the psychology of creative thinking

Running Head: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CREATIVE THINKING

The Psychology of Creative Thinking

Joseph Arron Knox

Tarleton State University

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CREATIVE THINKING

Abstract

Some psychological processes and factors behind creative or divergent thinking

are discussed such as; forgetting, gender equality of the mind, the neuropeptide Oxytocin,

moods in music along with moods and emotions in humans, and self-concepts. It is

suggested that creative processing is a very instrumental and vital resource in life

especially in today’s society. Convergent thinking is briefly reviewed as the framework

for divergent thinking since it consists of logical elementary fashions of thought that form

our more popular expansions into the realm of the subconscious and abstract unknown.

Survival of the fittest and other naturalistic theories are interpreted as being intertwined

with creative thinking since outlandish new ideas seem to be the power behind the engine

that creates the future. It is concluded that more research is needed to explore just where

are imaginations start, how to improve their quality, and if they have an end.

Keywords: creative thinking, divergent thinking, convergent thinking, processing,

Oxytocin, ideation, approach orientation, mental fixation, Mozart effect, creative

originality

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The Psychology of Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is one of the many thought processes, which humans

possess in a cognitive state. Creative thinking, also known as divergent thinking, is

the ability to find unorthodox or imaginative solutions to regular or even sometimes

irregular problems or situations that one would run into in everyday life. The

creative ability to find an abstract solution in a plethora of ordinary scenarios not

only allows for a means of survival, but also to excel, to “think outside the box”. In

today’s society, success is mostly found when one differentiates themselves from

others in a creative way. This can be observed in celebrities such as; movie stars,

musicians, artists, writers, chefs and so on. It is also seen in normal jobs. For

example, a member of company’s marketing team may come up with a new

advertisement that boost sales; by thinking creatively this employee will most likely

be rewarded and has become more successful.

Divergent thinking plays off of convergent thinking, which is a thought

process that follows a structured path to reach an answer. With this process, the

solution found is the, “correct” one (Callaghan & Growney, 2013). It may be the most

basic, however, it is not guaranteed to be the easiest or most efficient. Creative

thinking enables the cognitive ability to “work smart and not hard”. The foundation

of economics is to allocate a limited number of resources, due to scarcity. In a world

ruled by the economy, it is more beneficial to think creatively and to be efficient, to

be “ahead of the curve” than to be average or ordinary. Any chance taken to move

forward is well worth it in a world where it is so easy to be left behind.

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Sources of Creative Ideation

The ability to think divergently seems to be related to “the survival of the fittest”

concepts, but more like “the survival of the smartest”. The most intelligent people are

most likely to advance in today’s society, simply because they are intelligent. However,

even if a subject was considered to have an average intelligence, they could choose to

think divergently and still be successful. Divergent thinking is in human DNA, and

structured through evolution; the ability to think creatively is pronounced with “oxytocin,

a hypothalamic neuropeptide” (De Dreu et al., 2014). From the tests conducted by De

Dreu et al. (2014), it was shown that oxytocin is found in both humans and animals and

improves “approach orientation”, allowing the subjects to think more creatively and less

“analytically”. Approach orientation, or goal orientation theory concerns individuals who

are positively incentivized to achieve. Approach orientation has been linked to “creative

ideation” and an “increase in capacity” of divergent thinking for problem solving,

opposed to convergent thinking (De Dreu et al., 2014).

Forgetting to Create

Thinking leads to forgetting and forgetting leads to creative thinking (Storm &

Patel, 2014). Subjects were tested and asked to study the uses for different “household

objects” and then asked to find new uses for them; the subjects who tried to “generate”

new ideas were more apt to forget the “studied uses” and the participants that used the

“studied uses” as clues to create new uses did not forget them (Storm & Patel, 2014).

Subjects who forgot were observed to in-turn, be more creative and think more

divergently than their counterparts. According to Storm and Patel (2014), “the forgetting

effect correlated with individual differences in creativity such that participants who

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exhibited more forgetting generated more creative uses than participants who exhibited

less forgetting” (p. 1594).

Sometimes we need to know things or have a preexisting knowledge of something

in order to create something new, this is usually where convergent thinking lays the

groundwork. However, sometimes knowledge of old ideas or concepts can sometimes

“impede” the creative process and keep new ideas from forming (Storm & Patel, 2014).

Storm & Patel (2014), describe this as “Mental Fixation”, this can happen while

“remembering, solving problems, or generating creative ideas” (p. 1594). Forgetting

plays an important part in overcoming fixation and therefore and lead to new ideas or

divergent thinking (storm & Patel, 2014). Storm & Patel (2014), said, “Thus, to

understand creativity we must attempt to understand the noncreative processes that

support it, and the present findings suggest that forgetting may be one such process” (p.

