Creativity is a Decision
Keys to Developing Creativity in
Children and Adults
Robert J. Sternberg
 Provost and Senior Vice President
 Oklahoma State University
 Collaborators
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Todd Lubart
Elena Grigorenko
Linda Jarvin
Linda O’Hara
Wendy Williams
James Kaufman
Jean Pretz
Janet Davidson
Other Members of the PACE Center at Yale & Tufts
Main Message
 Creativity is a decision!
Goals
 To show that creativity is, in large part,
a decision.
 To review the most recent research
findings regarding creativity and its
development.
 To show how to apply these ideas in
educational settings.
What is Creativity?
 Production of an idea or product that is
– Novel
– Good or useful in some way
– Task appropriate
Does Creativity Really Matter?
The Costs of Lack of Creativity
 “The Big Three” vs Honda
 CDC (Control Data Corporation) vs
IBM
 Eastern Airlines vs United Airlines
When People Lack Creative
Vision…
 "This 'telephone' has too many
shortcomings to be seriously considered
as a means of communication. The
device is inherently of no value to us." --
Western Union internal memo, 1876.
 While theoretically and technically
television may be feasible, commercially
and financially it is an impossibility." --
Lee DeForest, inventor.
When People Lack Creative
Vision…
 We don't like their sound, and guitar
music is on the way out." -- Decca
Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles,
1962.
 "Stocks have reached what looks like a
permanently high plateau." -- Irving
Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale
University, 1929.
Main Ideas
Main Ideas
 Creativity is in large part a
decision—to “defy the crowd.”
Main Ideas
 Creative people seek to defy the
crowd; by disposition, they create their
own opposition
 Many reactions to famous ideas, when
these ideas were first disseminated,
were very negative
 Creativity can be developed
Examples of Rotten Reviews
 This Side of Paradise (Fitzgerald,
1920): “It seems to us in short that this
story does not culminate in anything.”
 The Diary of Anne Frank (Frank, 1952):
“The girl doesn’t…have a special
perception or feeling which would lift
that book beyond the curiosity level.”
Examples of Rotten Reviews
 Catch 22 (Heller, 1961): “I haven’t the
foggiest idea about what the man is
trying to say…This constitutes a
continual and unmitigated bore.”
 Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Lawrence,
1928): “For your own good do not
publish this book.”
Examples of Rotten Reviews
 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
(LeCarre, 1963): “You’re welcome to
LeCarre—he hasn’t got any future.”
 Atlas Shrugged (Rand, 1957): “I regret
to say that the book is unsaleable and
unpublishable.”
Examples of Rotten Reviews
 The art of Edvard Munch, Roy
Lichtenstein
 The science of Copernicus, Galileo
 Athletics: Ski-jumping
Main Ideas
 Creative people “buy low” and “sell
high” in the world of ideas.
 Creative people are “value”
investors in the realm of ideas; very
few people want to buy low and sell
high, whether novices or experts
– Forbes study
Why it is Hard to be Creative
 External pressure
 Internal pressure
Main Ideas
 There are 13 key or micro-
decisions behind the macrodecision to be creative.
