Lesson 3: Improving Creativity

If creativity is important why isn’t it emphasized more in research and education?

“Education is great … but it's really my creativity that's taught me that I can be much more than what my education told me I am.” 

— Raghava KK

As important as creativity is – it is a challenging educational investment. Our educational environment is designed around the development of specific, testable, “practical” skills using very limited resources. Education as we know it was originally constructed to meet the needs of industry. Autonomy and nonconformity are problems for teachers who are trying to meet concrete educational goals for a classroom for 40+ students.

Furthermore, creativity is an unpredictable commodity whereas we can easily assess whether or not someone is capable of solving math problems or memorized the cranial nerves. Also, because education is outcome-oriented, it tends to emphasize final products rather than encouraging the often non-linear process of creativity. Finally, our whole system is based on extrinsic motivation: grades and gold stars and so on, whereas creativity depends on intrinsic motivation (Amabile, 1985, Ceci & Kumar, 2016).

Nevertheless, creativity is important to success in many areas of life as well as to personal happiness (Fisher & Spect, 1999). One area of Psychology that emphasizes human happiness and purpose is called Positive Psychology.  Links to an external site.Psychologists in this field have explored the relationship between creativity and happiness, positive emotion and life meaning. Some finding have signified that engaging in creative activities (what would be considered little-c activities – not trying to revolutionize a field!) can bring the following benefits:

  • Stress relief
  • Promote positive mood
  • Help you make mental connections
  • Promote self-efficacy
  • … among many other benefits (see Lesson 5). It just feels good to create.

Whether it is making a meal, knitting a sweater for your cat, solving a puzzle, putting a great outfit together, or telling an entertaining story to your kid, creative engagement is essential to a healthy life. Most people are now familiar with Ted Talks. One of the most popular topics is creativity and the most popular TED talk Links to an external site. of all time concerns creativity. 

How can we improve creativity?

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on”

--Albert Einstein

Here are some research-proven ways of enhancing creativity:

  • These are just 2 elements of creating a Flow experience. One of the pioneers of Positive Psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihaly Links to an external site.i, has described a flow experience —“the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it” (Kindle Locations 221-223)
    • Don’t work to obtain a goal. Many studies have found a link between intrinsic motivation and creativity (Amabile, 1985, Ceci & Kumar, 2016). Dan Pink Links to an external site. has is an author who has discussed this in his books.  
      • http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en 

      The study of creativity is still in its infancy and as such there are more questions than answers. I believe that there is one clear thing: creativity adds meaning to life at both the personal and collective levels. So, it is worth pursuing in both terms of research and personal exploration.

       

      TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE: Don't forget to take the Quiz and test your knowledge on the the Matching quiz. 

      CREATIVITY IS IMPORTANT!

      Indeed it is. But it is also true that the most imminent creators are often associated with madness. Is this association an established truth or is it just and urban legend? On the flip side, the process of creativity is associated with healing and growth. The next 2 chapters will discuss the connection of creativity to madness and healing.  

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