1605).

Music & Mood

A study was conducted on college students based off of happy, sad and neutral

moods induced by film and music (Callaghan & Growney, 2013). They were induced

into these states of emotion by observing a video and then listening to music while

performing a prescribed task; two of the test groups were “congruent”, where the video

and the music induced the same emotions; and two were “incongruent”, where the video

and the music induced different moods (Callaghan & Growney, 2013). As stated by

Callaghan & Growney (2013), the researches expected the happy moods to increase the

task scores or creative ability while on the other hand they expected the sad or neutral

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induced moods not to have any “significant” effect on the participant’s task scores or

creative ability. However, the hypothesis was only half right. It was shown that the

subjects who were in a happy mood scored higher on the tasks than subjects in a neutral

mood; although the subjects who were sad also scored higher on the creative tasks than

did the ones in the neutral mood (Callaghan & Growney, 2013). This information

presented a “conclusion that the heightened emotions of both happiness and sadness

stimulated original thought” or divergent thinking (p. 165).

This study was inspired by the Mozart Effect which is a controversial theory that

says music may enhance creativeness or spatial reasoning; the fault in this study is that

since the mood was induced with music, the researchers are not certain on if the music

promoted divergent thinking or if it was the induced mood after all (Callaghan &

Growney, 2013). It was concluded that happy people preferred happy music and that sad

people preferred sad music, if theses combinations of moods were ideal the scores on the

divergent thinking tasks were higher (Callaghan & Growney, 2013). After retesting the

experiment without the neutral variable, with video clips to induce mood instead of music

and with music playing in the background during the creative thinking task; it was found

that a combination of elevated moods and congruent music promotes “original thought”

(Callaghan & Growney, 2013).

Mood inspires people to do what they choose to do in everyday life. It is not

surprising that there is a correlation found between mood and “creative ideation” (De

Dreu et al., 2014). Most musicians write their best works in times of elevated emotions,

this is just one example of how heightened mood sensitivity effects creative ability. When

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a subject’s moods are congruent with the moods in the music being listened to, is when

the person is most productive or creative (Callaghan & Growney, 2013).

Gender and Divergent Thinking

Two studies were conducted and published in 2013, one in Egypt and one in

China. This research focused on finding out if gender makes a difference in ones ability

to think divergently and creatively. The subjects in both studies were children or

adolescences and were given tests to measure “creative potential”; the test used in the

Egyptian study is called a “(TCT-DP)”, or the “Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing

Production” (Sayed & Mohamed, 2013). According to Sayed & Mohamed (2013), the

(TCT-DP) is “widely used as a measure of creative potential based on constrained

production of figural elements into certain drawings. The (TCT-DP) was developed in

1996 and abides by fourteen criteria; Continuations, Completions, New Elements,

Connections (lines), Connections (themes), Boundary-breaking [Fragment-dependent],

Boundary-breaking [Fragment-independent], Perspective, Humor, and

Unconventionalities such as (manipulations); these are all counted and averaged to gain

insight to one’s divergent ability (Sayed & Mohamed, 2013). Interestingly enough there

was not any real correlation found between gender and divergent thinking in Egypt if any

big differences at all. The Inconsistencies arise however, by grade; on average, students

around the 4th, 5th and 6th grades began to show declines in creative ability; the researchers

attributed this to the pressure of “conformity” (Sayed & Mohamed, 2013).

On the other hand, the study that was conducted in China at the same time, claims

that “male superiority exists” (He et al., 2013). Stated by He et al. (2013), males showed

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a greater “variance” in the “variability” of creativity than did females; the female subjects

averaged around the “central region” and lower scales on the statistical tests. The same

(TCT-DP) tests were used in the Chinese study as were in the Egyptian study; therefore,

variation between the two country’s results in the gender equality of creative processing

must be due to the cultural environment (He et al., 2013). The score may vary from

region to region but overall the test results well represent both China and Egypt. It is

uncertain based on the information provided from the two studies, if the gender equality

of divergent thinking of the world is more heavily weighed on the male or female side.

Geographical and cultural norms seem to play a part in gender superiority, however, that

is just speculation until more studies are conducted in order to finally find an answer.

Self-Image and Creative Processing

Zabelina & Robinson (2010), mention the following:

“Being open to and moved by one’s own suffering, experiencing feelings of

caring and kindness toward oneself, taking an understanding, nonjudgmental attitude

toward one’s inadequacies and failures, and recognizing that one’s experience is part of

the common human experience”.

