Creativity
- LAST REVIEWED: 27 November 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 November 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0139
- LAST REVIEWED: 27 November 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 November 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0139
Introduction
Creativity is a complex and compelling psychological phenomenon. To understand creativity is to understand the varied individual, social, cultural, and historical factors that impinge on it. Although creativity has always been a topic that has engaged the interest and imagination of researchers and laypeople alike, it has had a somewhat turbulent history in the field of psychology. Indeed, the psychological study of creativity remained something of a niche until the 1990s. This is no longer the case. The steady efforts of creativity scholars—working since the mid-20th century and around the globe—have greatly expanded our understanding of creativity. In the early 21st century the field of creativity studies represents one of the most active, challenging, and important areas of psychological inquiry.
Classic Works
Research psychologists largely neglected creativity as an area of serious study until the 1950s. The catalyzing event for the psychological study of creativity was Joy P. Guilford’s presidential address to the American Psychological Association (Guilford 1950), in which he noted that creativity was a topic in need of serious scientific study and charged research psychologists with the goal of understanding the nature of creativity and discovering how best to cultivate it. In the years following Guilford’s address, creativity research proliferated. The establishment of several national centers and institutes greatly advanced the psychological study of creativity. Two key examples are the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research (IPAR), directed by Donald W. MacKinnon, at the University of California, Berkeley (see MacKinnon 1975), and the Center for the Study of Creativity and Mental Health, directed by Morris I. Stein, first at the University of Chicago. In addition to the development of institutes and centers, key historical events included a series of influential Utah creativity conferences, starting in 1955, organized by Calvin W. Taylor (see Taylor 1956). These conferences brought together some of the most influential creativity researchers and published their papers in conference proceedings. The infrastructure provided by these centers, institutes, and conferences afforded the context, resources, and opportunities necessary for early creativity researchers to make lasting contributions to the field. Ravenna Helson, Frank X. Barron, and E. Paul Torrance are examples of early creativity researchers who leveraged these early opportunities into contributions that continue to reverberate throughout the field. Helson 1999, for example, engages in pioneering longitudinal research, dating back to 1957, that explores the intersection of creativity, personality, and gender. Barron 1963 reports on a program of research, also starting in the 1950s, in which the author and his colleagues examined the relationship between creativity and personality by studying accomplished creative writers, architects, research scientists, and mathematicians. Torrance, an educational psychologist, was another influential creativity research pioneer. Torrance 1963 developed a program of research that looked at the nurturance (and suppression) of creativity in educational settings. Torrance’s work resulted in the creation of one of the most popular, albeit contested (see Theoretical Perspectives: Psychometric), sets of measurement instruments used in contemporary creativity research. The earnest efforts of these early pioneers helped legitimize the psychological study of creativity and lay down a fertile soil from which creativity research could take root. It is no wonder that contemporary creativity researchers often refer to these early efforts as the golden age of creativity research.
Barron, Frank. 1963. Creativity and psychological health: Origins of personal vitality and creative freedom. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.
Summarizes Barron’s program of research in the 1950s and early 1960s, including detailed description of several studies and findings from the “lived in” assessments that pertain to creativity, personality, and psychological health.
Guilford, J. P. 1950. Creativity. American Psychologist 5.9: 444–454.
DOI: 10.1037/h0063487
Guilford’s presidential address to the American Psychological Association, which served as a catalyst for the serious psychological study of creativity. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Helson, Ravenna. 1999. A longitudinal study of creativity personality in women. Creativity Research Journal 12.2: 89–101.
DOI: 10.1207/s15326934crj1202_2
This article reports on a pioneering thirty-year longitudinal study exploring the creative potential and personality of one hundred college women. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
MacKinnon, Donald W. 1975. IPAR’s contribution to the conceptualization and study of creativity. In Perspectives in creativity. Edited by Irving A. Taylor and J. W. Getzels, 60−89. Chicago: Aldine.
Gives a historical account of the role that IPAR played in conceptualizing the facets of creativity and outlining major research questions for systematic psychological study of creativity.
Taylor, Calvin W., ed. 1956. The 1955 University of Utah Research Conference on the Identification of Creative Scientific Talent, Held at Alpine Rose Lodge, Brighton, Utah, August 27–30, 1955. Salt Lake City: Univ. of Utah Press.
This text includes papers and committee reports that were presented at the first Utah conference organized by Taylor. The majority of the papers focus on the nature and measurement of creativity.
