Creativity: How Innovative Ideas and Products Emerge

1. Faculty of Psychology Creativity: How Innovative Ideas and Products Emerge Christiane Spiel & Hans Westmeyer University of Vienna & Free University of Berlin New Frontiers in Evaluation, Vienna April 2006

2. Introduction Since 1950 intensive psychological research on creativity caused by: 1. J.P. Guilford´s 1950 APA presidental address He contrasted the critical role of creativity in the fulfillment of human potential with the neglect it had suffered as a topic of psychological research (intelligence: convergent thinking – creativity: divergent thinking). 2. The „Sputnik-shock“ 1957 the Sovjets successfully launched the first satellite to orbit Earth.

3. Introduction Journal articles with creativity in the title or abstract indexed by PsychINFO: 1950: 16 1959: 56 1999: 328 Phase: Euphoria – creativity as a set of personality traits (empirical but not theoretical) → disillusionment 2. Phase: Creativity in a societal context (more theoretical, less empirical) → no agreement about how creativity can be identified and promoted

4. Topics Creativity as a characteristic of the individual as an individual and social phenomenon from an interactionistic / systemic perspective Consequences for research on creativity for creativity in our knowledge based society

5. Creativity as a characteristic of the individual

6. Theories on personality Personality: theoretical construct Definition: from philosophic to psychometric Eysenck (1953): more or less definite and everlasting organisation of character, temperament, intellect and physis of a person

7. Theories on personality Guilford (1964): entire structure of traits Trait = continuous, normally distributed variable it‘s extent can be measured for each individual

8. Measurement Theory Connecting the theoretical with the empirical level (Operationalization) Assignment of numerals to objects or events according to rules (so that the relations between the numbers reflect the relations between the objects with respect to the property concerned)

9. Measurement of creativity Personality: Biographic inventories Assessment of personality characteristics Assessment of motivation and attitudes

10. Biographic inventories Assessment of personality characteristics Assessment of motivation and attitudes E.g. family background, intellectual and cultural orientation, range of interests Measurement of creativity Personality:

11. Measurement of creativity Personality: Biographic inventories Assessment of personality characteristics Assessment of motivation and attitudes E.g. fluency, flexibility, independence, imagination, ambiguity tolerance

12. E.g. goal-orientation, preference for complexity, intention to ask many (unusual) questions Measurement of creativity Personality: Biographic inventories Assessment of personality characteristics Assessment of motivation and attitudes

13. Measurement of creativity Performances: Psychometric tests for the assessment of • Divergent thinking (Guilford) • Ability to solve problems

14. Psychometric tests for the assessment of • Divergent thinking (Guilford) • Ability to solve Problems E.g. rapid production of ideas, quitting habitual patterns of thinking, unusual combination of ideas Measurement of creativity Performances:

15. E.g. identification of problems, decoding of information, selection Measurement of creativity Performances: Psychometric tests for the assessment of divergent thinking Ability to solve problems

16. Strength Assessment of divergent thinking and related personality characteristics Evaluation: The conception of creativity as a characteristic of individuals

17. Evaluation: The conception of creativity as a characteristic of individuals Weaknesses • Criterion of novelty contradicts the requirement of repeatability of measurement. • Possibility to provoke creative performances in test situations is argueable. • No prognosis from test values on the creation of creative/ innovative products/ performances is possible. (Interpretation of test values? Model of measurement?)

18. Creativity as an individual and social phenomenon

19. Model of Psychoeconomics (Rubenson & Runco, 1992) Utilitarian approach: Theoretical framework, how people apply limited resources to competitive activities „There‘s no such thing as a free lunch.“

20. Model of Psychoeconomics (Rubenson & Runco, 1992) Potential for creative acts: Genetic and environmental factors Active investment (costs!) Higher investment in Extensive perspective of future Ensured employment Supply and demand on markets

21. Marginal Costs, Marginal Benefits Marginal Cost Marginal Benefit Q* Quantity of Investment Figure. Individual investments in creative potential (Q* : Equilibrium Rate of Investment) Model of Psychoeconomics (Rubenson & Runco, 1992)

22. Marginal Costs, Marginal Benefits Supply P* Demand Q* Quantity of Creative Activity Figure. The market for creative activity (Q*, P* : Market Equilibrium) Model of Psychoeconomics (Rubenson & Runco, 1992)

23. Investment Theory (Sternberg & Lubart, 1991) People invest their creative potential into creative projects, when they perceive that the resulting product has a good chance of being recognized or may generate a „profit“.

