Creative Process
Chao-Ming Cheng
Department of Psychology National Taiwan University
Mihaly Csikszentmialyi (1999). Creativity: Flow and
the psychology of discovery and invention.
Chapter 1: Setting the stage
Chapter 2: Where is creativity?
Chapter 3: The creative personality
Chapter 4: The work of creativity
Chapter 5: The flow of creativity
Chapter 6: Creative surroundings
Csikszentmihalyi (1996) and his associates conducted
interviews with 91 exceptionally creative individuals between
1991 and 1995 for three criteria:
1. Have made a difference to a major domain of culture
2. Still actively involved in that domain
3. Had to be at least 60 years old
Figure 1.1 The
increasing
pace of
change: two
examples
(reproduced
with the kind
permission of
Dr. Edgar
Mitchell)
從人類的歷史來看，
有關文化（包括文學與與藝術）的發展、文明的設計與科
學的推動無一不涉及人類創造力的運作，
而未來更將是一個「腦力」與「科技」競爭的時代。
因此，創造力的研究極具重要性與前瞻性以此趨勢來看，
它必將是本世紀最重要的研究領域之一。
Discipline
Age
25
30
35
Contributions
40
45
50
55
60
65
Death
70
Mathematics
+
Astronomy
+
Physics
+
Chemistry
+
Biology
+
Medicine
+
Technology
+
Earth
Science
Others
Mean location of the three career landmarks for 2026 contributors to nine
scientific disciplines. From Simonton (1994).
+
+
75
Creativity
What it looks like
How it works
How it develops
Who is creative
Where does it come from
創造力的解析
1、創造力的定義
2、創造的性格特徵
3、創造的認知特徵
3、創造力與情境因素
4、創造性思考的特徵
5、三個矛盾
6、創造性思考的原則
7、學校教育與創造力的培養
一、創造力的定義
1. 新奇性 (Novelty)：
產生新奇事物、理念或成果的能力。因此，其思考方式
不是一般的、傳統的或習慣的思考方式
2. 適切性(Appropriateness)：
思考的結果是適切的、有意義的、有價值的或對社會有
益的
Where is Creativity?
There is no way to know whether a thought is
new except with reference to some standards (domain).
There is no way to tell whether it is valuable until
it passes social evaluation (field).
Therefore, creativity does not happen inside
people’s heads, but in the interaction between a
person’s thoughts and a sociocultural context.
Creativity can be observed only in the interrelations of a
system made up of three main parts.
Domain: a set of symbolic rules and procedures. E.g.,
mathematics, algebra, number theory. Domain are in
turn nested in what we usually call culture, or the
symbolic knowledge shared by a particular society or
by humanity as a whole.
2. 依賴豐富的過去知識
– Gardner（1993）:
• Albert Einstein: logic-spatial ability
• Sigmund Freud: language and human nature
– Weisberg（1995）
» Pablo Picasso: Guernica (Basue)
» Watson與Crick（1952）: DNA雙股螺旋
源於Linus Pauling角質蛋白的螺旋結構
» Tomas Edison: 電燈的發明源於瓦斯燈與電弧燈
Field: All the individuals who act as gatekeepers to the
domain. It is their job to decide whether a new idea of
product should be included in the domain. E.g., field
of visual art: art teachers, curators of museums,
collectors of art, critics, and administrators of
foundations and govern agencies that deal with
culture.
Person: Someone whose thoughts or action change a
domain or establish a new domain (e.g., Galileo or
Freud). However, a domain cannot be changed
without the explicit or implicit consent of a field
responsible for it.
Social
System
Where is the
creativity?
Culture
Retains
FIELD (Social
Selected
Organization of Domain
Variants
Produces Variation and
Change
DOMAIN
(symbol system)
Transmits Structured
Information and Action
PERSON
Cognitive flexibility,
Csikszentmihalyi
(1999)
Motivation,
Genetic Pool and
Personal Experiences
An unusual and
inspiring life
experience
2. Vincent van Gogh began painting in 1880. His
adaptations of the impressionist style were considered
strange and eccentric, and his personal life was
complicated by illness and poverty. He sold only one
painting before his death in 1890 (Fichner-Rathus, 1986).
Because van Gogh’s works were not accepted by the
public of his time, were they inappropriate? If they had
never been accepted, would they have been creative?
However, works by van Gogh that were rejected by 19th-
century audiences are considered master-pieces today.
Cultures differ in their conceptions of the nature of creativity
itself.
