THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CREATIVITY
BY- ISHITA SHARMA
“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”
What comes first to our mind when we think of the word creative? Well, mostly people would address it with a very common phase, which is “thinking out of the box.” But if we consider the other aspect it could also be phrased as thinking of an unusual opinion which cannot be counted among the possible solutions to a particular problem. According to what I believe, creativity as a skill is dependent upon the individual. Not all creative people are alike, which makes defining creativity a challenge and assessing it a monumental undertaking. They do not think similar to what a group of people would. Their views related to the various issues stand out from that of the crowd.
More emphasis has always been paid to something that is different than the usual, and it all starts with the difference in the thinking of an individual as a result of which we observe difference between the kind of creativity that helps a painter create masterworks and the kind that helps a physicist develop new theories on the origin of the universe.
Two of the primary components of creativity include Originality, that is the idea should be something new that is not simply an extension of something else that already exists, and Functionality which is defined as the idea needs to actually work or possess some degree of usefulness.
Creativity as a skill is very useful as it defines an individual’s interest to learn, and the knowledge that he/she has gained from past experiences, and further reflects on his/ her personality. It enables a person to adjust to novel circumstances and to solve problems that unexpectedly arise and is often very valuable in everyday life.
Csikszentmihalyi suggests that creative people tend to possess are a variety of traits that contribute to their innovative thinking.
Some of these include:
Energy: Creative people tend to possess a great deal of both physical and mental energy. However, they also tend to spend a great deal of time quietly thinking and reflecting.
Intelligence: Psychologists have long believed that intelligence plays a critical role in creativity. In Terman’s famous longitudinal study of gifted children, researchers found that while high IQ was necessary for great creativity, not all people with high IQs are creative. Csikszentmihalyi believes that creative people must be smart, but they must be capable of looking at things in fresh, even naïve, ways.
Discipline: Creative people do not just sit around waiting for inspiration to strike. They are playful, yet they are also disciplined in the pursuit of their work and passions.
According to some psychologists, creativity is considered to be a subset of intelligence. So can we say that all intelligent people are creative? Or that every creative individual is intelligent? People who are creative are good at solving immediate problems, be it at work or otherwise. They tend to come up with solutions that none would have thought of. People who perceive the world with a fresh perspective, have insightful ideas and make important personal discoveries. These individuals make creative discoveries that are generally known only to them. Thus, it also defines an individual’s success in life.ā
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