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28 views11 pagesCan Criativity Can Be Developed
Dr. J.P. Guilford explores the potential for developing creativity in individuals, emphasizing its importance in addressing modern challenges and the cultural competition posed by the Soviet Union. He argues that creativity is not solely an innate gift but can be cultivated through education and personal effort, highlighting the need for imaginative thinking in various aspects of life. The document discusses the societal attitudes that hinder creative expression and the necessity of fostering an environment that encourages innovative problem-solving.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
28 views11 pagesCan Criativity Can Be Developed
Dr. J.P. Guilford explores the potential for developing creativity in individuals, emphasizing its importance in addressing modern challenges and the cultural competition posed by the Soviet Union. He argues that creativity is not solely an innate gift but can be cultivated through education and personal effort, highlighting the need for imaginative thinking in various aspects of life. The document discusses the societal attitudes that hinder creative expression and the necessity of fostering an environment that encourages innovative problem-solving.
Uploaded by
Simone NeivaCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
/ 11
Can Creativity be Developed?
Dr. J.P. Guilford (Professor of Psychology)
‘To cite this article: Dr. J. P, Guilford (Professor of Psychology) (1958) Can Creatity be
Developed”, Art Education, 11:6, 318
To link to this artic
8) riches enn: 30 Dec2015,
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‘Almost exactly six months ago, the people of
thove United States were mont rudely shaken by
the news that communist Rusia had paced inte
fotbit the Bist man-made satelite, By ll the ex:
pectations that should follow from our suppowd
Scietie and. technical superiority, sch a thing
should not have happened. We, not Rusia, should
hhave been the fist to. accomplish this torical
event which propery aired the imagination and
the admiration of the vehole work What had
happened tous? Where wa our Yankee ingeity
on which we had prided ourselves? Why did this
imaginative achievement occur it politcal ee
mate that should have dulled individeal thought
And initiative and notin a democratic timate
there the individual and not the sate is the
center of human interest?
[Needs for Creativity
‘Yow know aswell as Ido about the soul sarc
ing and the sf critics that have engaged ou
thinking. people following the Sputaik episodes
There have heen a number of consequences ad
conclusions, but to me, two things stand out. One
‘of these ie that we mist reali that the Resin
soviet threat is not purely and simply 4 military And the days of television we have lost something
that is of grea importance toa peoples important
not only for ther survival ut alo for thee hap-
Pines. Your recent ancestors and mine, who ers
fo this continent to create new homes, faced a
‘multitude of probleme that demanded contin
aletnes and ready adaptability 0 new ‘circum
sanees, Bach day called for its measure of ine
Drovising and each tomorow called foe vision
And, if we an believe the everpresent westerns,
tadventue ly just around the corner
riseat-day living offers an interesting paradox,
(On the one hand the satisfaction of our personal,
daily needs has been reduced o the poine chat
about all we have 10 do isto push buttons and
tum Kaba IF rouble develop, the probleme thus
created are beyond our rope of information and
stil. We dial another gadget and call for an eee-
tricia or repairman, Superficial, ths would seem
to remove from ut sod of the needs for erative
inking needed in the solution of probleme. But
judging by the increasing dependence upon the
Doychiatrist and upon tranquilizer pills for alaying
Ansictis, one would think thatthe hazard of ve
Fg were veater than ever before. What are the
tne, wo be met by military measure So far as one
fan tel the military race has reached a condition
of stakemate which makes pen military conflict
on a large sale unlikely
The Rusia challenge is now clarly made on
at ron; cultural and intelectual aswell x pol
fal and economic. At whatever point the Sov
Union can show auperoriy, i here by them
ana victory for the cormuniaie way of Hl, We
Should welcome the challenge of competion on
the eukual and ineiectual level. Acceptance of
the challenge will be oe of cur strongest ures
af motivation for sme tne to come, Tt may be
Argued that thee are better and. more worthy
sources of motivation for sting for excellence,
But the tewth ser to be that we have been
in short supply of other sources, and none could
te as urgent a the need for the survival of out
ration and our way of ile,
‘The other thing that stands out is our lack of
preparedness to sneet the intellectual challenge
that Russia has thrown in our direction. Some
where between the days of the American pincer
pace of modem life taxes the individual, often be
Yond his eapacity. While che intricate social na
Chine solver many of our personal problems, i
freates many others Tt takes some Hngensity to
tse that machine wisely and advantageously. ‘The
machine breaks dawn in is functioning st many
Point and i in need of many improvements. It
Functioning i never sai. It produces disco,
such ar unemployment, It cteaer new desires. T.