Western cultures: product-oriented, originality-based
Eastern cultures: a process of individual growth or selfactualization. In Hinduism, creativity is seen as spiritual
expression rather than innovation or problem solving.
Time and history are seen as cyclical. To make traditional
truths come alive by finding a new interpretation-rather than
seeking to break with tradition—is the focus of creative activity.
If Eastern creation can be characterized as a circular
movement in the sense of successful reconfiguration of
an initial totality, then the Western view of both creation
and human creativity seems to involve a linear movement
toward a new point.
Creativity and Culture Values
It is interesting to think about which areas in our culture
are most tied to our cultural values (in which creativity is not
encouraged) and how that may affect our openness to
creativity.
e.g., In Bali, the more serious the art form, like sculptures of
gods or ritual dances, the less the permitted change, and
the less serious the art form, like carvings of kitchen gods,
the theatrical performances of clowns, the playing of
instruments or the weaving of container, the greater the
originality can be.
Creative Personality
1.Sternberg與Lubart（1992）
– 勤奮工作
– 願意冒險
– 忍受模糊、複雜與不對稱
2.人格特質：
– 獨立性、不從眾、言行與思想不因襲傳統、具叛逆性、具
憂鬱性格、善於變通、感到安寧與幸福、自我接受但缺乏
自我控制、不太關心在別人面前是否有好印象
Creative Personality (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996) :
Finding: Experiencing the existence of contrast or
paradox, e.g., nurturing and precarious,
supportive and marginal. This type of bimodal
early experience, providing both support and
challenge, appeared tied to later creativity.
Complexity: Tendencies of thought and action that in
most people are segregated.
Ten Dimensions of Complexity (Yin-Yang and paradoxical
personality)
1. A great deal of physical energy, but quiet and at rest.
2. Smart, but naïve at the same time.
3. Playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and
irresponsibility.
4. Alternating between imagination and fantasy, at one end,
and a rooted sense of reality at the other.
5. Extroversion and introversion
6. Humble and proud at the same time
7. Psychological androgyny: masculinity/femininity;
aggressive and nurturant, sensitive and rigid, dominant
and submissive, regardless of gender
8. Rebellious/traditional-conventional
9. Both passionate and objective.
10. Suffering and pain yet also a great deal of enjoyment.
Personality Characteristics
Willingness to Take Intellectual Risks (to think thoughts others are
unwilling to think or express ideas that are of the beaten path)
(MacKinnon, 1978). Creative risk taking opens an individual to
criticism, ridicule, or feeling of foolishness. E.g., Greg Louganis’s
1990 Olympic diving.
Perseverance, Drive, and Commitment to Task. Many risks
involve failure or less-than-complete success that requires
continuing, persistent efforts. Willingness to continue in the face of
obstacles, to maintain motivation without immediate reward, and
to say focused on a task for long periods of time.
Curiosity: want to know why, how, and what
Openness to Experience
Tolerance for Ambiguity: Creative solutions rarely
spring from full blown. More often they emerge over
a period of time that includes moments of insight
and time of struggle, persistence, and confusion.
Broad Interests
Value Originality
Intuition and Deep Emotions:
MacKinnon (1978)
Intuitive or implicit perception 25%
General population
90%
Creative writers
92%
Mathematicians
93%
Research scientists
100%
Architects
The use of intuition, combined with openness to
emotional experience, can lead to very intense
emotions of feelings being real
Being Internally Occupied or Withdrawn: Quiet loners,
creative activities demands a great deal of alone
time.
The IPAR Studies (The Institute of Personality Assessment
and Research, University of California, 1950-1970 Under
the Direction of Donald MacKinnon)
Creative People
Intelligent: willing to take a risk, to try, and see what might
work, a high level of energy, a kind of cognitive
flexibility.
Original: associated with fluency of thought (many ideas).
Independent: open to experience, both of the inner self
and the outer world. Curious, receptive, and
willing to earn.
Intuitive: looking for hidden meanings potential,
metaphors, implications, or alternate uses in the
things.
A strong sense of destiny
Gardner (1993, 1994) noted three additional themes
First, the matrix of support that surrounded the creators at
the time of their creative activities
Second, Faustian bargain: Made enormous sacrifices to
their work, sometimes sacrifices interpersonal
relationships
Third, 10-year rule: it took 10 years to produce creative
products
Cognitive Characteristics
Metaphorical Thinking: The ability to find parallels
between unlike ideas.
