Week5-CrerativeProcess.pptx

The Creative Process

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What is the Creative Process?
The creative process is defined as “a succession of thoughts and actions that leads to original and adapted creations” (Lubart, Mouchiroud, Tordjman, & Zenasni, 2003, p. 85)

Creative Activity Part 1

Creative Process:
Micro and Macro Levels
The Creative Process is often described by two levels:

The macro level, which refers to the major stages of the process
The micro level, which describes the mechanisms underlying the generation of ideas.

Thus, the models considering the whole process, from beginning to end, are macro-processes while cognitive functioning, or a mechanism of processing specific information, is considered a micro-process.

Macro Processes

Note: The following are not representative of all theories and models, they give an insight into the diversity that exists in the discourse and research literature and the fact that ultimately, “researchers do not agree on the number of stages” (Botella, Zenasni, and Lubart 2018, 4)

Wallace’s Four Stage Model

In 1926, Wallas presented a four-stage model involving:

Preparation: Gathering information

1
Incubation:
Open mind to all ideas, allow the mind to wander

2
Verification
Evaluate, Analyze Build

4
Illumination
The “Aha” moment

3

Sawyer’s eight stages of the Creative Process

Ask – Why? Why not? What is? How? Etc.

Learn – Seek knowledge

Look – Intentional awareness

Play – Unstructured fun

Think – Open to new ideas

Fuse – Combining ideas

Choose: Critical idea examination

Make – Create, execute

Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Creativity (2018)

Defying the crowd

Challenging the existing .

Defying Oneself

Overcoming “entrenchment” in one’s own set of ideas rather than blazing the same path over and over again.

Defying the Zeitgeist

Defying the “unconscious assumptions”. Questioning the “presuppositions” about what is acceptable.
(Zeitgeist -the common-cultural presuppositions on which our field and often our world is built, Sternberg 2018)

Micro Processes
This approach of the creative process, by micro-processes, examines the cognitive mechanisms of the process.

The two most studied micro-processes are divergent thinking and associative thinking (Botella, Nelson, Zenasni, 2017)

Divergent Thinking

Divergent thinking is the capacity to produce many different ideas (Runco, 1991)

Exercise: How many uses can you think of for a fork?

Associative Thinking
Associative thinking is the capacity to make links between different ideas, that may involve memories, emotions, physical sensations etc. (Simonton, 1999)

Exercises:
1. Think of a word that could go next in this sequence

Lavender Bubbles Towel ?

2. What comes to mind when you hear:
Blue

11

Creative Activity Part 2

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