calls for changes in ways of living. Thus, problems
of life are always with us: One unfortunate conse
{quence ofthe availabilty fap any Kinds of ser
fees may be that the habit of oversdependence
pon others generalizes too broadly. I sup to us
ta teach the child that there ae sill many areas of
lite in which problems must be faced and in which
creative thinking is needed.
"The needs for creative thinking arise fom
source in ation to those imposed ipo us by
the Soviet challenge and the complexity and speed
of modern Ising. We have become increasingly
aware of the problem of monotony hrought ahovt
by the machine age in industry. This problem has
become intensified by the coming of automation
Tn this nictre. human eines have been allowed reasons? Have we become so unaccustomed to
‘handling our own personal problems that we make
big troubles out of little ones? Is our resourcefule
ness withering from lack of exercite of our thinking
apparatus? Or are there, after all, many new and
‘more difficult problems?
Some truth lies in the affirmative answers to all
of these questions. I have mentioned the technical
problems that we customarily tum over to others
to solve for us. The shifting of responsibility for
solving personal problems docs not stop with tech-
nical matters. In this age of specialization, services
of all kinds are offered for a price. We need only
consult the Yellow pages of the telephone direc-
tony; we are encouraged more and more 10 do so.
We have developed a social and economie ma-
chine of enormous complexity and proportions.
The use of that machine has not been an unmixed
blessing. Te makes possible a fullness of living never
before known by the average person. At the same
time, it can be crippling to those who learn to de-
pend too much upon i
T have been giving just one side of the picture.
We are often reminded that the complexity and
to behave less and less like human beings. They
have few decisions to make and they have litte or
no opportunity for constructive and inventive
thinking.
By nature we like to make decisions and if we
are normal we derive considerable satisfaction
from the mastery of problems by productive think-
ing. Wolfgang Koehler found that even anthro-
pid apes are delighted with their own inventions,
‘modest though those inventions are. The ape that
‘mastered the stunt of making a long stick by put
ting together two shorter ones in order to rake in
food from outside his cage wat not content to
accept the food as his only reward. In fact, at the
‘moment, it was not his chief source of satisfaction,
He kept playing with his new tool, using it to rake
in other things that were of no immediate use to
him. The joy of mastery over problems seems to
be a deep-seated kind of reward, not confined to
humans,
It is no wonder that the modern worker some-
times feels frustrated and unhappy. To the extent
that he is lacking the satisfactions that come from
mastery over problems, there is a kind of solution,
If he cannot find the opportunities for ereative
thinking in his work, be shoald find them else-
‘where, Iti the whole man that needs to be sats-
fied, Research has shown that if a man's work
‘does aot appeal to hie interests and satis his
prychological needs he can tolerate this circum
stance much better if his hobbies do bring the
kinds of graifiations he seeks.
Some of our thinkers in socal philosophy become
alarmed occasionally when wondering how work-
fers are going to use their increasing leinze time
If workers could be given a good taste of the re-
wards for creative effort and if they consequently
fumed this Iesure time to constructive purposes,
wwe should have little problem from this source
Tis often sated thatthe ancient Greeks were able
to experience a flowering of the arts, science, and
philosophy beeause of their leisure time. Why can
‘hot our Heine tine be turned to similar uses?
Perhaps the strongest force operating against
this kind of development is an unfortunate atinude
for climate that has been permitted to develop in
‘America; an attitade thar does not favor the arts
for, in fact, anything intellecwal. Our national
heroes have been cowboys, military leaders, base-
and aptitude may seem unfair, and fair play may
seem 10 call for handicapping those who cold
excel. This is carrying a supposed ideal much too
far, Democracy should mean centering atiention on
the individual, his rights, and his opportunities,
But it does not mean robbing the one to even up
things for the other. The stubborn facts of life
present us with great individual differences. In-
stead of attempting to hide this fact, we should
sive every individual the chance to make the most
‘of what he has and to become the best of which he
5s capable
In part the antiintllectual astude can be laid
at the door of us who teach, Perkape our own
values are in some need of revision and perhape
wwe also need more courage of our convictions, Re-
cently T wat discusing with some fellow faculty
members che relatively small recognition received
by the superior student of science as compared with
the football star. Their reaction was, “Well, the
science student docs not fill the stadium on Sature
cay afternoons.” T hope they were not serious
Perhaps they only thought they were stating a fact.