Flexibility and Skill in Decision Making: The ability to look
at a situation from many points of view or to
generate many categories of responses.
Independence in Judgment: Do not feel compelled to
seek approval from others or follow the latest
trends.
Coping Well with Novelty
Logical Thinking Skills: Different from conventional
thinking.
Visualization
Escaping Entrenchment: Escape entrenched thinking,
impatient with routines, repetitious
assignments, or practice activities.
Finding Order in Chaos
The Work of Creativity: The five-stage view
1. The emergence of problems: Three sources
a) Personal experiences
We are a perverse race, only suffering interests us.
The experiences of scientists are relevant to the
problems they deal with.
b) Requirements of the domain
Within or cross domains
c) Social pressures
The third source of ideas and problems is the field one
works in.
2. Presented and Discovered Problems
Problem finding
3. 問題發現（problem finding）甚於問題解決（problem
solving）
– Einstein: new problem, new possibility, new angle
of regard
– E.g., replacing a flatted tire
Getzels與Csikszentmihalyi（1972,1976）
– Painting of articles selected from 27 things
The Wallas (1926) Four Steps for Creativity
Preparation
Incubation
Illumination
Verification
The Torrance and the Parnes-Osborn Model
Presented Problem
Information from domain
PREPARATION
Problem defined:
Clear obstacle or
INCUBATION
Parallel
processing
INSIGHT
Solution to
problem
envisioned
EVALUATION
Solution
attempted or
applied
ELABORATION AND
EVALUATION
specific goal
Interaction with field
Discovered Problem
Information from different
domains
PREPARATION
INCUBATION
INSIGHT
Problematic
situation: vague,
unease, diffuse
goal
Synthesis of
different inputs
processed in
parallel
Formulation of
problem
envisioned
Interaction with different fields
Csikszentmihalyi & Sawyer (1993)
Consequences of
problem derived and
tested, solutions and
application attempted
3. The Mysterious Time
The functions of idle time (incubation)
The field, the domain, and the unconscious
Even in the unconscious the symbol system and the
social environment play important roles.
4. The “Aha” Experience
5. The 99 Percent Perspiration
Torrance (1988)
Sensing problems or difficulties
Making guesses or hypotheses about the problems
Evaluating the hypotheses, and possibly revising them
Communicating the results
The Parnes-Osborn Model, revised by Treffinger, Isaksen,
& Dorval ( 2000)
The problem of the lack of
available parking in the
campus
GENERATING IDEAS
(2)
Generating Ideas
(1)
UNDERSTANDING
THE CHALLENGE
Constructing0pportunities
Constructing
Opportunities
Exploring Data
Framing Problems
Problems
Framing
Using the knowledge to select
the CPS components or stages
Designing
Process
Appraising
Tasks (openended)
PLANNING
(3)
PREPARING
FOR ACTION
Developing Solutions
Building Acceptance
YOUR PPROACH
Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Components
(Treffinger, Isaksen, & Dorval, 2000)
A. UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGING (involves
investigating a broad goal, opportunity, or challenge)
1. Constructing Opportunities:
“I want to improve the parking situation on
campus”
2. Exploring Data:
Gathering data abut the number of spaces
available, the number of classes held at various
times of day.
3. Framing Problems:
Build more parking lots
Create more parking spaces on campus?
Limit the number of students parking on campus?
Limit the number of vehicles on campus?
Match the number of vehicles to the number of
spaces available?
Provide students who live outside walking distance easy
access to campus?
B. GENERATING IDEAS
Ideas are generated for the selected problem statement(s)
using a variety of tools for producing divergent ideas
C. PREPARING FOR ACTION
Exploring ways to make the promising options into
workable solutions—translating ideas into action.
1. Developing Solutions:
Applies deliberate strategies and tools to analyze, refine,
and select among ideas. Developing solutions will entail
using criteria to systematically evaluate each of the proposed
ideas.
How much would it cost? Is it legal? Is the technology
available? Would it be convenient for students? Would it be
convenient for staff? Would it be acceptable to the university
administration?
Chapter 5 The Flow of Creativity
The concept of flow: 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 (Csikszentmihalyi ,
1990).
Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be
prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each
person.
Activities were not random but goal-directed activities
that demanded some type of energy and skill.
Optimal match between challenge and skill.
Discovery is a pleasure experience, stimulating brain’s
pleasure center.
Chapter 6. Creative Surroundings
Great Centers of Learning and Commerce (for insight)
One must be in a position to access the domain in which
one plans to work. Information is clumped in different
geographical nodes.
