NATURE OF CREATIVITY:

PERSON, PROCESS,
PRODUCT AND
ENVIRONMENT

PXGM6110 CREATIVITY AND CHANGE IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT

PREPARED BY: DR. NORFARIZA MOHD RADZI
WEEK 2
DEFINITION

• artistic or intellectual inventiveness

• having the power to create; pertaining to creation; inventive;
productive (of) as in a creative mind
• to originate; to bring into being from nothing
DEFINITION

• Creativity "is the skill of bringing about something new and valuable."
(Young, 1985 p.85)
• “Creativity is the process of bringing something new into birth.” (May,
1959)
• “The ability to relate and to connect, sometimes in odd and striking
fashion, lies at the heart of any creative use of the mind, no matter
what field or discipline.” (Siedel,1962)
• “C=fa(K,I,E) - Creativity equals the Function of open attitude,
Knowledge, Imagination and Evaluation Skills” (Ruth Noller)
DEFINITION

Creativity is the process through

which new and useful ideas are
generated
4 P’S OF CREATIVITY FRAMEWORK

• A helpful lens was provided by Mel Rhodes in 1961, the Four P’s of
creativity: Person, Process, Product, and Press (the “press” of the
environment).
• We can view (assess, study, measure, understand, etc.) creativity by
looking at each of these variables individually. We can consider the
characteristics of the person; we can analyze the process used; we
can assess the creativity of the end product; and we can examine the
support (or lack of support) in the environment in which the
creativity occurred.
4 P’S OF CREATIVITY FRAMEWORK

• Person – Characteristics
• Process – Through which people are creative
• Product – Produces a creative outcome
• Press – Place / Climate / Environment
(Rhodes, 1961)
• Additional P’s– Persuasion (Simonton, 1990) and Potential (Runco,
2003)
PERSON

• ‘Person’ attempt to identify the traits of these individuals. We try to

assess different styles of creativity and understand different learning
styles of people, because we believe everyone is creative.
• There are three types of characteristics that combine to produce
creativeness:
Personality
Cognitive
Biographical
CREATIVE CHARACTERISTICS

• Aware of Creativeness - values originality and creativity, values own

creativity
• Original - imaginative, full of ideas, is a "what if?" person,
resourceful, finds ways of doing things differently, challenges,
assumptions, builds and rebuilds, bored by routine
• Independent - individualistic, internally controlled/inner directed,
sets own rules, self-aware, self-accepting, unconcerned with
impressing others, may resist societal demands
• Risk Taking - does not mind consequences of being different, not
afraid to try something new, willing to cope with failure, rejects limits
imposed by others, optimistic
CREATIVE CHARACTERISTICS

• Energetic - adventurous, sensation seeking, enthusiastic, alert,

spontaneous, persevering, impulsive, driving absorption, excitable,
enjoys telling about discoveries, etc.
• Curious - questioning, experimenting, inquisitive, wide interests,
open to new experiences and growth
• Humorous - playful, plays with ideas, childlike freshness in thinking
• Attracted to Complexity - attracted to novelty, attracted to the
mysterious, tolerant of ambiguity, tolerant of disorder, tolerant of
incongruity, tends to believe in psychical phenomena
CREATIVE CHARACTERISTICS

• Artistic - artistic interests, aesthetic interests

• Open-Minded - receptive to new ideas, receptive to other
viewpoints, open to new experiences and growth, liberal, altruistic
• Needs Alone Time - reflective, introspective, internally preoccupied,
sensitive, likes to work by himself or herself, may be withdrawn
• Perceptive - intuitive, sees relationships, uses all senses in observing
CREATIVE PROCESS

• The creative process is about thinking and doing in no prescribed

order. Some people “do” first and then think about what they have
done, while others “think” first, then initiate action!
• Torrance’s Definition
“I have tried to describe creative thinking as taking place in the
process of (1) sensing difficulties…(2) making guesses/ formulating
hypotheses..(3)testing these guesses and possibly revising (4)
communicating the results. I like this definition because it describes a
natural process” (1995)
WALLAS MODEL OF CREATIVE PROCESS

Researcher Graham Wallas (1926), described his four-stage process as follows:

1. In the preparation stage, we define the problem, need, or desire, and
gather any information the solution or response needs to account for,
and set up criteria for verifying the solution's acceptability.
2. In the incubation stage, we step back from the problem and let our
minds contemplate and work it through. Like preparation, incubation can
last minutes, weeks, even years.
3. In the illumination stage, ideas arise from the mind to provide the basis
of a creative response. These ideas can be pieces of the whole or the
whole itself, i.e. seeing the entire concept or entity all at once. Unlike the
other stages, illumination is often very brief, involving a tremendous rush
of insights within a few minutes or hours.
4. In verification, the final stage, one carries out activities to demonstrate
whether or not what emerged in illumination satisfies the need and the
criteria defined in the preparation stage.
AMABILE’S FIVE STAGE COMPONENTIAL
MODEL
Amabile (1983) identified key components of creativity at certain
stages of the creative process.
1. Problem or task presentation
2. Preparation
3. Response generation
4. Response validation
5. Outcome
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING (CPS)

• Although creative problem solving has been around as long as

humans have been thinking creatively and solving problems, it was
first formalised as a process by Alex Osborn, who invented traditional
brainstorming, and Sidney Parnes. Their Creative Problem Solving
Process (CPSP) has been taught at the International Center for
Studies in Creativity at Buffalo College in Buffalo, New York since the
1950s.
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING (CPS)

• Clarify and identify the problem

• Research the problem
• Formulate creative challenges
• Generate ideas
• Combine and evaluate the ideas
• Draw up an action plan
• Do it! (implement the ideas)
PRODUCT

• Artifacts of thought (intangible)

• The tangible result of the creative process
• Physical objective – article or patent
• Theoretical system
• Equation
• New technique
CREATIVE THINKING STRATEGIES

• Convergent Thinking - (is a problem solving technique involving the

bringing together different ideas from different participants or fields
to determine a single best solution to a lucidly defined problem. In
other words, this is a kind of thinking that concentrates on finding
out the single best or frequently, correct solution to a problem or
answer to a question.
• Divergent Thinking - refers to that strategy of solving problems
characterized by the proposal of a multiplicity of possible solutions in
an attempt to determine the one that works.
CREATIVE THINKING STRATEGIES

Described below are eight elements of divergent thinking:

• Complexity – The capacity to conceptualize difficult, multifaceted,
many layered or intricate products or ideas;
• Curiosity – The personality characteristic of displaying probing
behaviors, searching, asking questions, learning to get more
knowledge/information about something, and of being able to go
deeper into ideas;
• Elaboration – The skill of adding to, building off of or embellishing a
product or an idea;
CREATIVE THINKING STRATEGIES

• Flexibility – The capability of creating varied perceptions or

categories wherefrom come a range of different ideas pertaining to
the same thing or problem;
• Fluency – The skill of engendering many ideas so as to have an
increase in the number of potential solutions or associated products;
• Imagination – The capability of dreaming up, inventing, or to think,
to see, to conceptualize novel products or ideas, to be original;
• Originality – The skill of coming up with fresh, unusual, unique,
extremely different or completely new products or ideas;
• Risk–taking – The readiness to be courageous, daring,
adventuresome – take risks or experiment with new things so as to
stand apart.
DIVERGENT THINKING GUIDELINES

• Defer judgment
• Combine and build on ideas
• Seek wild ideas
• Go for quantity
DIVERGENT TOOLS

• Brainstorming
• Stick-’Em Up
• Brainwriting
• Forced connections
• Visual Connections
• Ladder of Abstraction
• SCAMPER
CONVERGENT THINKING GUIDELINES

• Be deliberate
• Check your objectives
• Improve your ideas
• Be affirmative
• Consider novelty
CONVERGENT TOOLS

• Card Sort
• Evaluation Matrix
• Highlighting
• I3 (Influence, Importance, Imagination)
• PPCo (Pluses, Potentials, Concerns)
PRESS/PLACE/ENVIRONMENT

• The smallest spatial category is the location (site or spot) where a

person performs an activity, faces a challenge, or perceives stimuli
and clues.
• Canter (1977) define ‘place’ as a result of relationships between
actions, conceptions, and physical attributes
PRESS/PLACE/ENVIRONMENT
• Physical • Psychological
• Office, conference room, etc. • Idea support
• Shape • Challenge
• Clutter • Dynamism / Liveliness
• Light • Playfulness / Humor
• Decor • Debates
• Schtuff • Risk-taking
• Trust/Openness
• Freedom
• Idea Time
• Conflicts
CONCLUSION

• Many definitions of creativity add to the richness and confusion

surrounding the topic
• Creativity can be encouraged and aspects can be taught
• Creative people go through a creative process to produce creative
products in a creative press
• Cultivate the creative ideas of others
(Bleadow, 2002)