1 do not know. My reply was to the effect that the
science student may not fill the stadium but be ball players, and even desperadoes. ‘The arts and
learning in general have been regarded as not quite
masculine and not quite respectable, in some quar~
ters. We have begun to feel the full effects of the
fantiintellectual atmosphere. It has gone s0 for
that bright children sometimes feel compelled to
conceal their brilliance. I have even heard of
parents who have alo tried to conceal the brili=
lance of their children. We hear of college students
‘who feel that they must study on the sly so as not
to lose face with their fellows, for example a gist
‘who made Phi Beta Kappa by reading under her
bedcovers after the lights in her socority had been
tured out. The term “egghead” has become an
epithet in recent years; added to the term “long-
hain.” which is of longer standing. Incidentally, it
is just a Title dificule o see how both terms ean be
applied to the same person!
Tn part, this attitude isa refletion of a general
pressure toward conformity. In some instances the
‘democratic ideal has been misinterpreted to mean
‘equality of ability, as if it would be best for every
fone if we could all be fitted to the same Procrus-
tean standard of mediocrity. Differences of talent
inventive. Such behavior can be found in clearest
fori in the lives of certain peoplescientits who
make new discoveries and construct new theories;
artists, designers, writers, and composers; and
architeés, designers, and builders. Many of the
things that sch people produce have never been
brought into existence before. We will not quibble
cover the oftdebated question of whether = thing
must never have existed belore in order to justify
calling the production creative of whether it must
he novel in every respect. So long as the person
arsives at a produet that has novel aspects 40 far
a8 he is concemed, to this extent I should say he
has created. Note that T have only sai that there
are certain clases of individuals from whom we
expect more clearly creative behavior, It is my
conception that creativity i not confined to sich
people, but is shared to some degree by all human’
195 if nat by other species as w
T suspect that there are many people who believe
that ereativity is a gift and that they do not want
to attempt to understand it or do not believe that
it ean be understood. This is probably one aspect
fof a more general attitude that has been held for
centuries regarding the pessibility of understanding
will ill the rocket ships in the sky above us,
Not the least of the problems that call for erea-
tive thinking are those concerned with interper-
sonal relationships. Imagination in dealing with
‘one's fellows is greatly needed at the personal level,
in local and national polities, and on the interna
tional seene. Technical progress has made posible
4 broader margin of survival The same amount
fof inventive genius has not been shown in cor
nection with the operations of living together. Un-
til we somehow extend creative thinking in social
directions, alo, there will continue to be confict
and unnecessary unhappiness,
What Creativity Means
Enough has probably been said thus far to show
that in many places in our lives more productive,
inventive thinking would be most helpful, if it is
not a clear necessity. Itis time that we considered
creativity itself more closely before we ask whether
there is anything we could do to help develop it
and to promote its use,
1 think of creativity as being something that lies
behind behavior; behavior that it imaginative and
1Q tests. One of the things that impressed me was
the fact that nowhere among them was much place
aiven to ereative performances. It seoms to me that
intelligent individuals should. show their intelli-
‘gence by being inventive in some way. Some years
later, a fellow faculty member from journalism
‘came t0 me to ask what the paychologists knew
about creativity. He was trying to develop creative
\writers among his students, With much ehagrin 1
had to tell him that there was almost nothing that
wwe psychologists knew about the subject.
