Creativity

History of Psychology

Blend of diligent research and

Accidental discoveries

Researchers surprised by findings

Shift their thinking.

Historians of science call these

Paradigm shifts

Ivan Pavlov

1849-1936

Nobel prize in 1904 for studies on the digestive system

Classical conditioning

Learned reflex

Ivan Pavlov

Research during Russian RevolutionInner lab insulated from noise.Assistant bringing in food had to ring bell.Dogs started to salivate before food entered room.Hmmm.. What’s going on?

Pavlov’s Classic ExperimentBefore Conditioning

During Conditioning After Conditioning

UCS (foodin mouth)

Neutralstimulus(tone)

Nosalivation

UCR (salivation)

Neutralstimulus(tone)

UCS (foodin mouth)

UCR(salivation)

CS(tone)

CR (salivation)

Behaviorism

John B. Watson

>Impressed by Pavlov’s work

>Good model for experimentation

>psychology as objective science

Birth of psychology as a science

Serendipity

Accidental fortunate discoveries“The Three Princes of Serendip”Persian princes who stumble into a fortune due to their discoveries.Find a maiden in the forest.Take her to nearest castle where she is greeted as missing princess.Receive huge reward for her safe return.

Example 1: CocklebursThe story of the discovery of hook and loop fasteners begins with George de Mestral taking a walk through the countryside. The Swiss engineer enjoyed hunting. One morning in 1941, while returning from the fields with his dog, he noticed how difficult it was to detach the flowers of the mountain thistle from his trousers and his dog’s fur. Invention?

Example 2: Pager markersArt Fry worked for 3M in product design of new tapes (Scotch brand) and adhesives. He came upon this discovery out of frustration when his scrap paper bookmarks kept falling out of his church choir hymnal. In a moment of pure "Eureka," Fry realized that new adhesive from 3M could be applied to paper and make a wonderfully reliable bookmark that wouldn’t damage his hymnal. Invention?

Example 3: “Airy” Soap

A large batch of White Soap was mixing when a workman at the factory went to lunch and left the machinery running.  When he returned, he found that air had been worked into the mixture. he decided not to discard the batch of soap because of such a small error, and he poured the soap into the frames.  The soap hardened and it was cut, packaged, and shipped.

Floating soap a hit!

A few weeks later, letters began arriving at Procter & Gamble asking for more of the soap that floated.  The workman's error had turned into a selling point!  Harley Procter came up with the name "Ivory" while listening to a bible reading at church one morning in 1879.

New idea and hard work.

Thomas Edison

To develop light bulb, gathered group of engineers.

Tested and retested materials.

Thousands of hours.

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

Creativity in the artsProduct doesn’t have to have commercial success to show signs of creativity.Arts creative by their very nature.Often the most creative works are not well received by first audiences.Controversial artworkMusic that breaks conventions.Early 1900’s conventional music.

What the audience expected.

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)

Popular and successful composer.

“The artist who does not feel completely satisfied with elegant lines, by harmonious colors, and by a beautiful succession of chords does not understand the art of music.”

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring(1913)Hardly had the performance begun when Camille Saint-Saens rose in his seat, made a bitter remark about the music and left the theater with indignation. The complex music and violent dance steps depicting fertility rites first drew catcalls and whistles from the crowd, and there were loud arguments in the audience between supporters and opponents of the work, and were soon followed by shouts and fistfights in the aisles. The unrest in the audience eventually degenerated into a riot. The Paris police arrived by intermission, but they restored only limited order. Chaos reigned for the remainder of the performance, and Stravinsky himself was so upset due to its reception that he fled the theater in mid-scene.

www.keepingscore.org/flash/stravinsky/index.html

Motivation for creativity

Find new ways to explore perception: vision and sound.Express new ideas: Challenge conventionFind new solutions to problemsPerhaps practical but not necessarily soCreativity is tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives or possibilities.Good example: planning communities

Redesigning Neighborhoods

Most towns have been modified to adapt to cars.

Wider streets laid out in grids.

Home distant from work.

New design more friendly to bikes and pedestrians than to cars.

Neo-traditional

Traditional neighborhoods are more compact communities designed to encourage bicycling and walking for short trips by providing destinations close to home and work, and by providing sidewalks and a pleasant environment for walking and biking. These neighborhoods are reminiscent of 18th and 19th century American and European towns, along with modern considerations for the automobile.

Measures of creativity

Want to recognize and nurture creativity.

Gifted and talented programs.

Need to develop valid measures.

Creativity is a subjective quality.

General agreement among experts and public.

Word Associations

Cue word: moon

Free responses: unique are better.

Or see associations:

Cue words: mouse, blue, cottage

Single response associated with all three?

Mosaic Designs

http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/mosaic/index.htm

Unusual Uses

Give subject a common object.

Shoe lace

Get points for unusual, practical uses.

Productive thinking

Task: tie ropes together

Just for funINSTRUCTIONS: Each question below contains the initials of the words that will make it a correct phrase. Find the missing words. FOR EXAMPLE: 7=D in a W. ANSWER: 7= Days in a Week.   26=L of the A 7=W of the W 1001=A N 12= S of the Z 54=C in the D[with the J] 9=P in the SS 88=P K 13=S on the A F

8=S on a S S 3= B M [S H T R] 4= Q in a G 24= H in a D 1= W on a U 5= D in a Z C 57= H V 11= P on a F T 1000= W that a P is W 29=D in F in a L Y 64= S on a C 200= D for P G in M 32= D F at which W F 18= H on a G C

Enchanted Mind - Creativity Test - Answers

Creativity hard to measure

Particularly when move into area of expressive arts.

