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The Hand Book of Creativity Cambridge
The Hand Book of Creativity Cambridge
The Hand Book of Creativity Cambridge
James C. Kaufman, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the California State Uni-
versity at San Bernardino, where he directs the Learning Research Institute. Dr. Kaufman’s
research focuses on the nurturance, structure, and assessment of creativity. He is the author
or editor of more than 150 publications, including seventeen books either published or in
press. These books include Creativity 101 (2009), Essentials of Creativity Assessment (with
Jonathan Plucker and John Baer, 2008), and The International Handbook of Creativity (with
Robert J. Sternberg, 2006). His research has been featured on CNN, NPR, and the BBC and
in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and New Yorker. Kaufman is a founding coeditor
of the official journal for the American Psychological Association’s Division 10, Psychology of
Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. He also is the associate editor of Psychological Assessment
and Journal of Creative Behavior, the editor of International Journal of Creativity and Problem
Solving, and the series editor of the Psych 101 series. He received the 2003 Daniel E. Berlyne
Award from APA’s Division 10, the 2008 E. Paul Torrance Award from the National Asso-
ciation for Gifted Children, and the 2009 Early Career Research Award from the Western
Psychological Association.
Robert J. Sternberg, PhD, is Provost and Senior Vice President of Oklahoma State University.
Until 2010, he was Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology
and Education at Tufts University. He is also Honorary Professor of Psychology at the
University of Heidelberg. He was previously IBM Professor of Psychology and Education
in the Department of Psychology; Professor of Management in the School of Management;
and Director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise at
Yale. His PhD is from Stanford, and he holds 11 honorary doctorates. Sternberg was the 2003
President of the American Psychological Association and is the past President of the Eastern
Psychological Association. He is currently President of the International Association for
Cognitive Education and Psychology and President-Elect of the Federation of Associations of
Behavioral and Brain Sciences. The central focus of his research is on intelligence, creativity,
and wisdom, and he also has studied love and close relationships as well as hate. He is
the author of approximately 1,200 journal articles, book chapters, and books, and he has
received more than $20 million in government and other grants and contracts for his research,
conducted on five different continents. He has won more than two dozen awards for his
research. Sternberg has been listed in the APA Monitor on Psychology as one of the top 100
psychologists of the twentieth century and is listed by the ISI as one of its most highly cited
authors in psychology and psychiatry.
Edited by
JAMES C. KAUFMAN
California State University, San Bernardino
ROBERT J. STERNBERG
Oklahoma State University
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for
external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not
guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents
vii
viii CONTENTS
Index 483
Tables
2.1 Summary of Theories of Creativity page 27
8.1 Comparison of Dimensions Deemed to Be Important to the Creative
Environment 152
10.1 Typology of Relations of Creativity to Problems/Pathology 199
16.1 The Core Psychological/Educational Products of the Seven Phases 312
17.1 Correlations Among Creativity Ratings 326
17.2 Partial Correlations Among Creativity Ratings 327
Figures
ix
Contributors
xi
xii CONTRIBUTORS
Preface
With the world changing more rapidly than intensive research, on how to measure, uti-
ever before, creativity is at a historical pre- lize, and improve it.
mium. As many investors have discovered, The first step to understanding creativity
yesterday’s investment strategies do not nec- is to define it. Most definitions of creative
essarily work anymore. As many politicians ideas comprise three components (Kaufman
and citizens alike have discovered, yester- & Sternberg, 2007). First, creative ideas must
day’s ideas about ethical behavior and pro- represent something different, new, or inno-
priety do not necessarily apply today. As vative. Second, creative ideas are of high
many CEOs have discovered, the competi- quality. Third, creative ideas must also be
tion today is quite different from at any time appropriate to the task at hand or some
in history. Printed newspapers, for example, redefinition of that task. Thus, a creative
have to compete not only with each other, response is novel, good, and relevant.
but with their own online versions. We live It has been more than a decade since
in a society where those who do not cre- Robert J. Sternberg, one of the editors of
atively innovate risk failure in any of several this volume, edited Cambridge’s last Hand-
domains of life. book of Creativity. Since it was published in
Just what is creativity? It can refer to a 1999, there have been more than 10,000 pub-
person, process, place, or product. It can be lished papers concerning creativity, along
found in geniuses and in small children. It with hundreds of books. More than ever,
has been studied by psychologists, educa- there is a flourishing community of schol-
tors, neuroscientists, historians, sociologists, ars focusing on creativity. The American
economists, engineers, and scholars of all Psychological Association’s Division 10, the
types. Legendary thinkers throughout time, Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics,
from Aristotle to Einstein, have pondered Creativity, and the Arts, now sponsors an
what it means to be creative. There are official APA journal on this topic (Psychol-
still debates, after more than six decades of ogy of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts).
xiii
xiv PREFACE
Established journals such as the Creativ- J. Locher writes about creativity and aes-
ity Research Journal, Journal of Creative thetics, and Gerard J. Puccio and John
Behavior, Empirical Studies of the Arts, and F. Cabra cover organizational approaches.