It was to some extent these sources of frusteas
tion that led me later to investigations in the area,
of aptitude for eveative performance. For the past
ten years, with financial support from the Navy
and the Air Force, my students and T have de-
voted considerable’ effort toward understanding
intellectual abilities in general and among them
the abilities in the area of ereative thinking.’ In
approaching the subject from the standpoint of
aptitudes or abilities we do not believe that abil
ties alone will provide all the reasons why people
are creative of not creative, Obviously, motivation,
and temperamental qualities enter into the piewre,
Our studies have just recently branched of in the human mind in any of its manifestations, There
are people till today, who hold up a forbidding
hand to the psychologist who attempts to undes
stand homan nature and human behavior, just as
centuries ago there was resistance to understanding
the earth and the plants and uncovering the secrets
of the winds, the tides, and the shooting stars. To
the paychologist, erestive performances, Hike all
behavior, are natural phenomena and we have the
capability eventually to understand them, With-
fut understanding them, there is Kittle chance of
doing much, if anything, about them, except 10
accept them fatalistically when they oceur and t0
bemoan their absence when they do not occur, Ie
is tue that psychological understanding of cre-
ative activity has been slow in developing. Of all,
behavior, i is one of the mest difficult types to
investigate, which probably accounts for the slow
start that has been made in that direction
Creativity as An Aspect of Intellect
‘My own interest in the subject of creativity goes
back many years. As a young psychologist, T one
time administered to children some of the common
time we have evidence for nearly 50 such dstinct=
Jy different ineletsal abies,
When we examine the different factors of intel
Feet, we find that they fall logically into certain
clases. They have ceriain sinlaritice and difler-
‘ences, depending upon the operations that are re-
‘quired of individuals who perform the asigned
tasks, upon the kinds of material operated with,
and upon the Rind of end prodict
We might ay that there are three known kinds
of intligence depending upon the kind of mae
terial involved in the tasks or ust. One kind may
be called eonerete intelligence because the material
‘dealt with is in the form of ehings that you can
see or hear or fel. The object deat with nay be
visual forms with the various properties that visual
forms ean have oF they may be speech sounds or
rusial sounds, to mention the mot common vat
ies of concrete materials
‘A second class of abilities as to do with verbal
seanings. We may say thatthe material is seman
tic andthe general area of ability is semantic
intelligence. Such abies are moet important in
Ikarning to read and inthe verbal aspects of arith
metic, so they have tended to dominate conven
tional intelligence cess. So many school subjects
those dircetions also.
T should like to give you some general ideas of
the nature of intelligence, as a general setting for
the more clearly creative-thinking abilities, for the
creative abilities find their natural place among
the rest of the intellectual abilities, We discover the
different kinds of abilities by a particular statistical
‘method known as factor analysis, which, as a med
‘x, will not concern us here. Very briefly and
‘enidely explained, we start out by asking ourselves
what are all the different kinds of tasks of an in-
tellectual nature that human beings do? We next
ask how well each person can do in performing on
‘each kind of task. Everyone does well on some and
poorly on others. No one does equally well on all
kinds of tasks. Where the same individuals tend
to do well on a small group of similar tasks, we
conclude that underlying their performances on
these tasks and in common to them is a unique
kind of ability involved; a factor. At the present
"Under Contract None 23810 between the Office of
Naval Research andthe University of Southern
California,
lence ia one area could even be coupled with near
idiocy in some other, beeause the factors of intel-
Tigence are relatively independent
There ean be inejalites of ability even within
the same area for abilities aso depend upon the
kinds of operations performed. There appear 10
be five classes of operations each of which applies
to the four aveas just mentioned, One kind of op
‘eration it smply that of knowing information; dis
covering information or redicovering oF recagni
ing it. Abilis of another clas have to-do with
memory; memory for the diferent kinds of ma
terial and for diferent products resulting from
the ase of tho materia
“Two elases of abilities have to do with produc:
sive thinking, By preduetive thinking T do. not
necessarily mean creative thinking. I merely mean
{hat from given information some new informs
tion is produced or generated, Given certain in
formation about weather conditions today we pre
ict the weather for tomorrow. Given certain
‘numerial information we estimate the amount of
ach ingredient needed in a fel Usa will take ws
to the moon and back Tdo not mean to apy, of
course, that sich ealelations are cemimon, evety
day operations. T am only giving examples of pro depend upon reading that this is an understand-
able bias, But such tests have been somewhat un-
fair to those who excel much more in the concrete
intellectual area or in the area to be mentioned
next.
