Creative Behavior Juanita Sagan, Oakland California

1. Creative BehaviorJuanita Sagan, Oakland California • The Institute for Creative and Artistic Development (ICAD) – Oakland California • Integration: an assimilation of the important emotional and intellectual aspects of a person’s experience. • Credit Taking: Giving yourself recognition and praise for things you do to help yourself and others. • Changing symbol systems

2. Theories of Creativity • Psychoanalytic • Humanist • Behaviorist – Developmental • Cognitive • Systems Approach

3. Theories of Creativity • Threshold definition • Personality theorists • Process • Situation • Modern

4. Threshold Theory • Intelligence is necessary but not sufficient for creative accomplishments to occur. • The relationship between IQ and Creativity is apparent in people whose IQ is below 120. After that there is little predictive value.

5. Which is the most creative? • Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony • Spielberg’s movie E.T. • Einstein’s Theory of Relativity • Andrea’s flower arrangements • Henri’s award winning new hair style • Reagan’s theory of “Trickle-Down” economics

6. Which is the most intelligent? • Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony • Spielberg’s movie E.T. • Einstein’s Theory of Relativity • Andrea’s flower arrangements • Henri’s award winning new hair style • Reagan’s theory of “Trickle-Down” economics

7. Theories of Creativity • Threshold Theory • Psychoanalytic Theorists – Unconscious drive • Freud • Kubie • Kris • Jung

8. Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalytic Perspective • Creativity is said to be the outcome of the unconscious neurotic conflict. Creativity is at the service of the id. • Difference between primary process thinking (daydreams, fantasies) and secondary process thinking analytic and logical.

9. Freud on creativity & the unconscious Defense mechanism - sublimation Desires of Id suppressed Unconscious Sublimation Conscious Creative Act Primary Process – Relaxation Periods Secondary Process – Logical periods Fantasy allows the creativity regression to playful thinking

10. Ernest Kris • Fantastic, freely wandering thought processes tend to discharge libido and aggression. • Creativity results when there is a shift from the preconscious to the conscious—an illuminating experience. • Creativity is at the service of the ego which controls defense mechanisms.

11. Kris – Theory of Creativity Creativity involves the ability to regress to a childlike frame of mind. C U Pre Conscious Free- wandering thought processes Creative fantasies Importance of Playfulness!

12. Lawrence Kubie • Creativity takes place between the conscious and the unconscious that is in the preconscious. • Creativity is the new and unexpected connections, metaphorical relationships overlapping meanings, puns and allegories.

13. Kubie – Theory of Creativity Continuum Repressed experience U C Pre Symbol Systems Language Anchored in Reality Can engage in free Play Symbolic Process May be accessed by drugs or hypnosis. Connections Metaphors Creativity

14. Carl Jung • Archetypes– • Psychological type: draws from the realm of human experiences which raise the consciousness to greater levels of understanding • Visionary type: the creative process consists in an unconscious animation of the archetype and in a development and shaping of this image till the work is completed.

15. Jung – Theory of Creativity Unconscious Mind Personal Past Collective Past Creativity happens through a person by communing with both types of unconscious thought.

16. Theories of Creativity • Threshold Theory • Psychoanalytic Theorists – Unconscious drive • Behaviorists – Reinforced behavior • Skinner

17. Behavioral Principlesof Creativity > Product of genetic and environmental history. (Skinner) > Increase behavior by rewarding it. (Maltzman) S-R S-R unrelated Combination of 2 experiences. > Mental Associations has a large number of verbal and non verbal associations to connect.

18. Humanistic Perspective • Self actualization is an intrinsic drive • The self actualized person approaches all aspects of life in a creative way • Special talent creativity vs. Self actualized creativity • Conditions for creativity.

19. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Aesthetic Self - Actualization Self - Esteem Belonging Safety Physical Needs

20. Characteristics of Self Actualized People • Spontaneous Expressive • Natural Less Controlled • Less Inhibited • “Relatively un-frightened by the unknown, the mysterious and often positively attracted by it…selectively pick out things to puzzle over, to mediate on and to be absorbed in work.” Maslow, 1967 • Peak experiences – lost in the present. • Self actualized creativity vs. Special talent creativity. • Deficient needs vs. Being needs vs. Aesthetic needs.