Imagination, Creativity, and Personality con- Dean Keith Simonton then discusses major
tinue to publish exciting new papers. New (or “Big C”) creativity, followed by Ruth
journals have emerged (e.g., Thinking Skills Richards on everyday (or “little c”) creativ-
and Creativity, International Journal of Cre- ity. Neurobiological foundations of creativ-
ativity and Problem Solving). Other jour- ity are discussed by Allison B. Kaufman,
nals feature work on creativity in differ- Sergey A. Kornilov, Adam S. Bristol, Mei
ent areas, such as gifted education (Roeper Tan, and Elena L. Grigorenko, while San-
Review and Gifted Child Quarterly) and busi- dra W. Russ and Julie A. Fiorelli write
ness (Innovation and Creativity Management, about developmental approaches to creativ-
Leadership Quarterly). Several major writ- ity. Jeffrey K. Smith and Lisa F. Smith
ten and edited works by leading scholars discuss educational perspectives on creativ-
have appeared in the last decade. A few ity, and Todd Lubart analyzes cross-cultural
examples of such works include Dorfman, research and theory. Next, Liane Gabora
Locher, and Martindale (2006); Piirto (2004); and Scott Barry Kaufman highlight evolu-
Puccio, Murdock, and Mance (2006); Runco tionary theories of creativity. Finally, David
(2007), Sawyer (2006), Simonton (2004); and Cropley and Arthur Cropley write about
Weisberg (2006). Kaufman (2009) provides a functional creativity.
detailed overview of these recent works. The third section of the book offers
essays that cover “Contemporary Debates”
in creativity – ongoing debates that still
Structure of This Handbook inspire discussion. John Baer addresses the
question of whether creativity is one thing
We have structured The Cambridge Hand- (domain-general) or many things (domain-
book of Creativity into four parts. The first specific). Beth A. Hennessey analyzes how
part, which we call “Basic Concepts,” is intrinsic motivation may affect creativity.
designed to introduce readers to the history R. Keith Sawyer discusses the compara-
and key concepts in the field of creativity. tively new area of group (as opposed to
This section begins with a history of creativ- individual) creativity. Paul J. Silvia and
ity research by Mark A. Runco and Robert S. James C. Kaufman highlight the contro-
Alpert. It is followed by a thorough review versial topic of creativity and mental ill-
of major theories of creativity written by ness, and Kyung Hee Kim, Bonnie Cra-
Aaron Kozbelt, Ronald A. Beghetto, and mond, and Joyce VanTassel-Baska outline
Mark A. Runco. Next, Jonathan A. Plucker the often-conflicting literature on how cre-
and Matthew C. Makel review creativity ativity relates to intelligence. Mark A. Runco
assessment, followed by Seana Moran’s dis- distinguishes between the idea of diver-
cussion of the role of creativity in today’s gent thinking and creativity, and Ronald A.
society. Beghetto concludes the section with a dis-
The next section is titled “Diverse Per- cussion of creativity in the classroom.
spectives on Creativity.” This section con- Finally, in the last section, we both sum-
tains chapters on the many ways to approach marize and highlight important concepts
creativity. Several of these approaches, such from the book and look to the future at what
as functional, evolutionary, and neurosci- lies ahead.
entific approaches, have been invented or The chapters in this book discuss research
greatly reconceptualized in the last decade. and theories from all aspects of creativity.
We begin with Thomas B. Ward and Yuliya The authors tackle such diverse topics as the
Kolomyts describing the cognitive approach brain, education, business, and world cul-
to creativity, then shift to Gregory J. Feist’s tures. We hope that this handbook not only
chapter on the creative personality. Paul can serve as an introduction to the study of
PREFACE xv
creativity but also can represent a launch- Piirto, J. A. (2004). Understanding creativity.
ing pad for more debates, discussions, and Scottsdale, AZ: Great Potential Press.
future research. Puccio, G. J., Murdock, M. C., & Mance, M.
(2006). Creative leadership: Skills that drive
change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Runco, M. A. (2007). Creativity: Theories and
References themes: Research, development, and practice.
San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.
Dorfman, L., Locher, P., & Martindale, C. (Eds.). Sawyer, R. K. (2006). Explaining creativity: The
(2006). New directions in aesthetics, creativity, science of human innovation. Oxford: Oxford
and the arts (Foundations and Frontiers in Aes- University Press.
thetics). Amityville, NY: Baywood Press. Simonton, D. K. (2004). Creativity in science:
Kaufman, J. C. (2009). Creativity 101. New York: Chance, logic, genius, and zeitgeist. New York:
Springer. Cambridge University Press.
Kaufman, J. C., & Sternberg, R. J. (2007). Weisberg, R. (2006). Creativity: Understanding
Resource review: Creativity. Change, 39, 55– innovation in problem solving, science, invention
58. and the arts. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
Acknowledgments
Editing this book has been a labor of love, bridge University Press and Phil Laughlin
and it has been an honor to work with such and Eric Schwartz, formerly of Cambridge
a distinguished and noteworthy group of University Press; and our departments and
authors. We would like to thank Maria Avi- universities for their support. James would
tia, Candice Davis, Ryan Holt, Amber Lytle, like to thank Allison, Jacob, Mom and Dad,
Tessy Pumaccahua, Amanda Roos, Lauren and everyone else in his family for their sup-
Skidmore, Roberta Sullivan, Oshin Varta- port and love. Bob would like to thank Karin
nian, Arielle White, and Vanessa Zarate for for her love, support, and patience while he
their assistance in preparing the manuscript; read and edited chapter after chapter after
Simina Calin and Jeanie Lee from Cam- chapter.
xvii