Torrance, E. Paul. 1963. Education and the creative potential. Modern School Practices. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
An early text, in which Torrance summarizes his theoretical and empirical work.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abnormal Psychology
- Academic Assessment
- Acculturation and Health
- Action Regulation Theory
- Action Research
- Addictive Behavior
- Adolescence
- Adoption, Social, Psychological, and Evolutionary Perspect...
- Adulthood
- Advanced Theory of Mind
- Affective Forecasting
- Affirmative Action
- Ageism
- Ageism at Work
- Aggression
- Allport, Gordon
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Ambulatory Assessment in Behavioral Science
- Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA)
- Anger
- Animal Behavior
- Animal Learning
- Anxiety Disorders
- Art and Aesthetics, Psychology of
- Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Psychology
- Assessment and Clinical Applications of Individual Differe...
- Attachment in Social and Emotional Development across the ...
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Adults
- Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Childre...
- Attitudes
- Attitudinal Ambivalence
- Attraction in Close Relationships
- Attribution Theory
- Authoritarian Personality
- Autism
- Bayesian Statistical Methods in Psychology
- Behavior Therapy, Rational Emotive
- Behavioral Economics
- Behavioral Genetics
- Belief Perseverance
- Bereavement and Grief
- Biological Psychology
- Birth Order
- Body Image in Men and Women
- Burnout
- Bystander Effect
- Categorical Data Analysis in Psychology
- Childhood and Adolescence, Peer Victimization and Bullying...
- Clark, Mamie Phipps
- Clinical Neuropsychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Cognitive Consistency Theories
- Cognitive Dissonance Theory
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Communication, Nonverbal Cues and
- Comparative Psychology
- Competence to Stand Trial: Restoration Services
- Competency to Stand Trial
- Computational Psychology
- Conflict Management in the Workplace
- Conformity, Compliance, and Obedience
- Consciousness
- Coping Processes
- Correspondence Analysis in Psychology
- Counseling Psychology
- Courage
- Creativity
- Creativity at Work
- Critical Thinking
- Cross-Cultural Psychology
- Cultural Psychology
- Daily Life, Research Methods for Studying
- Data Science Methods for Psychology
- Data Sharing in Psychology
- Death and Dying
- Deceiving and Detecting Deceit
- Defensive Processes
- Depression
- Depressive Disorders
- Development, Prenatal
- Developmental Psychology (Cognitive)
- Developmental Psychology (Social)
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM...
- Discrimination
- Disgust
- Dissociative Disorders
- Drugs and Behavior
- Eating Disorders
- Ecological Psychology
- Ecopsychology
- Educational Settings, Assessment of Thinking in
- Effect Size
- Embodiment and Embodied Cognition
- Emerging Adulthood
- Emotion
- Emotional Intelligence
- Empathy and Altruism
- Employee Stress and Well-Being
- Environmental Neuroscience and Environmental Psychology
- Ethics in Psychological Practice
- Event Perception
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Expansive Posture
- Experimental Existential Psychology
- Exploratory Data Analysis
- Eyewitness Testimony
- Eysenck, Hans
- Factor Analysis
- Festinger, Leon
- Five-Factor Model of Personality
- Flynn Effect, The
- Forensic Psychology
- Forgiveness
- Friendships, Children's
- Fundamental Attribution Error/Correspondence Bias
- Gambler's Fallacy
- Game Theory and Psychology
- Geropsychology, Clinical
- Global Mental Health
- Habit Formation and Behavior Change
- Happiness
- Health Psychology
- Health Psychology Research and Practice, Measurement in
- Heider, Fritz
- Heuristics and Biases
- History of Psychology
- Human Factors
- Humanistic Psychology
- Humor
- Hypnosis
- Implicit Association Test (IAT)
- Industrial and Organizational Psychology
- Inferential Statistics in Psychology
- Insanity Defense, The
- Intelligence
- Intelligence, Crystallized and Fluid
- Intercultural Psychology
- Intergroup Conflict
- International Classification of Diseases and Related Healt...
