Invention and Inventivity as a Special Kind of Creativity,with Implications for General Creativity

Much of the study of creativity uses broad definitions of creative outputs, often including together the creative acts of artists, children, scientists, etc. Perhaps because of these broad definitions, it has been difficult to derive useful predictions of creativity. This paper examines a narrow slice of creativity, the invention and the inventor who makes the invention. Furthermore, a new parameter measuring inventors is defined — Inventivity is the rate of production of patents by an individual inventor. Examination of a large number of inventors shows that Inventivity is a parameter that can be measured and used to distinguish among inventors. The results are shown to be consistent with other studies and are used to support several theories of creativity.     

Reasoning Together: Temptations, Dangers, and Cautions

In the appropriate contexts reasoning is a powerful tool for producing intersubjective agreement about what counts as the best answer to a question that generates inquiry; sometimes employing arguments can lead to agreement about what is the right answer. In this paper we hope to show, however, that unabashed optimism about the power of argument is misplaced. Such optimism rests on an implausible picture of the power of articulation. Sentences cashed out as reasons to believe another sentence is true cannot bridge large gaps in substantive understanding. A failure to realize this fact, moreover, leads to an uncautious and unreflective optimism about the power of argument that ultimately threatens the very reasons-giving process. What is needed, then, is a much more modest sense of the role of argument.     

The Creativity of Korean Leaders and its Implications for Creativity Education*

This research explores the promoting elements of Korean leaders' creative achievements, and provides implications for creativity education which are suitable in the Korean sociocultural context. In‐depth interviews focusing on their school life and personal growth were held with twelve leaders, four each in the fields of science, humanities, and art. The results of these interviews revealed that a solid basis of basic knowledge, the ability to connect domains from experience in various fields, challenge, and social contribution were the promoting elements for creative achievement. In addition, permissive parents, psychological support from teachers, and horizontal relationships in organizations were affective. Thus, for promoting creativity in Korean education, the importance of knowledge‐base, shared values, teamwork, and teacher role are discussed.     

Counseling Prisoners: Ethical Issues,Dilemmas, and Cautions

Counseling prisoners involves multiple ethical and therapeutic choices and risks. Prison environments emphasize external control and security. Thus, work in such settings challenges the role of the counselor as a facilitator of client responsibility for independent decision making.     

Applications,Implications, Complications: Reply to Reviews by Elkind,Gerson, and Levine

The author appreciates the careful reading and thoughtful reviews by Sue Elkind, Sam Gerson, and Howard Levine. Elkind's review particularly captures and articulates many of the key ideas in the book Building Bridges: The Negotiation of Paradox in Psychoanalysis and creatively applies concepts of negotiation, paradox, an inherently multiple “distributed self,” and metaphor in her own work consulting on treatment impasses. Gerson incisively focuses on the core idea of recognizing, accepting, and bridging differences and contradictions in personal, and national, perspectives; he also articulates an understanding of the attempt of relational analytic writers to bridge the intrapsychic and the interpersonal with due recognition of each. The author replies extensively to Levine's comparison of Pizer's work with that of Semrad and other “classical” analysts and challenges Levine's premise that a relational perspective, grounded as it is in a two-person contextual psychology, ignores or devalues interpretation, insight, free association, and autonomous mental functioning. Quoting from clinical material in his book, Pizer presents the outcome of a “relational” analysis in terms of the patient's increased access to internal “potential space,” unconscious experience, curiosity, and reflectiveness about the mental life of self and other, and an increased ability to value personal experience in relationship and in solitude.     

The Special Sign Indeterminacy of the Direct-Fitting Parafac2 Model: Some Implications, Cautions, and Recommendations for Simultaneous Component Analysis

Parafac2 is the most flexible Simultaneous Component Analysis (SCA) model that produces an essentially unique solution. In this paper, we discuss how Parafac2’s special sign indeterminacy affects applications of SCA, and we reveal how an external criterion variable can be used to ensure that estimated Parafac2 weights are meaningfully signed across the levels of the nesting mode. We present an example with real data from clinical psychology that illustrates the importance of Parafac2’s special sign indeterminacy, as well as the effectiveness of our proposed solution. We also discuss the implications of our results for general applications of SCA.     

Creativity: Yesterday,Today and Tomorrow

ABSTRACT Nineteenth century science neglected creativity, and the limited twentieth century approach (to 1950) was largely anecdotal. Recently, research has multiplied, although it has involved little experimental hypothesis testing. Creativity comprises many discrete abilities which often do not correlate very much with each other, and creativity and IQ correlate substantially only at lower IQ levels. Much work has been done in developing evaluative criteria for creative scientific production, and on teaching and learning creativity. Future basic research should concern transfer recall, transformations, reclassification, elaboration, incubation, environmental conditions, and motivation. The social consequences of releasing creative abilities are potentially enormous.     

