Advertisement

Creativity as a Dynamic, Personal, Parsimonious Process

  • Mark A. Runco
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Creativity Theory and Action in Education book series (CTAE, volume 4)

Abstract

This entire volume is intended to challenge static conceptions of creative action and thought. The present chapter introduces a particular dynamic definition of creativity. It also explores applications of that definition, primarily for education. The definition detailed herein is only one of several, as is evidenced by the other chapters in this same volume, and it may be that there is overlap. There may also be disagreement, the exploration of which will no doubt lead to further refinements and advance in our understanding of creativity. For obvious reasons the present chapter begins with a brief summary of previous definitions of creativity. The new dynamic definition will make the most sense after this summary (also see Corazza, GE. Creativity Research Journal, 28:258–267 (2016)).

Keyword

Personal creativity Standard definition of creativity Top-down processing Bottom-up processing Interpretation Discretion Intentions Assimilation 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Acar, S., Burnett, C., & Cabra, J. F. (2017). Ingredients of creativity: Originality and more. Creativity Research Journal, 29, 133–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Aronson, E. (1980). The social animal. New York: Worth.Google Scholar
  3. Corazza, G. E. (2016). Potential originality and effectiveness: The dynamic definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 28, 258–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Csikzentmihalyi, M. (1990). The domain of creativity. In M. A. Runco & R. S. Albert (Eds.), Theories of creativity (pp. 190–212). Newbury Park: Sage.Google Scholar
  5. Glaveanu, V. P. (2010). Creativity as cultural participation. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 41(1), 48–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Kasof, J. (1995). Explaining creativity: The attributional perspective. Creativity Research Journal, 8, 311–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Kharkhurin, A. (2014). Creativity.4in1: Four-criterion construct of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 26, 338–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Martin, L., & Wilson, N. (2017). Defining creativity with discovery. Creativity Research Journal, 29, 417–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Maslow, A. (1968). Creativity in self actualizing people. In Toward a psychology of being (pp. 135–145). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.Google Scholar
  10. Piaget, J. (1976). To understand is to invent. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
  11. Rogers, C. R. (1954). Towards a theory of creativity. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 11, 249–260.Google Scholar
  12. Rhodes, M. (1961). An analysis of creativity. Phi Delta Kappan, 42, 305–310.Google Scholar
  13. Runco, M. A. (1989). The creativity of children’s art. Child Study Journal, 19, 177–189.Google Scholar
  14. Runco, M. A., & Jaeger, G. (2012). The standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24, 92–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Runco, M. A. (1995). Insight for creativity, expression for impact. Creativity Research Journal, 8, 377–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Runco, M. A. (1996). Personal creativity: Definition and developmental issues. New Directions for Child Development, 72(Summer), 3–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Runco, M. A. (1997). Personal creativity: Lessons from literary criticism. In L. Dorfman & C. Martindale (Eds.), Emotion, creativity and art (Vol. 1, pp. 305–317). Perm: Perm State Institute of Arts and Culture.Google Scholar
  18. Runco, M. A. (1999). Creativity need not be social. In A. Montuori & R. Purser (Eds.), Social creativity (Vol. 1, pp. 237–264). Cresskill: Hampton.Google Scholar
  19. Runco, M. A. (2003). Education for creative potential. Scandinavian Journal of Education, 47, 317–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Runco, M. A. (2008). Creativity and education. New Horizons in Education, 56(1), 107–115.Google Scholar
  21. Runco, M. A. (2010). Education based on a parsimonious theory of creativity. In R. A. Beghetto & J. C. Kaufman (Eds.), Nurturing creativity in the classroom (pp. 235–251). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Runco, M. A., & Pina, J. (2013). Imagination and personal creativity. In M. Taylor (Ed.), Oxford handbook of the development of imagination (pp. 379–386). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  23. Runco, M. A., & Smith, W. R. (1992). Interpersonal and intrapersonal evaluations of creative ideas. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 295–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Runco, M. A., Kaufman, J. C., Halliday, L. R., & Cole, J. C. (2010). Change in reputation as index of genius and eminence. Historical Methods, 43, 91–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Runco, M. A., Acar, S., Kaufman, J. C., & Halliday, L. R. (2016). Changes in reputation and associations with fame and biographical data. Journal of Genius and Eminence, 1, 52–60.Google Scholar
  26. Simonton, D. K. (1995). Exceptional personal influence: An integrative paradigm. Creativity Research Journal, 8, 371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Simonton, D. K. (2012). Taking the U.S. Patent office criteria seriously: A quantitative three-criterion creativity definition and its implications. Creativity Research Journal, 24, 97–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Tan, C. (2016). Creativity and confucius. Journal of Genius and Eminence, 1, 84–89.Google Scholar
  29. Weisberg, R. (2015). On the usefulness of “value” in the definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 27, 111–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  • Mark A. Runco
    • 1
  1. 1.American Institute for Behavioral Research and TechnologyVistaUSA

Personalised recommendations

Cite chapter

Buy options