- International Psychology
- Interviewing in Forensic Settings
- Intimate Partner Violence, Psychological Perspectives on
- Introversion–Extraversion
- Item Response Theory
- Kurtosis
- Language
- Laughter
- Law, Psychology and
- Lazarus, Richard
- Leadership
- Learned Helplessness
- Learning Theory
- Learning versus Performance
- LGBTQ+ Romantic Relationships
- Lie Detection in a Forensic Context
- Life-Span Development
- Lineups
- Locus of Control
- Loneliness and Health
- Mathematical Psychology
- Meaning in Life
- Mechanisms and Processes of Peer Contagion
- Media Violence, Psychological Perspectives on
- Mediation Analysis
- Meditation
- Memories, Autobiographical
- Memories, Flashbulb
- Memories, Repressed and Recovered
- Memory, False
- Memory, Human
- Memory, Implicit versus Explicit
- Memory in Educational Settings
- Memory, Semantic
- Meta-Analysis
- Metacognition
- Metamemory
- Metaphor, Psychological Perspectives on
- Microaggressions
- Military Psychology
- Mindfulness
- Mindfulness and Education
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
- Money, Psychology of
- Moral Conviction
- Moral Development
- Moral Psychology
- Moral Reasoning
- Motivation
- Music
- Narcissism
- Narrative
- Nature versus Nurture Debate in Psychology
- Neuroscience of Associative Learning
- Nonergodicity in Psychology and Neuroscience
- Nonparametric Statistical Analysis in Psychology
- Observational (Non-Randomized) Studies
- Obsessive-Complusive Disorder (OCD)
- Occupational Health Psychology
- Older Workers
- Olfaction, Human
- Operant Conditioning
- Optimism and Pessimism
- Organizational Justice
- Parenting Stress
- Parenting Styles
- Parents' Beliefs about Children
- Path Models
- Peace Psychology
- Perception
- Perception, Person
- Performance Appraisal
- Personality and Health
- Personality Disorders
- Personality Psychology
- Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies: From Car...
- Phenomenological Psychology
- Placebo Effects in Psychology
- Play Behavior
- Positive Psychological Capital (PsyCap)
- Positive Psychology
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Prejudice and Stereotyping
- Pretrial Publicity
- Prisoner's Dilemma
- Problem Solving and Decision Making
- Procrastination
- Prosocial Behavior
- Prosocial Spending and Well-Being
- Protocol Analysis
- Psycholinguistics
- Psychological Literacy
- Psychological Perspectives on Food and Eating
- Psychology, Political
- Psychoneuroimmunology
- Psychophysics, Visual
- Psychotherapy
- Psychotic Disorders
- Publication Bias in Psychology
- Race
- Reasoning, Counterfactual
- Rehabilitation Psychology
- Relationships
- Reliability–Contemporary Psychometric Conceptions
- Religion, Psychology and
- Replication Initiatives in Psychology
- Research Methods
- Resilience
- Risk Taking
- Role of the Expert Witness in Forensic Psychology, The
- Rumination
- Sample Size Planning for Statistical Power and Accurate Es...
- Savoring
- Schizophrenic Disorders
- School Psychology
- School Psychology, Counseling Services in
- Self, Gender and
- Self, Psychology of the
- Self-Construal
- Self-Control
- Self-Deception
- Self-Determination Theory
- Self-Efficacy
- Self-Esteem
- Self-Monitoring
- Self-Regulation in Educational Settings
- Self-Report Tests, Measures, and Inventories in Clinical P...
- Sensation Seeking
- Sex and Gender
- Sexual Minority Parenting
- Sexual Orientation
- Signal Detection Theory and its Applications
- Simpson's Paradox in Psychology
- Single People
- Single-Case Experimental Designs
- Situational Strength
- Skinner, B.F.
- Sleep and Dreaming
- Small Groups
- Social Class and Social Status
- Social Cognition
- Social Neuroscience
- Social Support
- Social Touch and Massage Therapy Research
- Somatoform Disorders
- Spatial Attention
- Sports Psychology
- Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE): Icon and Controversy
- Stereotype Threat
- Stereotypes
- Stress and Coping, Psychology of
- Student Success in College
- Subjective Wellbeing Homeostasis
- Suicide
- Taste, Psychological Perspectives on
- Teaching of Psychology
- Terror Management Theory
- Testing and Assessment
- The Concept of Validity in Psychological Assessment
- The Neuroscience of Emotion Regulation
- The Reasoned Action Approach and the Theories of Reasoned ...
- The Weapon Focus Effect in Eyewitness Memory
- Theory of Mind
- Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral
- Thinking Skills in Educational Settings
- Time Perception
- Trait Perspective
- Trauma Psychology
- Twin Studies
- Type A Behavior Pattern (Coronary Prone Personality)
- Unconscious Processes
- Video Games and Violent Content
- Virtues and Character Strengths
- Wisdom
- Women and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM...
- Women, Psychology of
- Work Well-Being
- Workforce Training Evaluation
- Wundt, Wilhelm