Music, dance and painting.

Unconventionality plays strong role.

Most people find comfort in regular things.

Brain likes convention

Brain works most easily with sameness.

Behaviors become habitual and automatic.

Semi-conscious autopilot for the routines of everyday life (theory of Ellen Langer).

Driving to CCSU and parking your car.

Remember little of the trip.

Brain free to concentrate on other things.

Victims of convention

Easier and more comfortable

Less risky

Routine can become a rut.

Fail to see possibilities.

Land of steady habits.

Creative People

Maslow in study of self-actualizers.

Many very creative people.

Characteristics: broad interests, like complexity, high energy, like to work, high achievement, independent, confident.

Can tolerate conflict

Open to new experiences.

Fostering creativity

Families place high value on intellectual development.

Allow more independence.

Open to letting children experience new things.

Foster development of self-esteem.

Birth order may play a roleFrank SullowayFirstborns tend to be more conventional, little versions of their parents, enforce rules.Laterborns more likely to rebel against convention.Find other ways to get rewards and recognitionMore adventurous

Social and Political Changes

Firstborns support the status quo.

Laterborns join the movement.

Support radical ideas.

Sulloway drew conclusions from historical records and writings.

Laterborns 18X more likely to be burned at the stake for rebelling against religious dogma.

However, benefits if the movement succeeds.

But Luther was oldest son of abusive father.

Csikszentmihalyi on creativityCreativity as the result of interaction between the individual, the domain, and the field.

Domain is set of symbolic rules and procedures.

Examples: Mathematics, music, experimental methods.

Masters the domain, know how to do the craft.

Studies all that went before him/her in domain.

Person cannot be creative in a domain to which he or she is not exposed. Child could have great gift for mathematics but still needs to learn the rules in order to contribute to the domain.

FieldCreativity is not a private enterprise but occurs only when an individual, who has mastered his subject matter is acknowledged by the gatekeepers of his domain.These gatekeepers (people) are called the field.Their job is to decide whether a new idea should enter into the domain.In music, the field might be the critics.In psychology, other psychologist who conduct peer review as part of the publication process.

Internet age changed field

No longer control access to the domain through print media.

In past only way to enter the domain was through acceptance to a printed article.

Now online journals, postings, internet searches.

Who are the gatekeepers?

What info deserves to enter domain?

Creativity over time

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Greatest musician of all time.

Forgotten by the music world after his death.

His music was considered old-fashioned.

Manuscripts used as scrap paper by butchers.

Rediscovered when Felix Mendelssohn resurrected Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion (in 1829).

Creativity reassessed by the field over time.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)Recognized today as a genius in his domain.Rejected by his field during his lifetime.A disturbed man who painted strange canvases.According to Csikszentmihalyi, van Gogh’s creativity came into being when a sufficient number of art experts (the field) started to recognize his contribution to the domain.In this view, you’re only creative when so recognized by your peers.

Will it play in Peoria?

The saying, "Will it play in Peoria?" is traditionally used to ask whether a given product, person, or event will appeal to mainstream America.

The phrase initially came into fashion during the Vaudeville era, believed to have been first asked by Groucho Marx when putting together a new act. The belief was that if a new show was successful in Peoria, it would work anywhere in America.

Just because the critics like it, doesn’t mean the general public will as well.

Public needs to be considered.

Field may be the gatekeepers but letting something through the gate doesn’t assure acceptance.

Field may find a new piece of art or music is daring and creative.

Public might find it boring and offensive.

Critics rave about a new musician but the CD’s don’t sell.

New movie looking for a distributor in order to reach a larger audience.

Doug BlockIndependent film maker.Film school at Cornell. Learned domain.Several previous films. Practiced craft.51 Birch Street is story of his parents reflecting back after his mother’s death and father’s remarriage.Great story, wonderfully edited.Critical acclaim (gatekeepers for the field).Featured at several film festivals.Birch Street (website for film)

Process of creativity

1. Delineating the problem.

2. Developing knowledge base.

3. Synthesis (putting the elements together).

4. Withholding judgment during process.

Delineating the problem

Not going to search for a solution unless you see a problem or an opportunity.

Concern over global warming.

Need creative solutions and very soon.

Need to consider all the possible areas of study and impacts.

Developing knowledge base.Need well-developed information.

Gathered by intelligent folks.

“Global average surface temperatures pushed 2005 into a virtual tie with 1998 as the hottest year on record. For people living in the Northern Hemisphere—most of the world's population—2005 was the hottest year on record since 1880, the earliest year for which reliable instrumental records were available worldwide.”

SynthesisPutting elements together.Many different impacts all around the world.May seem unconnected but creative people can pull together the elements and see the relationships.

Alpine and polar glaciers have retreated since 1961, and the amount of ice melting in Greenland has increased since 1979.

Withholding judgment

Making judgments will stop the creative process.

Suspend judgment for a time.

People with strong opinions have tendency to make premature decisions.

People need to set aside their preconceptions.

A mind is like a parachute.

It works best when it is open.

Global warming solutions

“We have the technology and ingenuity to reduce the threat of global warming today. Solutions are already available that will stimulate the American economy by creating jobs, saving consumers money, and protecting our national security. By investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency, and increasing the efficiency of the cars we drive, we can take essential steps toward reducing our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels that cause global warming.”

Global Warming Solutions