How do you know how creative you are? Researchers of the nature of creativity and creativity processes have developed many diagnostic techniques that can be used to find out whether you are a creative person and to what extent. Let's look at how you can test how creative you are.
And in order not to be limited only to testing, but also to learn ways to upgrade your creative skills, learn to think outside the box and easily solve difficult problems, come to our online program “TRIZ in Practice”.
Scientific approaches to the problem of diagnosing creative abilities
What is included in the concept of “creativity” and how to evaluate it? Abilities are the unique characteristics of a person that allow her to master different types of activities and improve in them. Creative abilities presuppose a positive transformation of the surrounding world by creating original, unique, new spiritual or material values. When starting to assess the level of development of creative abilities, you need to consider them through the prism of the development of individual elements. This is due to the fact that creative thinking alone does not fully reflect all the components of creative activity. It is important to evaluate perception, imagination, fantasy, originality, and much more.
All studies of creativity and creativity can be divided into two groups:
- Creativity is a universal cognitive creative ability based on the interaction of intelligence, cognitive abilities and real achievements. Representatives of this direction: J. Guilford, S. Mednik, A. Ponomarev, S. Taylor, E. Torrence. Their scientific achievements consist of studying the influence of intelligence on the ability to generate new ideas.
- A creative personality is a complex of unique individual creative characteristics. Research in this area is devoted to the search for a description of the characteristics of the “portrait of a creative personality,” motives and sociocultural factors of creativity (F. Barron, D. Bogoyavlenskaya, A. Maslow).
Creativity.
When we think about something, solve a problem, look for an answer, then when we achieve success in thinking, we have an insight , a flash in which the answer is clearly visible, a solution, so original ideas are created, during this manifestation of creative abilities there is a surge of activity in the right anterior temporal lobe, this area of the brain is responsible for bursts of creativity. At the moment of insight, which can be called the “eureka moment”, within 1/3 of a second the temporal lobe is activated.
There are three cognitive patterns of creative thinking:
Verbal is, first of all, language, solving riddles, etc.
Music and mathematics , but you need at least basic knowledge in these areas.
Imaginative thinking , which is the main source of new ideas.
Let's consider what processes occur in the brain during creative activity.
- Increased activity in the right hemisphere, especially in the temporal lobe.
- Increased activity in the frontal lobe of the brain
- Data transfer speed changes in a relaxed state, especially during dreaming.
This last factor deserves special attention. Many scientists made their discoveries in their sleep, for example Mendeleev. During sleep, the information received during the day is consolidated, the method of transmission changes, at the moment of relaxation, creative thinking is activated, of course, not everyone can see a solution to a problem in a dream, those who concentrate very hard on a problem can actually find the answer in a dream .
While awake, you can also give your brain relaxation, this is possible thanks to abstract thoughts, you can, as they say, have your head in the clouds, daydream, this also transfers the brain to a different mode of operation and promotes the growth of creative capabilities. It is useful to be distracted from the world around you for 20 minutes and let your brain float freely; this allows the brain to rest and come to insight.
Criteria for assessing creativity
Joy Guilford was one of the first to interpret the essence of creative thinking as a synthesis of originality, novelty and flexibility of proposed ideas. Subsequent theories of creative thinking were essentially copies and variations of Guilford's thinking. Therefore, the first diagnostic methods for determining the level of development of creative abilities were based on the following criteria:
- how quickly and easily creativity will manifest itself when performing a specific task (the number of ideas, answers or options for solving a problem in a certain period of time is important here)
- How flexible are the answers (number of switches from one type of object to another)
- how original the answers are (frequency of a certain answer in a homogeneous group).
An easy way to test your creativity was the Alice Paul Torrance test. It consists of three parts, each of which characterizes verbal, visual and sound creativity. The test is carried out over a specified period of time, and its results are assessed in accordance with the following criteria:
- Fluency (speed) – the number of answers in a certain period of time.
- Flexibility (variety of responses).
- Originality (rarity of ideas).
- Development of ideas (detailing).
The results of various scientific studies have made it possible to identify general indicators that can be relied on when assessing the level of development of creative abilities:
- attentiveness (the ability to see and identify a creative problem)
- versatility (the ability to notice more aspects and connections in a given task)
- flexibility (refusal of the standard point of view)
- originality (refusal to template)
- variability (the ability to regroup ideas and connections)
- specificity (the ability to deeply analyze the task at hand)
- abstractness (ability to synthesize)
- harmony (generation of ideas based on organizational harmony and ideological integrity)
- independence (not making judgments and assessments under the influence of others’ opinions)
- openness of perception (receptivity to the new, unusual).
