learning creativity reflection

Week2_Intro_HistoricalEvolutionofCreativityStudies_Full.pptx

Home >English homework help >learning creativity reflection

Introduction to creativity Studies Week 2

Nathaniel Barr, PhD

300,000 years ago

“Humans are animals that specialize in thinking and knowing, and our extraordinary cognitive abilities have transformed every aspect of our lives.

In contrast to our chimpanzee cousins and Stone Age ancestors, we are complex political, economic, scientific and artistic creatures, living in a vast range of habitats, many of which are our own creation.”

Cecelia Hayes, New Thinking: The Evolution of Human Cognition

Almost 50 thousand years ago

Oldest cave art found in Sulawesi

BY ADAM BRUMM, ADHI AGUS OKTAVIANA, BASRAN BURHAN, BUDIANTO HAKIM, RUSTAN LEBE, JIAN-XIN ZHAO, PRIYATNO HADI SULISTYARTO, MARLON RIRIMASSE, SHINATRIA ADHITYATAMA, IWAN SUMANTRI, MAXIME AUBERT, SCIENCE ADVANCES13 JAN 2021 : EABD4648

Almost 50 thousand years ago

“Unlike previous eras, when stasis dominated, innovation is now the essence of culture, with change being measured in millennia rather than hundreds of millennia.

Known as the Upper Paleolithic Revolution, this collective archaeological signal is unmistakable evidence of the modern human mind at work.

Richard Leakey, The Origin of Humankind

A few decades ago

Guilford, J. P.(1950). Creativity. American Psychologist, 5.

“The neglect of this subject by psychologists is appalling…”

History of Creativity Studies

Over time, humanity’s view of the creative process has changed, which in turn has altered who we think can be creative and whether we are in control of the process

The Ancients

Western: e.g., Ancient Greeks

Eastern: e.g., China

Ancient Greece

No actual term that corresponded to creativity or creative (instead used the term to make)

Assumed that all original ideas came from divine inspiration

Rather than create something, one was shown it

Ancient Greece

The Muses: personification of knowledge and the arts, especially literature, dance and music

Ancient Greece

Plato & Socrates:

Inspired thoughts originate with the gods

Don’t come when a person is rational, but when someone is "beside himself," when "bereft of his senses."

Since the gods took away reason before bestowing the gift of inspiration, "thinking" might actually prevent the reception of divinely inspired revelations.

"inspiration" is based on a Greek word meaning "the God within."

Genius

the guiding spirit of a person, or even of an entire gens (a group of families believed to be descended from the same ancestor).

A related term is genius loci, the spirit of a specific locale.

Ancient China

Nature provided inspiration

Inspired by surroundings rather than given an idea

Although still outside source, more credit given to “creator” than in Greek conception

Variation in views regarding who could be creative

Renaissance (1350-1600s)

“rebirth”

After black plague

Resurgence of classical ancient knowledge and focus on creativity and intellectualism

Renaissance (1350-1600s)

New conception that creation was domain of individual:

Raphael: “he shapes a painting according to his idea”

Leonardo da Vinci, said he employs "shapes that do not exist”

Michelangelo, “the artist realizes his vision rather than imitating nature”

the Venetian art theoretician, Paolo Pino, that painting is "inventing what is not.”

The Enlightenment (1620-1780s)

Age of Reason

Science

Skepticism

Voltaire (1753), ‘I value poetry only insofar as it is the ornament of reason’

Art more realistic

However, admitted conception of genius, which allowed less constrained creativity to emerge

Hereditary Genius (Galton , 1869)

Victorian polymath: geographer, meteorologist, tropical explorer, founder of differential psychology, inventor of fingerprint identification, pioneer of statistical correlation and regression, convinced hereditarian, eugenicist, proto-geneticist, half-cousin of Charles Darwin and best-selling author.

Hereditary Genius (Galton , 1869)

First social scientific study of great achievement

E.g.,

Studied 286 judges, 30 were Chancellor (higher rank) and 24/30 had eminent relations, compared to only 9 of remaining judges

This suggests strong hereditary influence upon genius

Any problems with this logic?

Inherited ability not enough

“Galton (1892) collected biographical information on eminent judges, statesmen, scientists, poets, musicians, painters, wrestlers, and others. Ability alone, he concluded, did not bring about success in any field.

Rather, he believed high achievers to be triply blessed by “ability combined with zeal and with capacity for hard labour” (p. 33).”