Key Decisions
 To redefine problems
– Example: Automobile executive
Key Decisions
 To analyze creative solutions to
problems
–
Example: The hapless student
Key Decisions
 To sell solutions
• Example: A talk at a testing company
Key Decisions
 To realize that intelligence and
knowledge both help and hurt
creativity
–
Example: A trip to the zoo
Key Decisions
 To take sensible risks
–
Example: Showdown at tenure time
Key Decisions
 To overcome obstacles
–
Example: The ill-fated IQ test
Key Decisions
 To find what one loves to do
– Example: Playing the trumpet
Key Decisions
 To continue to grow
–
Example: Talk when I was in graduate
school
Key Decisions
 To believe in oneself
–
Example: Dean Koontz
Key Decisions
 To tolerate ambiguity
–
Example: Discovery of the structure of
DNA
Key Decisions
 To take oneself and one’s ideas
somewhat lightly and to have a
sense of humor
–
Example: The ill-fated colloquium in Pittsburgh
Key Decisions
 To seek an environment that
encourages and rewards creativity
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Example: Transforming admissions
Key Decisions
 To recognize that creativity is a
way of life
– Example: Pablo Picasso
Teaching for Creative
Thinking
create
design
invent
imagine
suppose
Teaching for Creative Thinking
 CREATE (a poem, sculpture, a new
game)
 DESIGN (a new system of
government for the classroom, a
scientific investigation, a
comfortable home
 INVENT (a new means of
transportation, a new life form)
Teaching for Creative Thinking
 IMAGINE (what life would be like in
another country, what it would be like to
be president of a country, how bees
communicate with each other)
 SUPPOSE (worldwide temperatures
keep increasing, people were paid to
inform on neighbors who do not support
the political party in power)
Assessing for Creative Thinking
Draw the Earth from an insect’s
point of view
How could you tell if there space
aliens hiding among us ?
Less Creative Response
 Test their knowledge of countries on the
Earth to see if they know what the
names of the major countries are
More Creative Response
 Test their knowledge of television
shows and movies that Earth children
would have been likely to see when
they were children
What would the world be like today if
some major event in history had come out
differently?
Creative Essay: “What if…”
 If the Trojans had heeded Laocoon’s advice and thrown
Odysseus’ wooden horse into the sea, they would have
defeated the Greeks at Troy. Aeneas would then never
have had reason to flee the city, and he would never
have ventured to Italy to found Rome. Without Rome,
neither the Roman Republic nor a Roman Empire would
have existed. Concrete, the arch, plumbing, and the
sauna might never have been invented. The modern
implications of Rome never having existed are indeed
drastic. Lacking even concrete floors, people would
resort to sleeping in the mud, and, without plumbing or
saunas, they would be perpetually filthy and, generally,
quite chilly. France could not have built the base of the
Eiffel Tower without arches, so tourists would be unable
to purchase miniature collectible Towers in Parisian
convenience stores.
Good but Less Creative Essay:
“What if…”
 What if the ratification of the nineteenth amendment did
not pass and women were never given the right to vote?
What would life for women, like me, be like in the United
States? For one thing, I probably would not be writing
this essay. If women were not given their right to vote, I
probably would stop going to school after this year and
it would be unlikely that I would receive a college
education. Without suffrage, my career options would
be limited, if a career were a possibility at all. My
accepted practices would be limited to staying home
and taking care of the family. Rather than being equals,
women would be subservient to men. I might not drive, I
might not dress in the way in which I choose to, and I
might not be able to live my life the way that I can in the
twenty-first century.
The Rainbow Project
 Measuring creativity (and practical
thinking) via paper-and-pencil or
computer can
– Double prediction of first-year
undergraduate grades
– Reduce ethnic group differences by half
The Kaleidoscope Project
 Measuring creativity on a university
application can
– Eliminate ethnic-group differences
– Improve prediction of first-year grades
– Select students who are more likely to be
involved in meaningful extracurricular and
leadership activities
The Panorama Project
 A new project at Oklahoma State
University to measure, in admissions,
creative as well as other kinds of
thinking (analytical, practical, wise)
The Aurora Project
 Measuring creativity for 8-12 year olds
across domains can enhance our
identification of giftedness
Suggested References
 Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L.
(2007). Teaching for successful
intelligence (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin Press.
 Sternberg, R. J., Kaufman, J. C., &
Grigorenko, E. L. (2008). Applied
intelligence. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Suggested References
 Sternberg, R. J., Jarvin, L., &
Grigorenko, E. L. (2009). Teaching for
wisdom, intelligence, creativity, and
success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Summing it Up
“The End of Eternity”
Conclusions
 Creativity is a decision
 Anyone can make this decision
anytime
 So: Decide for creativity!