuring the usefulness of a creation

2) Is it seen by knowledgeable as useful or elegant or appropriate or efficient? -

3) Does it provide substantial evidence of divergent thinking: - The product/work which gives evidence of divergent thinking is more creative Ex: The Vikings and Columbus, both discovered America. - The Vikings discovered accidentally. - However Columbus diverged from the established view that world is flat and going far out from the coast involved the danger of falling off the world. The Columbus achievement is more creative. - Mr. Roentgen discovered X rays, quite by accident. - The Curies worked for years to isolate radium and in the process tried many alternative techniques and paths. Their discovery was a more creative act. 4) Does the product of human labour link two or more previously unrelated ideas or facts in a new way? In many of the creative works, two or more previously unrelated ideas are put together to have a relation.

Ex: - Boyles law linking the volume, temperature and pressure of a gas
- Einsteins equation of matter and energy - Theorem that the three angles of a triangle must add upto 180 degree - The creation of new symbols for old phenomena in art

Fresh metaphors and analogies

5) The extent to which the creator has transformed the material or facts or concepts available to him: Ex: The raw materials may be wood, sand or bone. But the final products may be sleek such as artificial silk, crystal glass or jelly. PROCESS OF CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING:

Four stages charecterise creative problem solving

1) Preperation: - Involves the investigation of the problem in all directions, including a full understanding of the problem, the constraint whithin which it has to be solved, detailed analyasis using known procedures etc.

2) Incubation: - It is the letting go of the problem by the conscious mind, allowing it to ferment below the level of consciousness.
3) Illumination: - It is struck by a solution in a Eureka-like experience 4) Verifiction: - It is the evaluation of the solution, its refinement, the working out of its implications etc. - In solving the mathematical problems, the process of preperation, incubation, illumination and verification occur in cycles. This cycle may be described as a cycle of convergent thinking (preperation), divergent thinking (illumination that restructures the problem), convergent thinking (verification and extension)

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN ART AND SCIENCE CREATIVE PROCESS: 1) In both there is some preperation: In science the preperation part consists of a trained mind becoming aware of a problem and the attempting to solve it by resource to scientific procedures, logic and evidence. In arts, the preperation part usually consists of being moved or stimulated by some experience.

2) In both arts and science, the creative process consists of cycles of convergent and divergent thinking. The preperation being convergent thinking. It then gives an insight (divergent thinking) and then verified. ART - Usually there is no one right solution SCIENCE - One right solution exists

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CREATIVE PROCESS IN ART AND SCIENCE:

- Less well defined problems

- Development of an art work is more influenced by the person solving it The cycle of convergent thinking and

- Well defined problems

- Less influenced by the person - Cycles occur less often

divergent thinking occur more often - Assessed more subjectively CREATIVE PROBLEM STRUCTURING: - Assessed less subjectively

- The ability to structure the problem and the ability to seek creative solutions through divergent thinking are very important. The following questions can help one get a good definition of the problem
1) What is the problem? Is some goal being blocked? Are there some undesirable symptoms that need to be eliminated? 2) Why is the goal being blocked? Why are the undesirable symptoms there? 3) Are there conditions or constraints in the problem situation that need to be borne in mind in solving the problem? Are there hidden constraints that need to be made explicit? 4) What are the major areas of ignorance that impede ones problem solving effort? Do they lie in the nature of the problem, in procedures for solving it, or in the character of the solution? Ex: PROBLEM OF CORRUPTION IN INDIA

MECHANISMS OF CONVERGENT THINKING: The mechanisms of convergent thinking are classified under the following heads: A) CLARIFATORY mechanisms: The problem is accompanied by insufficient information as to what is wrong, why it is wrong, how to set it right. Clarifactory mechanisms are sought to reduce confusion. They are 1) Verbalizing a problem: - putting it into language, to view more clearly, for enlisting the help of other. 2) Listing: - the components of the problem 3) Familiarize : by analogies and comparisons 4) Display: the problem situation through charts, diagrams etc B) ANALYTICAL mechanisms: It involves the following steps 1) Break the problem into subfactors 2) Seek relationship among components of the problem by establishing priorities, by classifying components. 3) List the steps by which one can go from the current situation to a potential solution 4) Symbolic representation of components and their relationships 5) Definition of issues, constriants, variables

6) Impose constraints on the problem, ex by making assumptions by establishing evaluation criteria

7) Select out of alternatives by evaluating alternatives

8) Work backwards step by step from an ideal solution to current reality 9) Build a model of the situation, manipulate its crucial variables to see outcomes as in a simulation

10) Material compressing mechanisms such as the use of symbols, categories, stereotyping, aphorisms, metaphors and titles
C) SYNTHESIS aiding mechanisms: - Put in one place the various strands of thought concerning a problem - Incubate - Highlight contradictory elements in the problem situation or take extreme situations and try to explain them. - Use a broad conceptual model to organise the information. D) Optimizing mechanisms: - Refine the solution - Substitute parts of the solution by more useful parts

- Add useful components to the solution

- Modify the elements of the solution - Alter relation between the components of the solution - Formalize the criteria of evaluating the solution MECHANISMS OF DIVERGENT THINKING: - Development of a working definition of the problem

- Listing the objects, procedures etc

- Use of associative thinking to bring to consciousness more and more far out alternatives - Restructuring of original problem by reinterpreting the constriants

- Evaluating solutions to search further rather than for negative self evaluation
- Allowing the mind to synthesize imaginary solutions - Brainstorming ie aiming at generating many solutions by suspending critical evaluation and by encouraging the mind to generate unconventional alternatives.

- Searching for solutions that are opposite to the ones that are conventionally advanced.
- Questioning the basic assumptions on which the current approach rests. - Distortion of or even temporary ignoring of problem constraints to facilitate the conceiving of far out possibilities

- Getting involved with the problem by magnifying the negative consequences of not finding the solution or experiencing fully the magnitude of the problem

- Seeking interesting far out analogies to the problem situation and an exploration of their mechanics
- Diverting attention from a mindset or obsession, side tracking.