Stimulating Creativity

Stimulating Creativity: Volume 1, Individual Procedures discusses the psychological and social factors affecting creativity, including techniques applicable in technological and consumer-related product areas. Creativity is a process consisting of three overlapping stages—hypothesis formation, hypothesis testing, and the communication of results. The book reviews past criteria of creativity, and then suggests techniques, based on social and psychological differentiating characteristics of creativity, that can stimulate creativity. The text also considers some procedures which the individual can use to stimulate creativity, or overcome blocks that stop creativity. The book explains in detail individual procedures, group procedures, as well the techniques appropriate in each stage of the creative process. The text notes that the creative process occurs in a social context, primarily manifested during the communication stage. The book considers the following group procedures for stimulating creativity, namely, brainstorming, creative problem-solving, synectics, and a personality-insight approach. Examples of programs employed in different companies or organization can free an individual from difficulties and problems, make him more receptive to other programs, or he can use these programs as basis to develop newer programs. The book can prove insightful for psychiatrists, psychologists, behavioral scientists, child educators, students or professors in psychology, for parents of young children or adolescents, and also for general readers interested in self-improvement.

Preface

Acknowledgments

Contents of Volume 2

Part I Plan of The Work

I Introduction

Assumptions Underlying the Discussion

Part II Theory and Criteria

II The Creative Process

Various Descriptions of the Creative Process

Stage I—Hypothesis Formation

Stage II—Hypothesis Testing

Stage III—Communication of Results

Summary

III Criteria in Studies of Creativity

Generally Acknowledged Creativity

Representation in Secondary Sources

Expert Judgment

Quantity of Products

Psychometric Tests

The Process as a Criterion

Summary

Part III Individual Procedures

IV Introduction to Personality Procedures

Research Designs and Theories Involved

Personality Theories

Personality Results

Summary

V Affecting Personality Characteristics: Role Playing, Hypnosis, and Psychotherapy

Role Playing

Affecting the Creative Process

Hypnosis

To Change Personality Characteristics

Psychotherapy

Summary

VI Introduction to Cognitive Procedures

Several Theoretical Issues

Language

Physiognomic Perception and Regression in Service of the Ego

Altered States of Consciousness

Guilford's Intellective Factors

Summary

VII Altering States of Consciousness

The Consciousness That Is to Be Altered

Relaxation-Reflection

Dreams

Alcohol and Caffeine

Mind-Expanding Drugs

Summary

Part IV Procedures for Affecting the Individual Stages of the Creative Process

VIII Affecting the Preparatory (Educational) Stage

Social Relationships in the School Environment

Teaching Techniques and Practices

Evaluation and Practice

Toward a School System That Is More Congenial to Creativity

Summary

IX Stimulating Hypothesis Formation

Perception

Language

Two of the Mystiques-Inspiration and Intuition

Self-Help Procedures

Another of the Mystiques—Selecting the "Good" Possibility

Summary

X Making Hypothesis Testing More Effective

The Dialog

The Mystique in This Part of the Process

Theories

Types and the Testing of Hypotheses

Specific Suggestions

Summary

XI Affecting the Communication of Results

Resistance to Discussing the Communication Stage

The Creative Individual

Intermediaries

The Adoption Process

The Audience or Public

Overcoming Resistance to Change

Summary

References

Subject Index