LECTURE 1
The Four P's of Creativity by Rhodes
Person/level: looking at characteristics, traits, or abilities of a creative person i.e. personality
o Creative genius have more quantity of creative ideas than normal people
o Motivation to spend time and effort in a domain, shaped by environment - creativity
related to continuity, become great in the process
Product: what are the outcomes creative people achieve and their characteristics i.e.
conventional vs creative idea
o Originality - more not necessarily better, determined by the interaction with context
o Innovation sweetspot: different enough to be interesting, familiar enough to feel
comfortable e.g. release of iphad
o People talk about it only when combined with feasibility and people can make sense of it
Process: how people achieve creative outcomes, how ideas are generated
o Division of creative process: preparation > incubation > illumination or inspiration
(believed to be a mystical moment that need to capture) > evaluation
o Models are not helpful, do not explain a lot
o Focus on inspiration takes away the deliberate and goal-directed aspects of creativity, not
just something that happens to us but can intentionally search for inspiration
Press/place: external influences or environment where creativity happens i.e. contextual factors
that stimulate creativity
The four C model by Kaufman & Beghetto
Big C is eminent creative contributions, very rare
Little c is creative actions in which non expert may participate every day
Problem 1: little-c category is too broad, does not include creative insights during learning (novel
ideas for the learner)
Problem 2: professional creators that have not reached eminent status fall between Big-C and
little-c
Mini-c is novel and personally meaningful interpretation of experiences
Pro-c is professional level creative performance without attaining Big C status
The model represents a developmental trajectory of creativity in a person's life, reflects that
nearly all aspects of creativity can be experienced by nearly everyone
The additional complexity that comes with the model is necessary for continued maturation of
the field of creativity studies
o How to best measure creativity
o Domain-specific vs domain-general
o Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation
Creativity is the ability to produce work that is both novel (original, unexpected) and appropriate within
particular domain (useful, adaptive concerning task constraints)
Being original is not enough, creative product has to make sense
Being inspired is not enough, creativity requires effort and persistence (problem-solving)
,Timeline
Guildford
Reasons for neglect of creativity
o Creativity believed to be part of intelligence
o Creative eminence is rare
o Emphasis in psychometrics, creativity is very subjective
o Behaviorism, learning approaches and work with animals
Stenberg & Lubart
Importance of creativity
o Economic value of new ideas
o Discover leaders with imagination and vision
o Industrial revolution, human brains obsolete? i.e. AI
How to study or test creativity?
Research methods
o Field studies: historiometric, analysis of creative products, organization survey studies
o Lab studies: mostly (quasi) experimental where participants perform an experimental
(artistic) task e.g. drawing, writing, building something - subdivided according to
required process or desired endpoint
Convergent task asks for single solution e.g. remote associates test (RAT, find a word related 3
words), insight problem (cannot be solved with normal solutions have to re-structure problem,
need to let go of previous assumptions)
o Pros: easy to use in research, standardized tasks and measures (useful for replication)
o Cons: only one dependent variable, no process information
Divergent task asks participants to give as many solutions as possible, no right or wrong answer
e.g. alternative uses task (give unusual uses for object), brainstorming
Judging creative performance
o Fluency: number of ideas
o Quality: originality and usefulness of ideas
o Diversity: number of different categories
o More measures = more information
o Different dependent variables may show different effects or correlations
o Assumes ideas can be identified, counted, and coded
o Idea quality may be complex
, Three dimensions of creative ideas by Litchfield & Gilson
Novelty (originality)
Usefulness: includes feasibility and value
This means that ideas can be good or bad in multiple ways
Continua of ideas that range in novelty and usefulness
Moving towards innovation
Ideas are rarely the endpoint of creative process because ideas are rarely ready for immediate
implementation
The continua allows to consider the types developmental trajectories of ideas towards creativity,
depending on where they are categorized
Having creative ideas could be helpful but not always relate to better performance, it is not
enough for innovation and success
During ideas generation people focus more on originality, but for implementation people tend to
follow feasibility instead
LECTURE 2
Feist's meta-analysis on personality and creativity - most important article in creativity field
Feist summarized existing on research of personality in scientific and artistic creativity
Between-groups approach
o Studies or effects comparing scientists vs nonscientists
o Artists vs nonartists
o Not all art or scientific discoveries are ground breaking i.e. routine (Pro-C) vs
breakthrough (Big-C)
Within-groups approach
o Studies or effects comparing high vs less creative scientists
Conclusions
The Four P's of Creativity by Rhodes
Person/level: looking at characteristics, traits, or abilities of a creative person i.e. personality
o Creative genius have more quantity of creative ideas than normal people
o Motivation to spend time and effort in a domain, shaped by environment - creativity
related to continuity, become great in the process
Product: what are the outcomes creative people achieve and their characteristics i.e.