A third intellectual area features material that
‘might be called symbolie. Tests that indicate abil-
ties in this area are composed of material such as
lecers, numbers, syllables, and words (where word
meanings are of no importance; only spelling)
Abilities 10 operate with these kinds of materials
according to rules are of importance in the com-
‘mon subjects of language and mathematics,
A possible fourth area of intellect that can be
predicted from what we know would deal with
another kind of material, namely, the behavior of
individuals. It would be known as social intlli-
gence. Understanding one's fellows, being aware
fof their desires, their thoughts, and their attitudes
takes different abilities than thote pertaining to
concrete objects, verbal meanings, or syinbolic
‘material. Different individuals would possibly excel
Jn one or more of these areas but notin all, Excel
4
(CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT, jrors paze 7
around or changing direction. Tt does not neces:
sarily mean fying in the faee of convention, but it
frequently leads to unconventional results, It ie in
the diveryentthinking category that oe find the
abilities most pertinent to creative thinking. Tt ca
rot be truthfully said that only divergent-thinking
abilties contribute to ereative produetion, for other
categories of intelleetual resources play their parts
It can be said that ereative people are more likely
to excel in the divergent-thinking abilities,
Tefore discussing divergent-thinking abilities in
any more detail and completing the general pi
ture of intellect, I should say that a fifth class of
abilities comes under the heading of evaluation.
We evaluate much of what we do, at almost any
step of the way. We evaluate our information,
asking ourselves whether i is correct or complete
We evaluate what we remember and recall, asking
Whether it is a faithful reproduction and whether
it is what we need in this particular situation. We
evaluate the results of productive thinking, test-
ing whether our answer is correct (in convergent
thinking) or whether itis suitable or reasonable,
fr good oF satisfying (in divergent thinking). Self
criticism is with us always, whether we realize it
ductive thinking
“The last example represents one ofthe twa class
¢s of productive thinking; the one called “conver-
gent” thinking. ‘The outcome is usually one or.
rect answer. In a mathematical problem the rules
of lie ate 20 precise and so binding that with
certain given information there can be only one
conchison. Other insiances of convergent tke
ing are perhaps less binding, but if they lead to
tore than one acceptable answer there is litle
latitude for deviation. Tf 1 ask you "What is the
ppesite of the word “good,” your first thought
is "bad" which isthe conventional answer, and
it would be scored as carec ina test.
But there are other responses that we might
regard at fulfilling the requirements of the ques-
tion, Other words meaning neatly the opposite of
“good” are “poor,” “wicked” or “faulty.” If your
problems were to find out how many alternative
"esponss you could think of in this connection, you
would be indulging in oehat we call “divergent
thinking” Divergent thinking involves searching
turn to page 14
‘can in a given time, being given only a few ele
ments such as an angle, a curve, and a cixcle, Tt
is true, of course, that the creative person. rarely
‘works under such time pressures as we apply in
fluency tests. The time control is designed to pro
vide equal opportunity forthe purposes of testing
is assumed that the person who can produce
most under these conditions has certain kind of
advantage in terme of fertility of thinking also
when he has more time. Whether or not thie is
true ean of course be determined by experiment
Another important aspect of ereativity is flex
bility of thinking or freedom from rigidity. Our
nvestigations have shown tbat there are two kinds
of Mexbilty of thinking. One is called “xpontane-
fous flexbilty”” since it represents automatic
changes in direction of thinking even when itis
not necessary, Actually, the person sho is high on
the scale of spontaneous flexibility tends 10. be
flighty and fanciful in his thinking habits. ‘This
of changing the subject may be bothersome
under some circumstances but i¢ ges the thinker
around to unusual ideas, some of which may prove
tbe valuable
TThe other kind is called “adaptive flexibility,”
since itis essential in dhe solution of many probs oF not. It helps us to guide our thinking to profit.
able ends and co tell us when we have solved our
problem and when we need 10 start over again,
Useful as a more or less final step, evaluation is
frequently inhibiting when applied too strongly oF
too early
Some Divergent-Thinking Abilities
Several abilities aecount most dircetly for both
the quantity and quality of our divergent thinking
in creative performance. Quantity of output is
dependent upon our fluency of thinking. Fluency
is the facility with which thinking operations pro-
ceed or flow. One person may be able to produce
50 ideas a minute while another has difficulty in
producing 5. For example, we present to each
examinee a plot for a short story and ask him to
sive as many titles as he ean think of for the story
jn a few minutes. In another test we ask him to
ive ax many uses as be can think of for a com-
‘mon brick, In the form of a figural test, in which
figural ideas are called for, we could ask examinees
to present as many different border designs as they
ing material
Tn the creativethinkng area you would certain.
