Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
SOME EARLIER STUDIES ON
CREATIVITY
Social ingenuity means organizing ourselves dif-
ferently, communicating and making decisions
in new ways.
We may find a great variety of coins in various
times and places. The oldest coin, more than 2,700
years old, was discovered in an ancient Hellenic
city Ephesus on the coast of Asia Minor. The coin
was made of electrum, a natural occurring alloy of
gold and silver; it had a design on one side show-
ing a head of a lion (Fleur de coin, 2012). Some
regions in Africa used a large, round circular leg
bracelets, denoting the wealth of a woman wearing
it. The island of Aegina was the earliest state in
ancient Greece to strike coins (Head, 2012/1886;
Goldsborough, 2010/2004). Coins may have a
form of a conventional disc or another form (for
example, in some countries there are hexagonal
or octagonal coins and also coins with a hole in
a center; an Australian fifty-cent coin is twelve-
sided, while a 15 cent coin of the Bahamas has
been issued in a shape of a square).
The abstract way of thinking was observed
a long time ago. Scientists recovered in a South
African cave two pieces of red ochre (a form of
iron ore) from the Middle Stone Age layers from
at least 70,000 years ago (Limson, 2010; Wong,
2002). These archeological finds are considered
an evidence of cognitive abilities allowing ab-
stract thought. They bear crosshatched markings
that appear to be symbolic engravings relied on
syntactical language; they were made for trans-
mission and sharing of the yet unknown meaning
(Henshilwood et al., 2002). The earliest abstract
representations found before this one were from
the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic period mainly in
France and dated to less than 35,000 ago.
You may now want to create a visual and
verbal solution for designing a coin, and then
design a coin in an abstract way. An image on
your coin may show face of a person you want to
commemorate, a place, an animal, or an artwork
you create (Table 1).
A great number of educators became aware of
the need for developing creativity of students, but
the notion itself seems to be different according
to various sources. Jerome Bruner (1962) views
the creative product as anything that produces “ef-
fective surprise” in observer, as well as a “shock
of recognition” that the product or response,
while novel, is entirely appropriate. For Joy Paul
Guilford (1959), divergent thinking, character-
ized by the flexibility, originality, and fluency of
thinking, is one of the most important factors of
creativity. Eight types of creative contributions
described by Robert Sternberg (2006) referred to
his research works on psychometric studies of ana-
lytical, creative, and practical intelligence. Arthur
Koestler (1964) considered imagination, humor,
scientific inquiry, and art as sources of creativity;
therefore he explored theories of play, imprinting,
motivation, perception, and Gestalt psychology.
According to Koestler humans are most creative
when rational thought is abandoned during dreams
and trances, while their creativity is suppressed
by the everyday routines of thought and behavior.
Teresa M. Amabile (1996) separated an advanced
problem-finding developmental stage. It requires
flexibility - changing the original approach and
adopting a new approach in order to identify a
new problem others do not see. She applied an
operational definition of creativity: a product or
idea is creative to the extent that expert observers
agree it is creative. This definition has been used
to channel the consensual assessment of creativ-
ity, which relies on the agreement of experts.
According to the consensual assessment concept
(Hennessey & Amabile, 1987), creativity depends
both on temporary states and enduring traits. For
John Young (1985) creativity is the skill of bring-
ing about some new and valuable, actualizing of
our potential. Contrary to the common notion of
creativity as the ability to produce unique, remote
associative responses to verbal and visual stimuli,