Certain environments have a greater density of interaction
and provide more excitement and a greater effervescence of
ideas.
Access to the field is not evenly distributed in space. Often
sudden availability of money at a certain place attracts artists or
scientists to an other barren environment.
Inspiring Environments (a delightful setting)
Creating Creative Environments (places and institutions)
(for preparation and evaluation)
Preparation and evaluation benefit from familiar,
comfortable settings and social interaction (sharing
thoughts, experimenting with ideas, and asking questions
of peers are important parts of individual creativity).
Patterning Activities reflecting your needs and your tastes.
四、創造力與情境因素
Isen, Dauban與Nowicki（1987）
Effects of comedic movies on candle-problem solving and
RAT
Mozart’s experiences
Edison
Examined biographies of eminent 19th-century
creators across domains
Highly creative individuals are more likely to be
firstborn and to have lost one or both parents early in life.
They are reared in stimulating, diversified, and
enriching home environments, exposed to a wide range of
ideas.
They liked school, enjoyed books, had many
hobbies, and learned outside of school.
Whereas some report warm, supportive peer groups,
others report some marginality in social situations
Come from homes with clear expectations but few
rules, that their parents have well-established interests, and
that they have more childhood traumas than less-creative
students.
Association and Creativity: Mednick’s Associative
Theory
Intelligence and Creativity: Threshold Theory
Below 120 IQ, Highly correlated
Larger than 120 IQ, weak correlated
Perkins (1981, 1988, 1994)
Self-reports, memory, and honesty of creative
individuals are questionable.
Perkins also examined the effectiveness of physical
evidence of the history of a creative effort (e.g.,
Picasso’s Guernica)
Immediate self-reports are more reliable.
Perkins did not find evidence for incubation; he
viewed the creative process as having made up of
ordinary mental processes used in extraordinary ways.
The key to creativity is not the process but the purpose.
Weisberg (1986, 1988, 1993, 1999)
He questioned the idea of creative leaps or flashes of insight by
citing research in which solutions to problems come, not in a
sudden change of direction, but in gradual increments based on
experience.
Guernica
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
DNA
Creativity doesn’t exists, at least not as a unique process.
Creativity may emerge from the interaction of an
individual’s past experiences and the problem at
hand. Creativity might be compared to the
proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
Creativity can be enhanced in two basic ways: increasing
expertise and increasing commitment and persistence.
A new idea may not seem new at all, but may merely be a
logical extension of existing ideas.
Ward, Smith, and Vaid (1997)
Four general categories of creative cognition:
Conceptual combination: bridging together of diverse ideas in
new ways
Conceptual expansion: Stretching of existing concepts to
accommodate new experiences or challenges, or inventions
based on previous experience.
Metaphors, analogies, and mental models use existing ideas to
understand, interpret, or extend seemingly diverse concepts.
Insight, imagery, and response to recently activated knowledge
The Sternberg and Lubart (1991, 1993) Investment Model
Buy low (pursue ideas that are novel or out of favor) and sell
high (then convince the field of the value of those ideas. Once
the ideas gain favor, they allow others to pursue them while they
go on to pursue other endeavors).
Six types of interacting resources contribute to creative
performance: intellectual processes, knowledge, intellectual style,
personality, motivation, and environmental context (Triarchic
Theory of Intelligence).
The role of knowledge in creative performance is an upsidedown U.
