Can You Boost Your Creativity?

Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 18, 2014 at 8:58am

Minnie, it is good to hear from old pals again.

Define creativity? Which one- scientific or artistic? 

Okay, like an artist I would say - for me creativity is something when I think differently from others about a thing and put it in an art from to show things from a different perspective.

As a scientist I would say, if I use different facts and rules of nature to generate something useful by  connecting different things that is creativity.

In case of science, you need knowledge too apart from imagination to get creative whereas in art you don't need knowledge. For example to imagine moon as a silver ball in the sky and paint as one ( fiction and metaphor), you don't need knowledge that it is a natural satellite of Earth with gravity of its own. To take this gravity to save time and fuel during space travel ( creativity based on facts) , you need knowledge of moon in detail. That is the difference between artistic creativity and scientific creativity.

I think some studies are so abstract, it is difficult to follow them and get benefited from them really.

Your reply says a lot, Minnie. When taught about thinking, different people can interpret it in different ways, depending on their ability to grasp it properly- cultural, religious, ritual, emotional  conditioning  of minds do play a large part in this - and do it differently. How many people can do detached thinking - which science asks us to do? Even some  people of science cannot do this!

The same is true about creativity. Take people from different parts of the world and try to teach artistic 'creativity', you will get different results.

And your success in science largely depends on  critical thinking and creativity - which can be considered as relatively universal in nature than artistic creativity because you have to take into account natural laws and facts which are universal in nature!

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Recently I read an interesting study. It says:

Multicultural individuals can be more creative

In one study, Professor Leung exposed European American undergraduates to one of these three conditions using a 45-minute multi-media slideshow: (i) single culture through presenting pictures of items that depicted either the American culture (e.g., the Statue of Liberty, a hamburger) or the Chinese culture (e.g., the Great Wall, hotpot dinner) on each slide; (ii) dual cultures through presenting pictures of items that depicted American culture and pictures that depicted Chinese culture on each slide; and (iii) fusion of cultures (e.g., a picture of Starbucks’ mid-Autumn festival mooncakes).

She found that participants demonstrated better creative performance when exposed to dual cultures and fusion of cultures, compared to those who were exposed to a single culture. Their creative performance persisted five to seven days after initial exposure. Because they are more open and receptive to new experiences.
Enhancing Creativity through Multiculturalism
https://research.smu.edu.sg/news/smuresearch/2014/11/11/enhancing-c...

Comment by Minnie W Shuler on November 16, 2014 at 7:26am

Interesting. Deserves some real pondering. I was asked one time if thinking was a basic skill that could be taught. Truth is I never could answer that to my satisfaction. Can creativity be taught? Not sure creativity seems to come from nowhere. What triggers it? I suppose a lot of things. Is it reaction to intellectual exploration...I think both. I don't think reaction is teachable..methods of exploring intellectually can absolutely be taught. Define creativity......