Creativity and Intelligence
An interesting fact is that the most creative people are those with average intelligence. Among people whose IQ is below 100, creativity and creativity are not observed.
Those whose intelligence is over 130 are hampered by logic and rationalism. They do not allow creativity to “grow”.
Thus, we can conclude that high intellectual abilities do not guarantee high creative success.
Along with the IQ coefficient, a creativity coefficient was created - Cr. There are special tests to determine your level of creativity.
Principles of the methodology for diagnosing creative abilities
When selecting or developing a methodology for diagnosing creative abilities, you need to pay attention to ensure that the methodology is reliable, and therefore covers different characteristics of creativity. It is important to pay attention to the age of the subjects, as well as the diagnostic environment (whether you set a time limit or not, how you communicate the testing conditions, etc.).
"Recommendation. Today, the diagnostic methods of Torrance, Guilford and Johnson are mainly used to assess the level of creativity. Try to find out your level of creativity with their help.”
Basic principles for diagnosing creative abilities:
- Tests measuring intelligence are not suitable for diagnosing creativity, since their goal is the speed and accuracy of finding the only correct solution from several proposed ones.
- When exploring creativity, you need to study its figurative (non-verbal, artistic) and verbal (verbal) sides.
- Diagnostic techniques should measure indicators of patterned and stereotypical thinking (which is reflected in the use of words and images in a certain associative connection). An indicator of creativity is distance from stereotypes (established connections).
- When diagnosing, you need to measure productivity (the ratio of the number of answers to the number of tasks).
- Originality is defined as the reciprocal of the frequency of occurrence of nonstandard responses.
- Uniqueness is measured in terms of the number of previously unseen ideas relative to the total number of responses.
"On a note. Low diagnostic results do not at all mean that a person is incapable of creativity: one must take into account that creative manifestations can be spontaneous and not subject to regulation.”
All methods for diagnosing creative abilities are not an absolute indicator of the formation of creativity. The disadvantage of test methods is that they evaluate creative manifestations as a whole, and not as applied to any specific situation. Another drawback is the ambiguity of interpretation. These two factors reduce the level of objectivity of diagnosis. Despite the shortcomings, test methods for studying the level of development of creative abilities are used by many scientists, psychologists, teachers, and creativity trainers: by combining several test options, it is possible to study creativity from various angles.
Try to determine your overall level of creativity using a simple questionnaire . With its help, you will at least find out how committed you are to creative, constructive activity.
Manifestation
Psychology defines ability as the sum of psychological and physical qualities that influence the choice of human activity.
There are general abilities that are required in most professions. These include attentiveness, intelligence, speech.
But there are other abilities that make a person stand out from the crowd. This is a keen ear for a musician, a creative vision and a sense of color for an artist.
Questionnaire for determining the level of creativity
Instructions. You are presented with a series of statements. Mark your agreement or disagreement next to the statement number with the “+” or “-” signs, respectively.
- I don't like work in which everything is clearly defined.
- I like abstract painting, I understand it
- I don't like doing regulated work.
- I don't like going to museums: they are all the same.
- I love to indulge in fantasies.
- Hobbies enrich a person's life.
- I can watch the same performance many times: each time there is a different performance by the actors, a new interpretation.
- I think it is better to be a cutter than a tailor.
- I value the process of work more than its final result.
- I even approach ordinary tasks creatively.
- I often doubt what is quite obvious to others.
- Abstract painting gives food for thought.
- I would not like to subordinate my life to any particular system.
- I like the work of designers.
- I don't like walking the same road.
Analysis. Calculate the amount of “+”: 0-5 points corresponds to a low level of creativity, 6-9 points - average, 10-15 points - high
What is your result?
Author: Oksana Sedashova
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- Sternberg's Theory of Investment
- Characteristics and Factors of Creativity
- How to pump up your creative muscles. 50 Shades of Creativity: Infographic
- Guilford's model of the structure of intelligence
- A selection of useful materials about creativity and creativity development
- The concept of reducing creativity to intelligence
- Rules for developing creativity from Julia Cameron
- Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory
- 7 Real Ways to Improve Creativity
- Social technologies
Key words:1TRIZ
Creativity for adults
You can develop your creativity in different ways. Let's look at the example of drawing, what is important in self-realization.
Three things are important for an adult to realize their creative potential:
- Mindfulness. Are you sure you want to improve your drawing level?
- Practice. You enjoy drawing and regularly complete creative tasks.
- Creativity. You try different techniques, don't stop at one idea, you are in continuous search.