Ty expect thar a tat of originality would readily
appear under investigation. ‘This expectation is
sound. Individuals show their originality in test
performances of diferent kinds, by giving novel
for unusual responses, by giving far-fetched of re-
smotely connected responses, or by giving clever
responses If we count only the elever responses to
the plorttles test we have a score for originality
Tf-we ask examinees to tell us wht the conte
quences would be if beginning in 1960 only boy
babies were born, and if we aceept only farreach
ing effects, the score indicates originality,
‘To give examples closer to the graphic arts, I
‘can mention a couple of similar test. Tn one we
ive a short sentence mich as “Ring the bell” and
ak the examinee 1 expres by means of simple
lines the word “ring” and the word “bell” In
another text ofthis type we ask hitn to expres in
single Lines the meanings of adjectives, sucht as
“angry.” “quiet” and “playful” Many years ago
T gave such atest to student in a course on design
The teacher independently ranked her students in
the order of what she regarded to be their stats
in originality. The agreement between scores and
Jems. It i alo an ease jn changing direction of
thinking, but it sof a more positive type than that
of spontaneous flexibility. In trying to salve a probe
Jem, some thinkers doggedly pensst in following
‘one adopted approach in spite of failure. They are
lacking in adaprive flexibility. Other thinkers une
der the same circumstances get out of their old
ruts, strike off on new approaches, and solve the
problems, Being tradition bound is largely a matter
‘of low status with respect to adaptive esiility.
We test for adaptive flexibility by giving prob:
leans that Took as if all they need are old types of,
solutions but that cannot be solved without new
and unusual types. We test for spontaneous flexi=
bility by offering the examinee the chance to re-
main in a comfortable groove or to show a variety
of responses. For example, in the test calling for
uses of a common brick, the person with strong
spontaneous flexibility offers several different kinds
of uses, such as using the brick as a weight, a mis.
sile, a building material, a filter, and so on. The
person low on spontaneous flexibility rides a hobby.
He may never get beyond using the brick as build
3
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR
[ART EDUCATION.
Invitation extended to oll art educators, head
‘masters, school authortiee az well as to al
Insitutions and federations concerned with
the artistic edueation of youth in all coun ranks was quite good)
Tn another divergent-thinking type of wat we
sive a very few lines, which could be developed in
to many different objects by the addition of more
lines. When we score the test in terms of the degree
‘of complexity the examinee tended to show, we
found that the scare measures a trait we call
elaboration ability. The same ability is indicated
by the extent to which a person can offer details to
round out a plan when he is given only the out
line of the plan,
Some Motivotional and Temperemental
Traits Involved
Our analyses indicate that there are baie inter-
ests in a number of different kinds of thinking
Some of these ate found to be slightly related to
performance
cviginalty and they may also therefore play’ some
parc in other creative performances. There are
‘other motivational and temperamental factors that
we als find related to test performances,
turn to page 16
tests of fluency, flexibility, and
tries to toke part in the Tenth International
Congress for Art Education in Bosle/Switz-
feland, held from the 7th to the 12th of
August 1958,
With the allembracing theme: "Edueation in
the Arts as an Essential and Necessary Part
‘of all Human Education” this Congress has
st the following objectives:
to convey an impression of the present
state of art education in all participating
—to put forth and to clarify the mest acute
problems of art education
—to investigate the possiblities of giving att
tedueation its due seope in the framework of
all types of schools;
—to interest the public all over the world in
aan adequate artistic education of youth
For further information verte:
Kongress-Sekretariat FEA
‘Auf dem Hummel 28, Basle, Switzerland. 16
‘The person who is a more fluent thinker is ike-
ly to be more impulsive, more self confident, and
less inclined to be neurotic. He is likely to appreci-
ate creativity and aesthetic expression and 10 lite
to indulge in reflective thinking. ‘The flexible
thinker is Tikely to feel a need for variety and to
ce reflective thinking. The more original person
clined to be self confident and tolerant of am-
biguity, and he likes reflective and divergent think
ing and aesthetic expression. The person wh
fon originality is inclined to be oversmeticulous