五、創造性思考的特徵
1.高智力特質？
– Sternberg, Conway, Ketson 與Bernstein（1981）
專家把「創造力」看成是「語文智力」的一部分。創造
力與頓悟是智力的重要成分
Guilford
創造力是一種「擴散性思考」
– Getzels與Jackson（1962）
創造力與智力無關
– Barron (1963); Gardner（1993）
IQ < 90
r = .88
90 < IQ < 110
r = .69
110 < IQ < 130
r = －.30
IQ >130
r = －.09
– Sack（1995）
自閉症兒童在視覺藝術上的創造力
Remote Association Test（RAT）（Mednick & Mednick, 1967）
e.g.1
RIVER
NOTE
BLOOD
e.g.2
BOARD
DUCK
DOLLAR
e.g.3
FILE
HEAD
TOE
Mednick與Mednick（1967）
RAT分數預測化學工廠的研究人員、研究生與IBM技術人員的創造力表現
Andrews（1975）與Baron（1988）
RAT不穩定
2. 依賴豐富的過去知識
– Gardner（1993）:
• Albert Einstein: logic-spatial ability
• Sigmund Freud: language and human nature
– Weisberg（1995）
» Pablo Picasso: Guernica (Basue)
» Watson與Crick（1952）: DNA雙股螺旋
源於Linus Pauling角質蛋白的螺旋結構
» Tomas Edison: 電燈的發明源於瓦斯燈與電弧燈
– 類比思考（analogical thinking）（Dunbar,1994）
» 局部類比（local analogy）
» 區域類比（regional analogy）
e.g.1. Weber and Perkins（1992）
心臟導管手術與水電工人的輸通水管原理
一
樣
e.g.2. Archimedes的排水解題
3. 問題發現（problem finding）甚於問題解決（problem
solving）
– Einstein: new problem, new possibility, new angle
of regard
– E.g., replacing a flatted tire
Getzels與Csikszentmihalyi（1972,1976）
– Painting of articles selected from 27 things
4. 不是既存知識的再生（reproduction），而是既存知識的重組
（restructuring）
Weisberg（1995）: Restructure of past
Picasso的畫Les Demoiselles
Calder的雕塑
Pollock的潑色畫風
二元聯想（bissociation）（Koestler,1964）
兩個思想或理念，原來是無關的，最後被連結成為相關，而產生創
造
e.g.1 : 潮汐與月球的運動
e.g.2 : Gutenberg印刷術的發明: seal, wine press
CREATIVE
THINKING AND
WORKING SKILLS
DOMAIN SKILLS
e.g., looking situations
from many points of
view, using metaphors,
problem finding
T. M. Amabile
(1989)
INTRINSIC
Feel motivated by
MOTIVATION the interest,
enjoyment,
challenge, and
satisfaction of the
work itself
• 六、三個矛盾
• 1.矛盾1:
創造性思考的歷程即是特殊的，又是一般的
• 2.矛盾2:
創造性歷程強調既存知識的影響，也在強調抗拒既有
知識的影響
• 3.矛盾3:
竭盡心智與努力苦思一個問題的解決往往妨害創意的
產生，降低注意與動機反而有助於創意的產生
七、創造性思考的原則
1.警覺習慣想法的限制
2.突破習慣的想法
3.重新知覺與理解問題
4.不輕易否決不可行的理念
5.嘗試並列並尋求兩個看似無關的理念
6.在可行的想法中旁出新的想法
7.側翼思考
謝謝收聽
1. In 1905 an unknown clerk in the Swiss patent office
published a paper in which he advocated abandoning the
idea of absolute time. This fundamental postulate of the
theory of relativity (the relationship between time, size, and
mass, which are said to change with increased speed)
suggested that the laws of science should be the same for
all observers, regardless of speed. The clerk’s name was
Albert Einstein (Hawkins, 1988).
3. In first grade, Michelle was given an outline of a giant
shark’s mouth on a worksheet that asked, “What will our
fishy friend eat next? She dutifully colored several fish and
boats, and then wrote the following explanation. “Once
there was a shark named Peppy. One day he ate three fish,
one jellyfish, and two boats. Before he ate the jellyfish he
made a peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich.
4. At 19, Juan was homeless and a senior in high school.
One cold evening he thought that a warm space inside the
school would be a more appealing sleeping place than he
could see. Getting into the building was no problem, but
once he was inside, a motion detector would make him
immediately detectable to the guard on the floor below.
Juan entered a storage room and carefully dislodged a pile
of baseball bats. The guard attributed the motion detector’s
outburst to the falling bats and Juan slept until morning.
New to whom?
If a research at the University of Michigan works for years
to engineer a gene transfer to cure a particular disease only
to discover that a researcher at Stanford published the same
techniques only 2 weeks before, is the Michigan
researcher’s work no longer creative?
For some researchers, only ideas that are new to a particular
discipline or culture are designated creative.
Alternatively, to be considered creative, a product or idea
must be original or novel to the individual creator.
Appropriateness?
If I am asked the time and I reply, “The cow jumped over the
computer yesterday,” my response would certainly be novel.
Was Juan’s late-night entrance to the school appropriate?
Because van Gogh’s works were not accepted by the public
of his time, were they inappropriate? If they had never been
accepted, would they have been creative? However, works by
van Gogh that were rejected by 19th-century audiences are
considered master-pieces today.
Which behaviors are creative or not creative?
