Creativity in Adulthood
Creativity is a concept surrounded by a number of beliefs and misconceptions. People believe it is limited to only a few; it declines seriously with age; and it is associated primarily with uniqueness or innovation or "artists" (Adams-Price 1998; McCormick and Plugge 1997; Runco 1996). However, research shows that creative thinking is a universal ability that can help adults manage satisfying lives and that is increasingly in demand in the workplace. This Digest reviews some of this research in order to identify ways to help adults discover and fulfill their creative potential.
Nature or Nurture?
What is creativity? Torrance's definition is often cited: sensitivity to problems, deficiencies, and gaps in information; making guesses, formulating hypotheses; evaluating and testing; and communicating results (McCracken 1998). Creativity is a complex of traits, skills, and capacities, including the ability to work autonomously, curiosity, unconventional thinking, openness to experience, and tolerance of ambiguity (Adams-Price 1998; Albert 1996). Highly creative adults exhibit deep knowledge of and a strong bond with their subject matter, as well as intrinsic motivation (Amabile 1996; Keegan 1996).
Creativity research has focused on personality traits of creative individuals (Amabile 1996). This emphasis has led to the assumptions that creativity is largely innate or immutable and creative people are distinct from noncreative people. Recently, more attention is being paid to social and environmental factors that influence creativity. Newer definitions describe creativity as the confluence of cognitive processes, knowledge, thinking style, personality, motivation, and environment over the life span (Adams-Price 1998; Sasser-Coen 1993). It is also associated with the creation of meaning and the drive for psychic wholeness ("Creativity in Later Life" 1991), a way to address and resolve dissatisfactions and improve the quality of life (Adams-Price 1998), and a "profound response to the limits and uncertainties of existence" ("Creativity in Later Life" 1991, p. 9). For some people, creativity is an adaptive, innovative response to environmental sources of distress such as early death of a parent or other family problems, misfortunes, or conflicts (Adams-Price 1998; Albert 1996), whereas in other people the coping mechanisms might be substance abuse, depression, or withdrawal (McCormick and Plugge 1997).
A growing body of research is examining how environmental factors affect the creativity of men and women in different ways. For many women, creative expression is limited by their education and training, cultural standards, lack of social support, and traditional gender expectations. Pohlman (1996) finds that, for men, creative identity is balanced by the experience of parenthood; for women, the two roles conflict.
good player that was recognized in the MLB. In the 2012-2013 season they ended up getting
In the two decades which Ted Williams played he was a baseball icon. His first season was extraordinary. As a rookie in 1939, Williams hit .327 and popped 31 home runs over the Fenway walls, giving Red Sox fans a glimpse of what they would see for years to come. He was quickly nicknamed The Splendid Splinter and The Kid commanding attention as a natural hitter (Wikipedia).
ultimately led him to getting called up to the Brooklyn Dodgers. That caused an uproar. Teams
On July 14, 1939 a Lou Gehrig appreciation day was held for his baseball career. He left baseball with an inspirational speech in front of sixty-two thousand fans at Yankee Stadium. (D) Lou addressed his audience stating, “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this Earth.” © Lou was the first baseball player to have a monument built in his honor at Yankee Stadium and the first to have a uniform number (#4) retired. © Lou displayed exemplary character shortly before and after his retirement from MLB. Lou Gehrig is known for how calmly he handled losing his 2,130 consecutive-game streak. (D) Lou served as a parole officer in NeYork because he still wanted to give back to society even though he could barely walk. © Gehrig saw himself not as a victim of ALS, but as a symbol of hope for thousands of people diagnosed with this debilitating disease.
