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An integrative introduction to the theories and themes in research on creativity, this book is both a reference work and text for courses in this burgeoning area of research. The book begins with a discussion of the theories of creativity (Person, Product, Process, Place), the general question of whether creativity is influenced by nature or nurture, what research has indicated of the personality and style of creative individuals from a personality analysis standpoint, how social context affects creativity, and then coverage of issues like gender differences, whether creativity can be enhanced, if creativity is related to poor mental or physical health, etc. The book contains boxes covering special interest items including one page biographies of famous creative individuals and activities for a group or individual to test and/or encourage creativity, as well as references to internet sites relating to creativity.

In the past few decades, personality psychology has made considerable progress in raising new questions about human nature—and providing some provocative answers. New scientific research has transformed old ideas about personality based on the theories of Freud, Jung, and the humanistic psychologies of the nineteen sixties, which gave rise to the simplistic categorizations of the Meyer-Briggs Inventory and the 'enneagream'. But the general public still knows little about the new science and what it reveals about who we are. In this book, Brian Little, one of the psychologists who helped re-shape the field, provides the first in-depth exploration of the new personality science and its provocative findings for general readers. The book explores questions that are rooted in the origins of human consciousness but are as commonplace as yesterday's breakfast conversation. Are our first impressions of other people's personalities usually fallacious? Are creative individuals essentially maladjusted? Are our personality traits, as William James put it “set like plaster\" by the age of thirty? Is a belief that we are in control of our lives an unmitigated good? Do our singular personalities comprise one unified self or a confederacy of selves, and if the latter, which of our mini-me-s do we offer up in marriage or mergers? Are some individuals genetically hard-wired for happiness? Which is the more viable path toward human flourishing, the pursuit of happiness or the happiness of pursuit? Little provides a resource for answering such questions, and a framework through which readers can explore the personal implications of the new science of personality. Questionnaires and interactive assessments throughout the book facilitate self-exploration, and clarify some of the stranger aspects of our own conduct and that of others. Brian Little helps us see ourselves, and other selves, as somewhat less perplexing and definitely more intriguing. This is not a self-help book, but students at Harvard who took the lecture course on which it is based claim that it changed their lives.

Margaret Boden presents a series of essays in which she explores the nature of creativity in a wide range of art forms. Creativity is the generation of novel, surprising, and valuable ideas. Boden identifies three forms of creativity (combinational, exploratory, and transformational) each eliciting a different form of surprise.

Creativity Across Domains: Faces of the Muse sorts through the sometimes-confusing theoretical diversity that domain specificity has spawned. It also brings together writers who have studied creative thinkers in different areas, such as the various arts, sciences, and communication/leadership. Each contributor explains what is known about the cognitive processes, ways of conceptualizing and solving problems, personality and motivational attributes, guiding metaphors, and work habits or styles that best characterize creative people within the domain he or she has investigated. In addition, this book features: *an examination of how creativity is similar and different in diverse domains; *chapters written by an expert on creativity in the domain about which he or she is writing; *a chapter on creativity in psychology which examines patterns of performance leading to creative eminence in different areas of psychology; and *a final chapter proposing a new theory of creativity--the Amusement Park Theoretical Model. This book appeals to creativity researchers and students of creativity; cognitive, education, social, and developmental psychologists; and educated laypeople interested in exploring their own creativity. Contents: J.C. Kaufman, J. Baer, Introduction: How People Think, Work, and Act Creatively in Diverse Domains. J. Piirto, The Creative Process in Poets. S.K. Perry, Flow and the Art of Fiction. R.K. Sawyer, Acting. E. Zimmerman, Should Creativity Be a Visual Arts Orphan? J.I. Morris, Creativity and Dance: A Call for Balance. M. Leman, Musical Creativity Research. G.J. Feist, Domain-Specific Creativity in the Physical Sciences. D.K. Simonton, Creativity in Psychology: On Becoming and Being a Great Psychologist. D. Saunders, P. Thagard, Creativity in Computer Science. D. Cropley, A. Cropley, Engineering Creativity: A Systems Concept of Functional Creativity. R.M. Milgram, N.L. Livne, Creativity as a General and a Domain-Specific Ability: The Domain of Mathematics as an Exemplar. M.D. Mumford, J.M. Strange, G.M. Scott, B.P. Gaddis, Creative Problem-Solving Skills in Leadership: Direction, Actions, and Reactions. J.R. Averill, Emotions as Mediators and as Products of Creative Activity. C.M. Ford, D.M. Sullivan, Selective Retention Processes That Create Tensions Between Novelty and Value in Business Domains. M. Basadur, Management: Synchronizing Different Kinds of Creativity. D. Ambrose, Creativity in Teaching: Essential Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions. R.J. Sternberg, The Domain Generality Versus Specificity Debate: How Should It Be Posed? J.A. Plucker, The (Relatively) Generalist View of Creativity. J. Baer, J.C. Kaufman, Whence Creativity? Overlapping and Dual-Aspect Skills and Traits. J.C. Kaufman, J. Baer, The Amusement Park Theory of Creativity.

