The Development of Modern Creativity Research

Abstract

While many excellent studies on creativity had been published before 1950, modern creativity research has much to credit Joy Paul (J.P.) Guilford, who made creativity a vital subject for researchers in psychology (Runco, 2004). Speaking as their new president at the American Psychological Association (1950), Guilford proposed that creativity was essential for human society. He argued that research in creativity harboured possibilities of great benefit for society. The title of his speech was ‘Creativity’, and with it, as well as with his subsequent empirical efforts, Guilford managed to convince and persuade researchers that creativity could be approached scientifically (Runco, 2004). His determination sparked the rise of modern creativity research. Many prominent researchers have since attempted to approach the question. As the late Hans Eysenck put it, ‘From the beginning of my becoming acquainted with the literature on intelligence, I had been convinced that it was possible to study this concept scientifically. Critics tended to point out that there were important aspects of cognition that seemed to be beyond the scope of science, and creativity and genius were among those most frequently mentioned. Having many other research areas to interest me and take up time and energy, I tried not to think about these topics, but finally temptation became too strong, and I succumbed … and started to theorize about creativity, and by extension genius’ (1995).