and to feel a strong need for discipline and for its
enforcement, The more original person is not ec:
cssrily low on a need for moral conformity, or on
appreciation for moral values, in contradiction to
commonly expressed, stereotyped belief. I should
remind you that these conclusions come from re-
lationships found with performance in psychologi=
cal tests. In everyday life there may be somewhat
different relaionships in the population, and cer-
tain individuals may provide dramatic exceptions
to any rules that apply in general
Development of Creativity
‘The growing appreciation of the need for in-
creasing the level of creative performance in ovr
population has led to some attempts along educa-
tional lines. No doubt many of you, as teachers,
have also felt that something should be done in
this direction. As teachers of art you occupy a
unique place in this respect and you may feel
that you have some responsibility that goes beyond
that of contributing to the development of creative
artists Of all the subjects taught in the schools, art
sands out as the one area in which pupils and
students not only have some freedom to he erea-
tive but are expected to be creative. Those respon:
sible for the teaching of art have a double ques-
tion: (1) ean development of habits of creativity
bbe encouraged in courses in art and (2) can such
habits be made to transfer so they will be operative
in other
and effective areas of intelectual
‘endeavor?
T confess that T am not informed concerning
‘what may have been done specifically with the in-
tention of developing creativity in courses of art
struction. But I might cal to your attention seme
things that are being done outside that field. In
scattered places, special courses designed ime
prove creativity have been given, by teachers in
various fields, The number of such courses has
increased enormously during the past few yeats,
until, as T have been told, there are about two
thousand being offered; in’ universities, in indus
tries, and in governmental agencies. Such courset
have usally consisted of Jecuures on the nature of
creativity and on exercises in ereative thinking and
problem solving.
‘A special technique that has been used in this
connection is the so-called “brain-storming session”
fof which you have probably heard. It wat designed
by Alex Osborn, of the firm of Batten, Barton,
Durstine, and Osborn, more particularly for the
eneration of new ideas for use in advertising.
Typically, a small group of individuals comes to-
gether for the purpose of thinking up new ideas
o meet some need, which has heen announced in
advance. The atmosphere is completely uncritical
and permissive. Anything goes and it is expected
that one person's remarks will stimulate ideas in
others, so that the net effect is greater output than
could be obtained if the same individuals were
thinking in isolation. Rigorous experiments design-
fd to evaluate the brainstorming technique have
not been reported, but informal impresions are
that it increases the production of Heas and trains
the participants in useful thinking habits.
Much better than special courses on creative
thinking and special techniques would be increased
attention to creativity incidental to common sub-
Jeet matter. There are many fields of instruction
in which there are opportunities to introduce the
student to exercises in creative thinking, "This
‘would include courses in science, in the humanities,
and in the social studies, a¢ well as in the arts,
Some fields, of course, offer more opportunities
than others. Bur in all of them the opportunities
depend largely upon ow the subject matter is
taught and upon the attitudes of the teacher. Un
derstanding the nature of ereative performance
in terms of the abilities and other traits that con
twibate to it should be of considerable help in
selecting the materials of instruction, the manner
of presentation of that material, and the instillation
of the appropriate attitudes on the part of the
student,
In large part, development of creativity on the
part of students will depend upon changed atti= tudes of both teacher and student. It is reported
that in a certain country the respect for texthook
information is even greater than iti in the U.S.A
The goal of the student i+ to memorize the text-
book material in order to pass examinations that
call for a demonstration of such knowledge. ‘The
consequence is that the graduate knows what who
said about what, but there is litle preparation for
tackling new problems, especially where textbook
information falls short or is even in error. I do not
wish to disparage the goal of acquiring informa
tion. Tt is not the acquisition of information, as
such, that is harmful to creative performance, for
invention revs upon prior information, Te is the
attitude toward information that often gets in the
way of creative thinking.