Rodin's sculpture \"The Thinker\" dominates our collective imagination as the purest representation of human inquiry--the lone, stoic thinker.But while the Western belief in individualism romanticizes this perception of the solitary creative process, the reality is that scientific and artistic forms emerge from the joint thinking, passionate.

The separate arts therapies – drama, art, music and dance – are becoming available to increasing numbers of clients as mental health professionals discover their potential to reach and help people. But what are the arts therapies, and what do they offer clients? This fully updated new edition of The Arts Therapies provides, in one volume, a guide to the different disciplines and their current practice and thinking in different parts of the world. Each chapter draws on a variety of perspectives and accounts to develop understandings of the relations between theory, research and practice, offering perspectives on areas such as the client–therapist–art form relationship or on outcomes and efficacy to help articulate and understand what the arts therapies can offer specific client groups. This new edition features 'Focus on Research' highlights from music therapy, art therapy, dramatherapy and dance movement therapy, which offer interviews with researchers in China, Africa, South America, Australia, Europe and North America, exploring significant pieces of enquiry undertaken within recent years. This comprehensive overview will be an essential text for students and practitioners of the arts therapies. It is international in scope, fully up-to-date with innovations in the field and will be relevant to new practitioners and those looking to deepen their understanding.

Staging Process examines contemporary collective creation practices, with particular focus on the work of four third wave American performance ensembles: Goat Island, Elevator Repair Service, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and the TEAM. The book examines ways in which these groups create blueprints for developing collaborative performance, entwining methodology with emerging performance aesthetics. Rachel Anderson-Rabern explores the ideas of boredom and quotidian employment that permeate particular performance projects. Using Henri Lefebvre's concepts of work roles within everyday philosophy, she demonstrates that collective creation gives rise to new economies of performance. The book also presents theories of the political stakes of danced gestural forms in performance, informed by Giorgio Agamben's writings on gesture, and elaborates the ways in which these ensembles make use of durational performance to posit ethical frameworks: ways of living in the world. Conversing with the ideas of Paul Virilio and Guy Debord among others, Anderson- Rabern claims that these groups posit new models of aesthetic politics through careful, speed-based investigations of construction and destruction that unearth the powerful potential of contemporary collaborative methods to be at once aesthetically minded, ethically driven, and politically engaged.

The postwar American stereotypes of suburban sameness, traditional gender roles, and educational conservatism have masked an alternate self-image tailor-made for the Cold War. The creative child, an idealized future citizen, was the darling of baby boom parents, psychologists, marketers, and designers who saw in the next generation promise that appeared to answer the most pressing worries of the age. Designing the Creative Child reveals how a postwar cult of childhood creativity developed and continues to this day. Exploring how the idea of children as imaginative and naturally creative was constructed, disseminated, and consumed in the United States after World War II, Amy F. Ogata argues that educational toys, playgrounds, small middle-class houses, new schools, and children's museums were designed to cultivate imagination in a growing cohort of baby boom children. Enthusiasm for encouraging creativity in children countered Cold War fears of failing competitiveness and the postwar critique of social conformity, making creativity an emblem of national revitalization. Ogata describes how a historically rooted belief in children's capacity for independent thinking was transformed from an elite concern of the interwar years to a fully consumable and aspirational ideal that persists today. From building blocks to Gumby, playhouses to Playskool trains, Creative Playthings to the Eames House of Cards, Crayola fingerpaint to children's museums, material goods and spaces shaped a popular understanding of creativity, and Designing the Creative Child demonstrates how this notion has been woven into the fabric of American culture.