21. Theories of Creativity • Threshold Theory • Psychoanalytic Theorists – Unconscious drive • Behaviorists – Reinforced behavior • Cognitivists- A way of thinking • Humanists – a state of being • Maslow • Rogers

22. Theories of Creativity • Threshold Theory • Psychoanalytic Theorists – Unconscious drive • Behaviorists – Reinforced behavior • Cognitivists- A way of thinking • Humanists – a state of being • Contemporary Theorists- a systems and developmental approach Amabile Simonton Gruber Csikszentmihalyi Gardner Sternberg

23. Gruber • Studied traits of creative individuals • Task commitment • Through working hard you transform yourself and what would be hard for others becomes easy for you. • The greatest fun is the work. • Creative people combine a zest for work with a capacity to play

24. Sense of purpose • Strong, robust energetic • A feeling of who they are and where they are going • Risk taking • Challenged by the unknown • Courage can come at time depending on life’s circumstances

25. Network of Enterprises • Multiple ongoing interests thread through the intellectual life of a creative individual. • Complete and enduring sets of purposes • Juggling projects

26. Bracketing • Technique creative people use to handle problem that they can’t solve yet. • Tolerance for ambiguity • Sometimes intuitive ideas can’t be explained for lack of knowledge must make assumptions

27. Images of a wide scope • Metaphor that holds the key to a creative breakthrough.

28. Creative people must use their skills to devise environments that foster their work • They must invent new peer groups appropriate to their projects • Being creative means striking out in new directions and making new friends • Being creative means a willingness to be alone for awhile.

29. Simonton • Studied creativity over the life span. • Personality • Circumstances of their training • Properties of their most highly esteemed work.

30. Findings • Maximal creativity 35-39 • Tend to produce more bad than good • Drop out of college • Smart but not too brainy

31. Developmental or early influences: • Higher incidence of parental loss • First born • Environment replete with intellectually and culturally stimulating materials • Role models: essential tension

32. Formal education • “It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry for this delicate little plant aside from stimulation stands mostly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreck and ruin without fail” (Einstein)

33. Howard Gardner • Multiple Intelligences Theory • Creativity expressed in a Domain or Field • Success is a combination of intelligences • “The creative individual is a person who regularly solves problems, fashions products or defies new questions in a domain in a way that ultimately becomes accepted in a particular cultural setting.”

34. Howard Gardner 5 Types of Activities of Creative Individuals • Solving a particular problem. (scientific and mathematical research questions and also artistic tasks) • Putting forth a general conceptual scheme. (the development of artistic or scientific theories) • Creating a product. (works of art, literature, choreography, etc.) • Giving a performance. • Performing for high stakes. (creative endeavor in which one’s words and actions are the substance in which one may risk security , health or life in the service of a mission)

35. Csikszentmihalyi (chicks sent me high) • Creativity is an interaction of person, product, environment • People create in a domain – need knowledge of that domain • Creativity must be valued to be perceived as creative.

36. Creativity Review • There seems to be a continuum of creative abilities C………………….c • There is a relationship between intelligence and creativity. This is called the threshold effect. • Depending on the psychological paradigm, creativity is viewed as a subconscious drive, a conditioned response, a way of thinking, or a drive to fulfill potential. • Creativity functions for a purpose – a problem, a goal, and area of interest, an intrinsic drive

37. Creativity Theories

38. Constructs of Creativity • Person • Process • Product • Environment

39. Constructs of Creativity • What are you like? • How do you work? • What do you make? • What conditions make your creative work possible?

40. Constructs of CreativityPaul E. TorranceJ.P Guilford Structure of the Intellect • Fluency = lots of ideas • Flexibility = different ideas • Elaboration = adding details • Originality = unique ideas

41. Stages of CreativityGraham Wallas • Preparation • Incubation • Illumination • Verification

42. Creative thought can be divided into divergent and convergent reasoning. • Divergent thinking is the intellectual ability to think of many original, diverse, and elaborate ideas. • Convergent thinking: the intellectual ability to logically evaluate, critique and choose the best idea from a selection of ideas.

43. Something to save your life. A wasp trap. A way to measure a two story building. A foolproof clue to your identity. A container to hold a 10lb rock. A hearing aid. A teaching aid to teach children subtraction. An object to help someone communicate. Something a pet owner may need. Something to help prepare food. Invention ConventionNecessity is the mother of invention. Using only the provided newspaper, scissors, and tape invent each of the following items.

44. Judging Inventions & Creativity

45. Metaphors • “A direct comparison between two seemingly unrelated subjects describing one subject as being alike to another subject in some way” • Two parts – tenor and vehicle – come together to reach a point of similarity called a ground http://www.devlounge.net/articles/visual-metaphors-7-rockstar-examples-on-the-web

46. Lakoff and Johnson • Metaphors We Live By • We think and talk in metaphors

47. SynecticsWeaver and Pope • Tearing down limits to Generative Thinking • Maintaining inflexible criteria of what constitutes appropriate thinking • Insistence on literalness • Prematurely eliminating connections • Self-censoring • Self punishments • Listening for flaws

48. SynecticsGordon and Poze • Direct Analogies • Personification • Compressed Conflict

49. Ask questions of a metaphorical nature. How is a coffee pot like anger? How would you feel if you were an ant? Which is softer a whisper or a cotton ball?

50. Synectics • Direct Analogies • How is school like a salad? • How is a daffodil like a dancer? • How is television like a spy? • How is ping pong like marriage?