-Duckworth

Modern era

4Ps of Creativity Studies

Person

Product

Process

Press

Systems view of Creativity

Hennessey & Amabile, 2010,

Annual Review of Psychology

interdisciplinary

History

Anthropology

Sociology

Urban studies

*Psychology (social, industrial/organizational, cognitive, clinical)

Neuroscience

American psychologist

Helped US Air Force train pilots

Developed Structure of Intelligence (SI) theory 1955

SI established the difference between convergent and divergent thinking

Developed early divergent thinking tests

J.P Guilford 1897-1987

* Creative Person *

Divergent and Convergent Thinking

Divergent thinking involves moving from a single starting point and extending our search in many different directions by:

Identifying opportunities

Generating varied ideas

Imagining many different perspectives

Seeking novel, unusual, or ‘out there’ solutions

Convergent thinking involves directing action towards a single solution by:

Analyzing possibilities

Critically evaluating options

Refining and developing promising possibilities

Choosing the best options

What are all the alternative uses for a brick?

Write as many answers as possible in two minutes.

Share answers with group.

J.P. Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task

Alternative Uses Task: Evaluation

Originality: Responses given by only 5% of the group are unusual and responses given by only 1% are highly novel.

Fluency: Total number of responses.

Flexibility: Different categories or types of responses. (Category 1: throw brick at wall, throw brick in a pool, throw brick during a riot; category 2: build a wall, build a castle, build a BBQ, build a loft, build a bookcase).

Elaboration: Detail in answer.

What would be all the results if dogs liked music?

You have 3 minutes to write down all your answers.

Share your results with your group.

J.P. Guilford’s Consequences Test

J.P Guilford’s Consequences Test: Evaluation Criteria

Quality: How coherent, meaningful are the consequences with respect to the question being asked?

Originality: To what degree are the consequences novel and imaginative? To what extent do they differ from the material presented or state more than what is obviously apparent from the problem?

Realism: How realistic and pragmatic are the consequences and would they occur in the real world?

Time span: To what extent do the consequences focus on long-term implications as opposed to short-term or immediate concerns?

Negative Consequences: Refers to the ‘absence or diminishing of something.’

Positive Consequences: Refers to the ‘presence or addition or something.’

Complexity: The degree to which the consequences contain multiple elements and describe the interrelations among those elements.

Use of General Principles: To what degree are there principles, laws, procedures, etc. underlying the consequences?

Source: Furnham, Adrian et al. “Personality and ability predictors of the ‘Consequences’ Test of divergent thinking in a large non-student sample.” Personal and Individual Differences 46 (2009): 536-540.

Alex F. Osborn (1888-1966)

An advertising executive

Founded Creative Education Foundation (1954) at the

University of Buffalo

Creative Process

The Rules of Brainstorming

Defer Judgment

Strive for Quantity

Freewheel

Synthesize

American psychologist

“Father of Creativity Studies”

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)

Torrance Incubation Model (TIM)

E. Paul Torrance 1915-2003

* Creative Person & Press *

Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

What Might This Be?

Write as many answers in 2 minutes.

What Might This Be Task

TTCT

Impossibilities task

It was used originally by Guilford and his associates (1951) as a measure of fluency involving complex restrictions and large potential. In a course in personality development and mental hygiene, Torrance has experimented with a number of modifications of the basic task, making the restrictions more specific. In this task the subjects are asked to list as many impossibilities as they can.

Consequences task

The consequences task was also used originally by Guilford and his associates (1951). Torrance has made several modifications in adapting it. He chose three improbable situations and the children were required to list out their consequences.

Just suppose task

It is an adaptation of the consequences type of test designed to elicit a higher degree of spontaneity and to be more effective with children. As in the consequence task, the subject is confronted with an improbable situation and asked to predict the possible outcomes from the introduction of a new or unknown variable.

Situations task

The situation task was modeled after Guilford’s (1951) test designed to assess the ability to see what needs to be done. Subjects were given three common problems and asked to think of as many solutions to these problems as they can. For example, if all schools were abolished, what would you do to try to become educated?

TTCT

Common problems task

This task is an adoption of Guilford’s (1951) Test designed to assess the ability to see defects, needs and deficiencies and found to be one of the tests of the factors termed sensitivity to problems. Subjects are instructed that they will be given common situations and that they will be asked to think of as many problems as they can that may arise in connection with these situations. For example, doing homework while going to school in the morning.

Improvement task

This test was adopted from Guilford’s (1952) apparatus test which was designed to assess ability to see defects and all aspects of sensitivity to problems. In this task the subjects are given a list of common objects and are asked to suggest as many ways as they can to improve each object. They are asked not to bother about whether or not it is possible to implement the change thought of.