24. Cognitive Resources Affective-Conative Resources Environ-mental Resources Intelli-gence Know-ledge Intellectual Style Personality Environ-ment Moti- vation Confluence of Interacting Resources R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Domain-Relevant Creative Abilities C1 C2 C3 C4 Cn Portfolio of Creative Projects P1a P3a P4a P4b Evaluations of Creative Products E1ai E1aii E4bi E4bii E4biii Investment Theory (Sternberg & Lubart, 1991)

25. Evaluation: Psychoeconomic and investment perspectives on creativity Strength • Extension of creative perspectives on social dimensions (Utilitarianism exists by all means)

26. Evaluation: Psychoeconomic and investment perspectives on creativity Weaknesses • Profit of active investment for creative products is not evident (high creativity also exists without that investment). • „Swansong-phenomenon“ (creative performances shortly before death) can not be explained (consumption of gains not possible). • No specifications about selection of evaluators.

27. Creativity as interaction between person (product), field and domain

28. Creativity as interaction between person (product), field and domain The starting point for determining creativity lies not in the person but rather in the product itself. Whether a product is creative or not is determined by its evaluation.

29. Culture Domain Transmits Information Selects Novelty Stimulates Novelty Individual Field Produces Novelty Personal Background Society Systems perspective (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997, 1999)

30. Social constructionism (Gergen, 1985) The terms by which we understand our world and our self are neither required nor demanded by "what there is". Concepts are social artefacts. The process of understanding results from an active, cooperative endeavor of people interacting with each other. Forms of negotiated understanding are of crucial importance to our social life.

31. Creativity as a social construction(Westmeyer, 1998, 1999, 2001) EXP1: Product x of person p is considered to be creative at a certain point in time t if and only if there are D, F and R with • D as a domain, • F as the field belonging to domain D and • R as a substantial subset of F; • for all r out of R it holds true that product x of person p has been evaluated by the rating person r at time t as creative with respect to domain D.

32. Creativity as a social construction (Westmeyer, 1998, 1999, 2001) EXP2: The person p is considered to be creative at a certain point in time t if and only if there is (at least) one product x of person p at time t that is considered to be creative. EXP3: The process pr of a person p is considered to be creative at a certain point in time t, if the process pr of person p has generated a product x that is considered to be creative at time t.

33. Strength Convincing and stringent argumentation Evaluation: Systemic and social- constructionist perspectives on creativity

34. Evaluation: Systemic and social- constructionist perspectives on creativity Weaknesses • Inhomogeneity of field and domain • Specification of relations between „components“ is missing • Little is known about the social evaluative processes • Empirical studies are missing

35. Consequences

36. The conception of creativity as a personality characteristic and respective methods of measurement should be given up. Creativity is not a personality characteristic, but has to be defined with regard to a certain domain. What psychology defines and investigates are characteristics and competencies, which are predictors of creative performances. Consequences for research on creativity

37. Empirical implementation of systemic and relational approaches (interdisciplinary!!) Psychology accompanies and analyses the process of evaluation. Consequences for research on creativity

38. Central relevance of: Field (controlled access to domain, affects the system of reception in the society, assigns the label „creative“) Opinion leaders (Journalists, politicians, etc.) Marketing (Resources, relations, etc.) Mechanisms of production (Resources, familiarity with field and domain, etc.) Creativity in our knowledge- based society

39. Promotion of creativity Creativity in our knowledge- based society Fostering individuals‘ competencies to assert their products in interaction with the respective field and domain (by intervention of effective rules and standards) Transparency of the criteria to become affilated in the field

40. Promotion of creativity Creativity in our knowledge- based society To force incrusted systems of reception (in fields of important domains) to avoid onesidedness and orthodoxy To make rules and criteria of evaluation in the field transparent (standards)

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