People who judge themselves severely and look down upon themselves with a

negative self-image are less likely to express divergent processing, opposed to a person

who is more “self-compassionate” ( Zabelina & Robinson, 2010). A study was preformed

where 86 college students who were prone to heightened self-criticism were separated

into two groups (Zabelina & Robinson, 2010). One group was given a “control

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condition” and the other with a “self-compassion condition”; then both groups were then

given versions of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking or (TTCT) (Zabelina &

Robinson, 2010). As shown by Zabelina & Robinson (2010), subjects who were part of

the “control condition” and who had “low self-judgment” scored high in “creative

originality”; and as expected, subjects in the “control condition” who had “high self-

judgment” scored low in “creative originality”. In the “self-compassion condition” group,

the subjects with a “low self-judgment” actually scored lower than the “control

condition” group, and the subjects with “high self-judgment” scored higher in “creative

originality” than did the “control condition” group (Zabelina & Robinson, 2010).

Zabelina & Robinson (2010), continue to explain how sex and moods also may

play rolls in one’s creative originality based upon weather or not the subject had a low or

high self-judgment. It is mentioned that students who were “depressed” were prone to

being more self-critical and having a high self-judgment (Zabelina & Robinson, 2010).

As “regression” tests were conducted on the male and female samples, it was concluded

that there was no significant correlation between sex and “creative originality” and that

the results given were “equally characteristic of both men and women” (Zabelina &

Robinson, 2010, p. 291).

It is concluded that the “induction” of “self-compassionate mindsets” is more

beneficial for subjects with high self-judgment and who are more critically hard on

themselves because they close off their creative originality abilities by limiting their

mental scope; they “self-impose restrictions to their creative out-put” (Zabelina &

Robinson, 2010, p.292). On the other hand, self-compassion therapy doesn’t work as well

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for individuals who are already less self critical and have a low self-judgment, because

they don’t require the extra assistance (Zabelina& Robinson, 2010). Being originally

creative requires “some degree of risk-taking” to go outside the norm; creative ability

seems to rely on the individuals willingness or ability to “ignore” the self-censorship

society and cultural environments place on the mind and create new “original” ideas

through divergent thinking (Zabelina & Robinson, 2010).

Conclusion

In conclusion, creative thinking is a lot more than just thinking “outside the box”.

After seeing how anatomy, other thought process, moods, music, gender, and self-

concept along with geographical location and cultural environment effect how humans

think, there is a much greater perspective to be had on how the human mind operates and

functions against societal norms and inner controversies. Further research should be done

on where exactly are creative talents come from and how Oxytocin plays a roll in

contributing to further creative openness and less restrictive analytical boundaries.

Divergent thinking may seem as if it is just a stage of cognition, or just a single element

on top of logical convergent processing, but it is much more than that. Creative thinking

is not only a way of life and survival, but a pathway to success and prosperity.

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References

Callaghan, K. T., Growney, C. M. (2013, Winter). The Impact of Music and

Mood on Creative Thinking. Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 18(4), 164-169.

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.zeus.tarleton.edu:82/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?

sid=7c04105e-de6e-4d0c-8587-4666fe51300e%40sessionmgr4001&vid=34&hid=4208

De Dreu, C., Baas, M., Roskes, M., Sligte, D., Ebstein, R., Chew, S., Tong, T.,

Jiang, Y., Mayseless, N., Shamay-Tsoory, S. (2014, Aug). Oxytonergic circuitry sustains

and enables creative cognition in humans. Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience,

9(8), 1159-1165. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.zeus.tarleton.edu:82/ehost/detail/detail?

vid=18&sid=7c04105e-de6e-4d0c-8587-4666fe51300e

%40sessionmgr4001&hid=4208&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d

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He, W., Wong, W., Li, Y., Xu, H. (2013, Nov). A study of the greater male

variability hypothesis in creative thinking in Mainland China: Male superiority exists.

Personality and Individual Differences, 55(8), 882-886.

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.zeus.tarleton.edu:82/ehost/detail/detail?



%3d#db=a9h&AN=90302401

Sayed, E. M., Mohamed, A. H. H. (2013). Gender Differences in Divergent

Thinking: Use of the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production on an Egyptian

Sample. Creative Research Journal, 25(2), 222-227.


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http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.zeus.tarleton.edu:82/ehost/detail/detail?vid=38&sid=7c04105e-de6e-4d0c-8587-4666fe51300e@sessionmgr4001&hid=4208&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3D%3D#db=a9h&AN=87666223







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Self-Compassion Facilitates Creative Originality Among Self-Judgmental Individuals.

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