Creativity,Drugs, Crime,and Education: On Eisenman's Contemporary Social issues: Drugs,Crime, Creativity,and Education

This article reports analyses of the verdicts of various film organizations that annually present awards to motion pictures and investigates whether they award/nominate the same movies in a given year. This research disputes previous findings that reported a high level of agreement between those juries, by the means of reliability analysis and the Cronbach's alpha composite. Arguments were raised for why these earlier findings were flawed and why the use of Cronbach's alpha is problematic. Different aspects of consensus are discussed, after which a new measure (β) is introduced. This is followed by a detailed comparison between particular juries with regard to the percentage share of their decisions that award the most successful (chosen by multiple other juries as well) and the least successful (uniquely awarded) films. This measure shows how often a singular jury decides in line with the others and how much does it stray from the consensus. The article also broadens the theoretical discussions about the reasons for (not) expecting a consensus to arise between various expert juries. It argues that by adopting a cultural economic perspective we become aware of various reasons, most importantly competition between the award events and the juries tend towards a lower level of consensus.     

Creativity research: Originality,utility, and integration

Case studies of major creative figures who were active in different domains can help to indicate commonalities and distinctive features in the creative process. With this goal in mind, a comparison is made between the mathematician Georg Cantor's study of various orders of infinity and the psychologist Sigmund Freud's exploration of the operation of the unconscious. In both cases, similar processes can be discerned: (a) articulations of a new intuition; (b) construction of local coherences; (c) the reworking of standard symbol systems, giving way to the creation of a new, more adequate symbolic system; and (d) the articulation of a new thema (Holton, 1988). The study also describes a number of contrasts, among them the criteria by which formulations are judged in the two domains, the contrasting cosmological stances assumed by the investigators toward their projects, and the differing needs for a formal symbol system.     

Rewards and Creativity: Past,Present, and Future

Research on the effects of rewards on creativity has resulted in hundreds of empirical studies and several reviews of the reward–creativity relationship (RCR). Most reviews are retrospective in nature. They have quantitatively summarised and integrated previous research findings, but have largely overlooked the need for a theoretical framework to guide future research. The current systematic review of this literature intends to bridge this gap, based on the findings of 329 papers and book chapters. Our review summarises the theoretical developments in reward–creativity (RC) research, and classifies the literature in three distinct phases, i.e. the emergence of the cognitive perspective; behavioural rebuttal, and convergence. The paper identifies three important gaps in the existing RC literature: (1) the moderating effects of individual, group, organisational, and national‐level factors; (2) the mediating role of cognitive and affective states; and (3) the lack of consideration of creativity as a multidimensional construct. Based on these gaps, the paper presents a four‐factor framework to guide future RC research. It identifies potential moderators and mediators of the RCR, and draws attention to creativity as a multidimensional construct.     

Creativity and Psychopathology: Categories,Dimensions, and Dynamics

The scientific method may be of limited value when investigating topics such as religion, spirituality, or aesthetic matters. A novel, hybrid approach is described that uses a supported philosophical-deductive methodology. This involves seeking scientific evidence to corroborate or refute the "alternative" premise in each of a series of deductive arguments. To test this, the notion that musical appreciation is an innate gift was pitted first against the alternative that it is a learned phenomenon and, second, that music has survival value and could therefore be explained purely in terms of evolution theory. So far, research to date failed to fully confirm either of the alternative propositions, thus leaving open the possibility that the ability to appreciate music is an innate gift for our aesthetic pleasure. The proposed approach could encourage investigations that otherwise might falter at an early stage, due to the constraints of conventional scientific methodology.     

SME Committee vs. Field Job Analysis Ratings: Convergence, Cautions, and a Call

This investigation examined the agreement between job analysis ratings completed by a small committee of subject matter experts (SMEs) and ratings made by a larger sample of field respondents. The results indicated there were very high levels of agreement across six commonly used job analysis rating indices. These findings converge with those in prior studies suggesting that for purposes of obtaining task and KSA ratings, a small committee of SMEs may provide empirical results that agree with those obtained from a larger sample of field respondents. However, cautions are presented for applying a committee only strategy in job analysis. Given convergence in conclusions across studies such as the current one thus far, a call for future research which addresses more specific issues is presented.     

Triangulating Creativity: Examining Discrepancies Across Self-Rated,Quasi-Expert-Rated and Verbalized Creativity in Arts-based Learning

This convergent mixed methods study examined the triangulation of self-rated, quasi-expert-rated and verbalized creativity in students enrolled in a year-long photography program. The quantitative data included self-report scales in creativity, and ratings of creativity in students’ photography. The qualitative data included student interviews reflecting on their photographs and verbalizing their beliefs about creativity. The data were first analyzed separately and then merged for analysis to determine possible relationships between these three data sources. Merging quantitative and qualitative data highlighted two key discrepancies between students’ actual creative performance and their perceptions as creative individuals. Possible explanations of these disceprancies are discussed in light of research on creative self-efficacy and creative mindsets.