In the midst of a discussion of plants, 6-year-old
Toshio raises his hand. “Do you think the plants
would grow taller and stronger if, instead of
watering them, we milked them?
Jane dressed for the first day of eighth grade in long
underwear with a black half-slip over the top, a
purple satin blouse, and grapes hanging as
earrings.
Maria wrote the best essay on federalism her teacher had
ever seen. It was clear, well documented, and
thorough, including implications of federalism seldom
considered by high school students.
Eduardo’s first-grade class has been taught to subtract by
taking away the designated number. There are
numerous manipulatives available for students’ use.
Eduardo refuses to use the method he has been
taught. Instead, he used his fingers to count up from
the smaller to the larger number (min model).
Sam is wearing a baseball cap on hat day. Unbeknown to
his teacher, he has installed a mirror under the brim.
When the hat is cocked at the correct angle, he can see
the desk next to his. This will be handy during the sixth-
period quiz.
Susan is asked to illustrate a scene from the biography of
Frederick Douglass being read by her second-grade
teacher. Having heard that he traveled through England
and Wales, she draws Frederick Douglass walking
across a row of smiling whales.
Max’s music class has been given the assignment of
composing a short piece in the study of one of
the classical composers they have studied to
date. Max creates a rap about Beethoven’s hair
(and its lack of style) using the rhythms of
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
Tzeena is known for her caricatures. During English
class she has at times passed around sketches
in which she has drawn her teacher’s head
attached to the body of an ostrich.
Why do people create?
Individuals exercised creative thinking not only to
communicate, but to find and to solve problems
I think I teach people how to find meaning. I write about the
most chaotic, tragic, had-to-deal-with events, and these
events are sometimes so violent and so horrible that they
burst through bunds of form and preconceptions. I’m
hoping that readers will find how to get the meaning out of
these events. How do you find beauty and order when
we’ve had this bloody horrible past? (Maxine Hong
Kingston, in Moyers, 1990, p.11)
I drew them several times and there was no feeling in
them. Then afterwards—after I have done the ones
that were so stiff--came the others… How it happens
that I can express something of that kind? Because
the thing has already taken form in my mind before I
start on it. The first attempts are absolutely
unbearable. I say this because I want you to know
that if you see something worthwhile in what I am
doing, it is not by accident but because of real
intention and purpose. (Vincent van Gogh, in Ghiselin,
1985, p.47)
In 1873, Chester Greenwood received a pair of ice
skates for his 15th birthday. Unfortunately, Chester
was unable to enjoy the skates, because each time
he ventured on the ice, the chill Farmington, Maine,
air made his sensitive ears uncomfortable enough
that he was forced indoors. The earmuffs Chester
designed to solve this problem were sold across New
England by the time Chester was 19 (Caney, 1985)
In 1924 Kimberly-Clark began to market Cellucotton
sheets as disposable clothes for removing makeup. In
1929 they patented the pop-up box and renamed the
product Kleenex. Sales were still only moderate. A
marketing survey revealed that over half the people
purchasing Kleenex were using them, not to remove
makeup, but as disposable handkerchiefs. A new
marketing strategy and slogan, “Don’t put a cold in
your pocket,” led to a 400% sales increase in 2 years
(Caney, 1985)
Problem solving preceded by problem finding (Getzels &
Csikszentmihalyi, 1976)
Theories and Models of Creativity
When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of
good cheer —say, traveling in a carriage, or walking after a
good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on
such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly.
Whence and how they come, I know not; nor can I force
them… Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively,
but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is I
cannot tell! All this inventing, this producing, taking place in a
pleasing lively dream…This is perhaps the best gift I have my
Divine Maker to thank for. (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in
Ghiselin, 1985, pp34-35)
Generally speaking, the germ of a future composition comes
suddenly and unexpectedly. If the soil is ready—that is to say
if the disposition to work is there—it takes root with
extraordinary force and rapidity---In the midst of this magic
process it frequently happens that some external interruption
wakes me from my somnambulistic state: a ring at the bell,
the entrance of my servant, the striking of a clock…Dreadful,
indeed, are such interruptions. Sometimes they break the
thread of inspiration for a considerable time… In such cases
cool headwork and technical knowledge have to come to my
aid.
Even in the works of the greatest master we find such moments,
when the organic sequence fails and a skillful join has to be
made…But it cannot be avoided. If that condition of mind and
soul, which we call inspiration, lasted long without
intermission, no artist could survive it. (Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky,
in Vernon, 1975, pp57-58)