conventional vs creative idea
o Originality - more not necessarily better, determined by the interaction with context
o Innovation sweetspot: different enough to be interesting, familiar enough to feel
comfortable e.g. release of iphad
o People talk about it only when combined with feasibility and people can make sense of it
Process: how people achieve creative outcomes, how ideas are generated
o Division of creative process: preparation > incubation > illumination or inspiration
(believed to be a mystical moment that need to capture) > evaluation
o Models are not helpful, do not explain a lot
o Focus on inspiration takes away the deliberate and goal-directed aspects of creativity, not
just something that happens to us but can intentionally search for inspiration
Press/place: external influences or environment where creativity happens i.e. contextual factors
that stimulate creativity
The four C model by Kaufman & Beghetto
Big C is eminent creative contributions, very rare
Little c is creative actions in which non expert may participate every day
Problem 1: little-c category is too broad, does not include creative insights during learning (novel
ideas for the learner)
Problem 2: professional creators that have not reached eminent status fall between Big-C and
little-c
Mini-c is novel and personally meaningful interpretation of experiences
Pro-c is professional level creative performance without attaining Big C status
The model represents a developmental trajectory of creativity in a person's life, reflects that
nearly all aspects of creativity can be experienced by nearly everyone
The additional complexity that comes with the model is necessary for continued maturation of
the field of creativity studies
o How to best measure creativity
o Domain-specific vs domain-general
o Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation
Creativity is the ability to produce work that is both novel (original, unexpected) and appropriate within
particular domain (useful, adaptive concerning task constraints)
Being original is not enough, creative product has to make sense
Being inspired is not enough, creativity requires effort and persistence (problem-solving)
,Timeline
Guildford
Reasons for neglect of creativity
o Creativity believed to be part of intelligence
o Creative eminence is rare
o Emphasis in psychometrics, creativity is very subjective
o Behaviorism, learning approaches and work with animals
Stenberg & Lubart
Importance of creativity
o Economic value of new ideas
o Discover leaders with imagination and vision
o Industrial revolution, human brains obsolete? i.e. AI
How to study or test creativity?
Research methods
o Field studies: historiometric, analysis of creative products, organization survey studies
o Lab studies: mostly (quasi) experimental where participants perform an experimental
(artistic) task e.g. drawing, writing, building something - subdivided according to
required process or desired endpoint
Convergent task asks for single solution e.g. remote associates test (RAT, find a word related 3
words), insight problem (cannot be solved with normal solutions have to re-structure problem,
need to let go of previous assumptions)
o Pros: easy to use in research, standardized tasks and measures (useful for replication)
o Cons: only one dependent variable, no process information
Divergent task asks participants to give as many solutions as possible, no right or wrong answer
e.g. alternative uses task (give unusual uses for object), brainstorming
Judging creative performance
o Fluency: number of ideas
o Quality: originality and usefulness of ideas
o Diversity: number of different categories
o More measures = more information
o Different dependent variables may show different effects or correlations
o Assumes ideas can be identified, counted, and coded
o Idea quality may be complex
, Three dimensions of creative ideas by Litchfield & Gilson
Novelty (originality)
Usefulness: includes feasibility and value
This means that ideas can be good or bad in multiple ways
Continua of ideas that range in novelty and usefulness
Moving towards innovation
Ideas are rarely the endpoint of creative process because ideas are rarely ready for immediate
implementation
The continua allows to consider the types developmental trajectories of ideas towards creativity,
depending on where they are categorized
Having creative ideas could be helpful but not always relate to better performance, it is not
enough for innovation and success
During ideas generation people focus more on originality, but for implementation people tend to
follow feasibility instead
LECTURE 2
Feist's meta-analysis on personality and creativity - most important article in creativity field
Feist summarized existing on research of personality in scientific and artistic creativity
Between-groups approach
o Studies or effects comparing scientists vs nonscientists
o Artists vs nonartists
o Not all art or scientific discoveries are ground breaking i.e. routine (Pro-C) vs
breakthrough (Big-C)
Within-groups approach
o Studies or effects comparing high vs less creative scientists
Conclusions