People noticed that Ruth was very talented. Once Ruth was called up to the majors in Boston, over the next 5 years he had the Red Socks in the championship three times. Also, setting a record for pitching a 13
walks and he would foul off pitch after pitch. Because of his many foul tips, he became
A Creativity Researcher For More Than 30 Years, ihaly Csikszentmihalyi Is A Professor Of Human Development And Education In The Department Of Psychology At The University Of Chicago. He Has Written 13 Books, Including The Best-Seller Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience (Harper Collins, 1991). Here Are Highlights Of His Books “Creativity”. This Book Is About What Makes Life Worth Living. The Creative Excitement Of The Artist At Her Easel Or The Scientist In The Lab Comes As Close To The Ideal Fulfillment As We All Hope To, And So Rarely Do. Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Interviewed More Then Ninety Of Possibly The Most Interesting People In The World - People Like Actor Ed Asner, Authors Robertson Davies And Nadine Gordimer, Scientist Jonas Salk And Linus Pauling, Senator Eugene Mccarthy - Who Have Changed The Way People In Their Fields Think And Work To Find Out How Creativity Has Been A Force In Their Lives. The Author Defines Creativity In A Mode He Designates As “Capital C”, Distinct From Individual Creative Impulses Or Acts That Occur Without Initiating Significant Cultural Change. The Creativity With A Capital C That Is Of Interest To Csikszentmihalyi Is The Act Of Creativity By Which Culture And Cultural Evolution Are Seminally Altered. What Made Galileo And Einstein Think Otherwise And But Couldn’t It Be This? What If They Hadn’t? They Aren’t Around To Ask. But There Are Others Who Are. Creativity Provides A Groundbreaking Overview Of Those Characteristics Shared By Some Of The Most Extraordinary Visionaries Of Our Most Recent Century, Painstakingly Gleaned From Hundreds Of Hours Of Personal Interviews. Finally, It Proposes Ways In Which We Can Capitalize On These Commonalities In Order To Further Creativity In O...
had an astonishing first season in the Majories. The famous baseball club had an an almost 90 games winning streak in a row. The first loss to the club was a very close game. The Loss
Creativity should be about the pure enjoyment of having been involved, influencing others and being influenced, combining ideas and preserving those that speak to us, discovering and appreciating all that which is greater than ourselves.
Most believe that the highest mountain range is The Alps in Europe. The Caucasus Mountains along the border of Georgia and Russia have higher peaks. The highest peak of this mountain range is in Russia, Georgia has the second highest. The Shkara mountain sits at 5,193m (17,040ft). This beats Mont Blanc by nearly 400m (1,312ft). These dramatic mountains, are mentioned in Greek mythology as one of the pillars holding up the world. These mountains are also where it is said that Zeus tied up Prometheus, to have his liver eaten by eagles. (www.bbc.co.uk)
With the scheduling of their parents, they have no opportunity to let their minds wander without guidelines. Moreover, the structure put in place has taken away the opportunity for children to develop their own interests outside of what others tell them. Furthermore, they are given countless opportunities to develop their knowledge without room for creativity, and hence become a shallow adult. She argues that creativity leads to the great artists, authors, and composers. Consequently, Quindlen’s argument is that scheduling has stunted children’s creative
In their article, “The Creativity Crisis”, authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explore the urgency of the downfall in the public’s “creativity quotient.” Bronson and Merryman emphasize the necessity for young children to be imaginative. Through an IBM poll, they verify that with the decrease of creativity in our society comes an array of consequences seen in the work field. The authors remind readers of another reason for the importance of creativity; they argue that creative ideas can solve national matters. Hence, Branson and Merryman believe that original ideas are key for a better world. Though I concede that creativity is a vital key to the solution of many national problems, I still insist that teaching creativity,
Creativity is defined as the generation of ideas that are both useful and original (Ritter & Ferguson, 2017). Creativity is tested through the measurements of two different types of thinking – divergent and convergent (Ritter & Ferguson, 2017). Divergent thinking is being able to generate new ideas and perspectives; it is measured through the Unusual Uses test in which subjects are given an object and must list all uses, even unusual ones, for an object (Ritter & Ferguson, 2017). The Unusual Uses test in a no noise condition is commonly used to create a baseline for assessing individual creative potential (Toplyn & Maguire, 1991). Convergent thinking is the ability to
Herein lies the problem. The children that we are educated are and will be faced with new challenges that current education systems all over the world have been failing to meet. It would seem that structures of mass domain education suppress the innately imprinted creativity found in every living person and widely known specialist on the subject, Sir Ken Robinson, goes as far as saying that we are, “educating people out of their creativity” (Giang, 2013). But if the school system is to make adjustments to explore and cultivate creativity more how are they to do so without losing total structure? Robinson acknowledges this by saying that, “in every creative approach some of the things we’re looking for are hard, if not impossible to quantify. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t matter.”
Creativity is a skill parents can help their children develop. Since creativity is a key to success in most of what we do, creativity is a core skill that should be practiced with children. Creativity is not limited to artistic and musical expression—it is also essential for science, math, and even social and emotional intelligence. Creative people are more flexible and better problem solvers, which makes them more able to adapt to technological advances and deal with change—as well as take advantage of new opportunities. All in all, creativity is the ability to form new ideas, often from old ideas. Therefore, the factors that affect creativity are not inherited.