A similar statement can be made regarding
methods. ‘There can be an oversespect for the
sscredness of methods. A woman tokd me recently
‘of an experience she had at a child in a school in
England. The art teacher assigned an exercise and
told the class exactly how she wanted it done, Our
Title girl thought that she saw a much better way
of doing the exercise and proceeded 0 do it in
hher own way. The teacher caught her in the act
of doing tne exercise and proceeded to do it in
hher own way. The teacher caught her in the act
and reprimanded her for it, Being stubborn, the
lial girl proceeded to do the task in her own way
while the teacher was not looking. Her end prod
uct, incidentally, was later judged the best in the
class. But apart from her happier, eventual out-
come, the important point is that she had been
punished for being unconventional
How many
other children are similarly punished for showing
originality? How often are conforming children
rewarded for their conformity? According to the
best information we have regarding the prychology
of learning, there should be no surer way of de-
veloping habits of conformity and of discouraging
habits of creativity
How
against creative effort in the
ny other kinds of blocks are built up
average student?
n which the
ating a more permissive climate
child learns, since li
way of creative thinking he expeets little of himself
in this direction
is expected of him in the
There seems t© be a popular
opinion that ereative performance is the special
prerogative of the gifted few who are capable of
it Ifthe child classifies himself as belonging in the
nnon-creative group he accepts his fate and makes
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SCHOOL
THE EDITOR, D. Kenneth Winebrener, Pofestr of Au,
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practical kind. Working wih th Etre on advisory board
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SCHOOL ARTS, Printer Beilding, Worcener 8, Man. 18
little or no effort 1 be original or productive. The
inuth of the matter sems to be that outstandingly
creative people simply have in high degree the
same abilities that all of us have to some extent. A
realization of this fact should be a real stimulus to
many youngsters who have been afraid try their
‘wings for laek of confidence.
Granting that instruction in art offers numerous
opportunities to teach habits of creativity, ean the
evelopment of such habite karned in art courses
have any effeet pon creative performance in other
courses of in life in general? This is a special case
of the old educational question of wansfer of train-
ing. We are familia with the experimental findings
that che Teaming of habits such as that of neatness
in one course often fails to transer 10 work in
another. We have also heen teaching under an
educational bias stemming from the belief that
learning is highly specific. The belief in the dis
plinary value of learaing has been at a low ebb
for some years, My own view is that we shall have
to reccat from this extreme view, Learning docs
xeneralize more than some specialists are willing
fo admit. We shall have to continue t0 recognize
that there aze limits to wansfer of habits, but dhere
is much transfer.
There is much evidence that the amount and
ind of transfer depend largely upon the manner
Jn which the learning takes place as well as upen
the similacty of tasks between which the transfer
isto occu. If similarity of tasks were the only bass
for transfer, the learning of habits and skills of
creativity in art would show little application 0
other areas, in scence, for example. Tt it large'y
tip to the teacher, therefore, to help the student
bridge the gap between art and other feds
Tis unfortunate, but to the present time, art
thas been considered by the average person 36 a
thing apart; a rather solaced eld, Instead, att
should be regarded as an aspect of living in gen:
feral. Tt should help to embelish and to ench day-
today activities There seems to be a growing ap-
preciation of this principle, as demonstrated in the
ereased attention paid to art in the architecture
of buildings designed for business and industrial
Durpores as well as of homes and public buildings
and the attention paid to home decoration. We
‘ould go further in those directions, Acceptance of
this principle, however, at well as the principle
‘hat individuals generally have something worthy
of expression would help to bridge the gap between
creativity in art and creativity in ether areas of
lite. 1 will be largely up to the teacher of att to
swateh for opportunites to help the student
make the conneetions
T should like to leave you with some questions
to which T think you know the answers. Tt has
heen sid that there are almost as many human
beings living on this planet today as had lived in
all historical time before the present population
was born.
Do we have our share of creative
geniuses? Are we living too much on inherited
capital? Is there anything we can do. about the
siwation? OF one thing T feet reasonably sure. If
we could somehow raise the level of creativity of
the average person even by a small percentage, the
social consequences would be very great
PRATT INSTITUTE
THE ART SCHOOL
BS. In Art Teacher Education, BFA. in Adverts:
Ing Design, Grophic Arte & Ilustration, and In
terior Design. B. of Ind. Design, MS. in Art Edu
cation and Master of Ind. Design.
Director of Admissions, Brooklyn 5, N.Y.