Imaginative stories task

In this task the child is told to write the most interesting and exciting story he can think of. Topics are suggested (e.g., the dog that did not bark); or the child may use his own ideas.

Post WW2 Psychology and revolution

Revolutions

“All crises begin with the blurring of a paradigm and the consequent loosening of the rules for normal research. Or finally, the case that will most concern us here, a crisis may end with the emergence of a new candidate for paradigm and with the ensuing battle over its acceptance.”

During war time: equipment design required knowledge of human cognition

Focus: what is the most optimal way to design a machine for human use?

e.g., pilots landing airplanes

e.g., vigilance while monitoring the radar screen

The “Cognitive Revolution”

Human factors engineering presented new problems

Donald Hebb: some functions (e.g., perception) are based on cell assemblies

Hubel & Weisel: demonstrated importance of early experience on development of nervous system (e.g., cats with early experience of horizontal lines failed to later perceive vertical lines)

The “Cognitive Revolution”

Localization of function in the brain forced discussion of mind

The “Cognitive Revolution”

Localization of function in the brain forced discussion of mind

Hippocampal resection

“There has been one striking and totally unexpected behavioural results: a grave loss of recent memory”

Input

Short Term

Long Term Memory

Output

The “Cognitive Revolution”

Development of computers and artificial intelligence gave a dominant metaphor

CRUM

Computational-Representational Understanding of Mind

“Thinking can best be understood in terms of representational structures in the mind and computational procedures that operate on those structures.”

Mind: An Introduction to Cognitive Science (MIT Press, 1996)

“The term ‘cognition’ refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations... Given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do; that every psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon.”

Ulric Neisser, 1967, Cognitive Psychology

Causes of Cognitive revolution

i) Human factors engineering advances

ii) Neuroscientific advances

iii) Computational/technological advances

Imaging the Future (Posner & Levitin, 1997)

1000 years ago: not universally held that the mind was located in brain

100 years ago: phrenology had people mapping skull

Last 10 years: “cognitive psychologists… have embraced neuroimaging techniques to localize mental operations in the brain, and to study their orchestration as humans perform a variety of tasks. ”

http://www.zmescience.com/medicine/mind-and-brain/out-of-body-experience-fmri-10032014/

Continual Progression of Methods

Scientific method

Philosophy as means for understanding mind

Intuitions

Varied across people

Logic

Meaningless if original assumption is wrong

Reliance on Authority

Must decide based on evidence

Modern Psychology

Early days saw a variety of approaches that allowed new insight, but had some problems

Scientific psychology

Systematic empiricism:

Structured observations about the world that allow us to make precise inferences about the way the mind works

The Scientific Method: Terminology

Operational definitions are used to clarify precisely what is meant by each variable

Participants or subjects are the organisms whose behaviour is systematically observed in a study

Data collection techniques allow for empirical observation and measurement

- Psychologists use operational definitions to clarify what their variables mean: e.g., What exactly is sociability?

- Researchers use procedures for making empirical observations and measurements, including direct observation, questionnaires, interviews, psychological tests, physiological recordings, and examination of archival records.

- They depend on statistics to analyze data and decide whether hypotheses were supported. Observations are converted into numbers, which are then compared.

- They share their findings through reports at scientific meetings and in scientific journals. This way others can evaluate new research findings and build new ideas.

- Using the scientific approach, scientists state EXACTLY what they are talking about, resulting in clarity of communication. The scientific method also yields more accurate and dependable information than, for example, speculation.

- Research methods consist of differing approaches to the observation, measurement, manipulation, and control of variables in empirical studies.

Steps in a Scientific Investigation

Formulate a testable hypothesis

Select the research method and design

Collect the data

Analyze the data and draw conclusions

Report the findings

Discuss the Featured Study in this chapter: Dutton and Aron (1974)

Fear arousal can be mistaken for attraction or sexual arousal in certain contexts

Experimental design

Dependent variables were sexual imagery in TAT and whether they called back

Explain the results―higher levels of sexual arousal in TAT scores = more call backs from males crossing the high bridge

What does this mean? Should we take our first dates to see a scary movie rather than a romantic comedy?

“Humans are animals that specialize in thinking and knowing, and our extraordinary cognitive abilities have transformed every aspect of our lives. In contrast to our chimpanzee cousins and Stone Age ancestors, we are complex political, economic, scientific and artistic creatures, living in a vast range of habitats, many of which are our own creation.”

-Cecelia Hayes

Meliorism

“humans can, through their interference with processes that would otherwise be natural, produce an outcome which is an improvement over the aforementioned natural one”