Case Studies Of Human Creativity

She nursed through her nose. She spit up at (and hit bugs). And as infant Judy grew up, ohmygod!!! Exlax in the communion juice, cooking Barbie, a pet turdle,discovering her gender, etc. Creativity! Where does it come from? How do the parents, teachers, even scientific professionals deal with it so that potentials aren't suppressed. But also so those dealing with the ultra-creatives aren't driven up the wall by the off-the-deep-end things their kids do. There's serious subject matter in this tome (especially the final "speeches"). But the plain preposterousness prior presented should be beneficial. Laughter is not only good medicine -- but also great therapy!!

To demystify creative work without reducing it to simplistic formulas, Doris Wallace and Howard Gruber, one of the world's foremost authorities on creativity, have produced a unique book exploring the creative process in the arts and sciences. The book's original "evolving systems approach" treats creativity as purposeful work and integrates cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, and motivational aspects of the creative process. Twelve revealing case studies explore the work of such diverse people as William Wordsworth, Albert Einstein, Jean Piaget, Anais Nin, and Charles Darwin. The case study approach is discussed in relation to other methods such as biography, autobiography, and psychobiology. Emphasis is given to the uniqueness of each creative person; the social nature of creative work is also treated without losing the sense of the individual. A final chapter considers the relationship between creativity and morality in the nuclear age. In addition to developmental psychologists and cognitive scientists, this study offers fascinating insights for all readers interested in the history of ideas, scientific discovery, artistic innovation, and the interplay of intuition, inspiration, and purposeful work.

How cognitive psychology explains human creativity Conventional wisdom holds that creativity is a mysterious quality present in a select few individuals. The rest of us, the common view goes, can only stand in awe of great creative achievements: we could never paint Guernica or devise the structure of the DNA molecule because we lack access to the rarified thoughts and inspirations that bless geniuses like Picasso or Watson and Crick. Presented with this view, today's cognitive psychologists largely differ finding instead that "ordinary" people employ the same creative thought processes as the greats. Though used and developed differently by different people, creativity can and should be studied as a positive psychological feature shared by all humans. Creativity: Understanding Innovation in Problem Solving, Science, Invention, and the Arts presents the major psychological theories of creativity and illustrates important concepts with vibrant and detailed case studies that exemplify how to study creative acts with scientific rigor. Creativity includes: * Two in-depth case studies--Watson and Crick's modeling of the DNA structure and Picasso's painting of Guernica-- serve as examples throughout the text * Methods used by psychologists to study the multiple facets of creativity * The "ordinary thinking" or cognitive view of creativity and its challengers * How problem-solving and experience relate to creative thinking * Genius and madness and the relationship between creativity and psychopathology * The possible role of the unconscious in creativity * Psychometrics--testing for creativity and how personality factors affect creativity * Confluence theories that use cognitive, personality, environmental, and other components to describe creativity Clearly and engagingly written by noted creativity expert Robert Weisberg, Creativity: Understanding Innovation in Problem Solving, Science, Invention, and the Arts takes both students and lay readers on an in-depth journey through contemporary cognitive psychology, showing how the discipline understands one of the most fundamental and fascinating human abilities. "This book will be a hit. It fills a large gap in the literature. It is a well-written, scholarly, balanced, and engaging book that will be enjoyed by students and faculty alike." --David Goldstein, University of Toronto

Examining the improvised relationships among lifelong learning, formal education, and creativity, this volume provides detailed case studies of the creative work of people from a wide variety of fields. Each profile allows readers to explore how real people’s distinctive points of view, senses of purpose, and ultimate contributions developed through participation in complex worlds. By looking at creativity as a distributed and participatory process, these cases deconstruct the myth of solitary creative genius, while exploring applications of complexity theory to creative work and raising new questions for creativity research. Providing a framework for thinking about education, agency, and change, this book is valuable for both students and researchers seeking concrete ways to broaden their understanding of creativity in practice.

What exactly makes creative thinking so magical that, somehow, “everyone can be creative” and, by implication, creativity is a good thing to have—to the point that this popular view is fast becoming a fashionable nonsense in this day and age of ours? To put things in a historical perspective—this popular view contrasts sharply with the opposing view in the older days (e.g., during the Enlightenment and Romantic eras), when people used to think that creativity was primarily for the selected few with extraordinary abilities. Contrary to the respective conventional wisdom in each of the two opposing eras, neither of the two views is valid. Ours is no more so than theirs. This is not to imply, of course, that there are only a few instances of creativity in human history, or, in reverse, that creativity can be equally taught to everyone—and, for that matter, that there is absolutely nothing good about creativity. Obviously, extreme views like this are far from the truth. The point in this book, however, is to show an alternative (better) way to understand the nature of creative thinking, which goes beyond both convergent and divergent thinking, while learning from them. The current fashionable nonsense on creative thinking has tended to minimize its hidden downsides and exaggerate its overstated promises, as part of a new ideology in this age of ours. In addition, there is nothing intrinsically good (or bad) about “creative thinking”—just as there is nothing essentially good (or evil) about “God,” “the King,” “Motherland,” or the like, by analogy. They have all been used and misused in accordance to the interests and powers that be over the ages. If true, this seminal view will fundamentally change the way that we think about the nature of imagination and intuition, with its enormous implications for the future of invention and innovation, in a small sense, and what I originally called its “post-human” fate, in a large one.

The book provides an open and integrated view of creativity in the 21st century, merging theories and case studies from design, psychology, sociology, computer science and human-computer interaction, while benefitting from a continuous dialogue within a network of experts in these fields. An exploratory journey guides the reader through the major social, human, and technological changes that influence human creative abilities, highlighting the fundamental factors that need to be stimulated for creative empowerment in the digital era. The book reflects on why and how design practice and design research should explore digital creativity, and promote the empowerment of creativity, presenting two flexible tools specifically developed to observe the influences on multiple level of human creativity in the digital transition, and understand their positive and negative effect on the creative design process. An overview of the main influences and opportunities collected by adopting the two tools are presented with guidelines to design actions to empower the process for innovation.

Brings together the research programs and findings of the twenty-four psychological scientists most cited in major textbooks on creativity.

Embark on a journey that transcends the boundaries of art and technology in the groundbreaking realm of Creative Convergence: The AI Renaissance in Art and Design. This isn't just another book on art and technology- it's a journey that sparks curiosity, fuels innovation, and challenges traditional artistic boundaries. Discover the power of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it melds with human expression, propelling artistry into uncharted territories and redefining traditional notions of both originality and creativity. The text is not just about art or AI; it is about the fusion of both, catalyzing a creative revolution that challenges previous assumptions about human-machine collaboration and how ideation, conceptualization, process and execution are radically rethought. Have you ever wondered how/will AI revolutionize training, education and execution in art and design? Delve into this captivating treatment that contextualizes the disruptions we are experiencing today in the technological innovations and artistic responses and integrations of the past five hundred years. Human creativity has always struggled against technological advance, but ultimately integrated and redefined what "art" is in each era. As such, you will see how AI can be incorporated in various artistic disciplines in this study. Explore real-world case studies that showcase AI's practical impact on 3D design, drawing, digital art, and even web design. The book also addresses the controversial question: Can AI be a co-creator in the creative and artistic process, even assisting in creating an original, signature style? Brace yourself for revelations that will challenge your perceptions of traditional artistry.