Features of creative thinking: how to develop, methods, what contributes

Features of creative thinking. What hinders creative thinking and useful tips for its development.

The main distinguishing feature of creative thinking is a more complete penetration into the essence of the issue under study, activation of cognitive abilities and creative potential, as well as novelty of reasoning and ways of solving current problems.

One of the first answers to the question of what creative thinking is was given by J. Guilford. He identified four dominant features of creative thinking:

The desire for intellectual novelty, the desire to find your own non-trivial, unusual solution.
The ability to see an object “from a different angle”, to find new, unusual ways to use it, to increase the range of functional applications of capabilities in practice (semantic flexibility).
The ability to perceive an object in a new way, revealing its hidden, implicit sides (figurative adaptive flexibility).
The ability to generate various ideas in a situation of uncertainty, when there are no guidelines for implementing the idea (spontaneous semantic flexibility).

Creative thinking in psychology

In psychology, creativity is interpreted as a certain mental activity, practical or theoretical, as a result of which new hypotheses, proposals, and methods for solving them arise. It plays a large role in science, where creative people provide serious assistance in discoveries due to the fact that they think more broadly and act more boldly.

Note! Creative thinking is constructive, the task of which is to discover everything new and unique.

Psychology emphasizes the main non-standard characteristic of this thought process, which is its creativity. Broadness of thinking can be achieved through the development of imagination, starting from a young age in preschoolers. Training can be done with adults, but the process will take longer.

Torrens test

One of the most popular diagnostic tools for determining the level of creative thinking is the Torrance test. It is strongly not recommended to do it yourself. This is a specific psychodiagnostic tool that requires a professional approach, especially when interpreting the results. Therefore, it is better to seek help from a specialized specialist. The development presented below is for informational purposes only.

Author: Alice Paul Torrance (1915-2003) - American psychologist.

Full name: “P. Torrance Test of Creative Thinking.”

Diagnosed age: preschool, 6-7 years. There are more complicated versions of the test, which can be carried out between 8 and 20 years.

The main task: to determine the level of creativity.

Test conditions:

You cannot change a single word in the test, add or remove any pictures.
Strictly adhere to the time limit allotted for completing tasks - no more than 45 minutes, including explanations and reading instructions.
Before conducting the test, you need to create a calm, favorable atmosphere.
Among preschoolers, the test is carried out individually.
Adults should explain in detail to children all incomprehensible points.

Pictures for the test:

Verbal thinking

Fine creative thinking

Verbal-sound creative thinking

Interpretation of results

Each task is assessed according to the following criteria:

The test results are processed exclusively by a professional psychologist who has undergone special training. On their basis, a conclusion is drawn about the general level of development of creative thinking in a child, as well as the degree of formation of its verbal, visual and verbal-sound subtypes.

Definition

Creative thinking - what is it in psychology

Human creative thinking is the process of getting acquainted with information, processing it and creating new ideas. In pedagogy, the importance of this type of thinking is noted due to the fact that the individual independently strives to obtain new knowledge and quickly apply it in practice. This applies not only to music and drawing lessons, but also to history, social studies, etc. In addition, speaking about children with a predisposition to this type of thinking, the importance of having this criterion for learning, as well as socialization, is noted.

Features of creative thinking

Divergent thinking - what is it?

Creative thinking has little to do with actors, artists and musicians; not all people of this mindset are artists. An individual may have several thinking traits that determine his creative direction.

Among the features of creative thinking are:

Uniqueness. The desire to create something new, be it an idea or an object. A creative person does not base himself on other people’s examples, he develops something of his own;
Conceptual flexibility. The ability to apply a different point of view to a certain phenomenon in an attempt to consider it more broadly, in unusual variations in order to make it unique;
Spontaneity. Free switching from one thought to another. Perception of information from different sources. The spontaneity of an idea arising in a situation that was not conducive to it;
Heuristic. Transforming the familiar, going beyond the boundaries are essential skills in creative thinking.

An important property of creativity is going beyond the usual

Is it possible to control creative thinking?

Logical thinking - what is it and how to develop it in an adult and a child

We can say unequivocally about the possibility of controlling thinking - it exists. However, much depends on the individual who wants to start training it or already has it, but has control problems.

First of all, you need to decide whether you want to control your thought processes. Willpower works like a global purchase of motivation - you can’t do without it. Then it is worth following some kind of plan, methods of controlling creative thinking, be it its development or limitation.

SCAMPER equipment

This method, created by Robert Eberle in 1997, allows you to go over the main issues; it is not for nothing that its name is translated from English as “fast running”. In the abbreviation SCAMPER, each letter represents one of the options for working on a problem. The better the development, the more opportunities for improvement and development open up.

Substitute. Replace something, such as components, materials or people.
Combine. Combine with other functions or devices.
Adapt Add new elements or features.
Modify/Magnify (modification, increase). Change size, shape, color or other attribute.
Put to Other Uses (use otherwise). Use for something else for which the item is not normally used.
Eliminate. Remove parts, simplify to the main thing.
Rearrange/Reverse (change order). Swap, flip, find a use for something opposite.

Your idea doesn't have to be unique: when Steve Jobs announced the first iPod, portable players already existed in the world. But no one will remember their names now. Apple was able to outperform its competitors because its business model and value proposition were better. In addition to the fashionable device, it provided a huge and open music library (Combine).

What promotes the development of creative thinking

The trait of creativity may appear in a child, or it may be “late,” and the creative mind will mature later. It is important to pay attention to this issue in the process of education, then creative activity will bear fruit very soon.

Note! Everything that differs from the usual perception of an individual, that can provoke an independent exit from the comfort zone, contributes to the formation of a creative direction of thinking. For example, meeting new people from a different social circle, as well as visiting unfamiliar places. It is important to awaken research interest so that the individual has thoughts about a particular phenomenon.

Practical advice

To achieve good results and not waste time, listen to the following tips:

Choose one of several options for solving a problem or issue, but do not cling to the first idea that comes to mind.
If you can’t find a way out of the situation, just switch your attention to something else. The solution will come by itself, in silence.
Don't be afraid of ideas that seem outlandish. Often absurd decisions led to the only correct result.
Replace any habitual (ritual) action with an unusual one. For example, stop making notes in a notebook: replace them with symbols or drawings.
Try to praise yourself more often, because recognition increases self-esteem and inspires.

Often a new idea or concept appears in some form. We must not forget about this. Therefore, in order to develop creativity, you need to pay due attention to the development of imagination.

Methods for developing creative thinking

Experts offer different ways to help develop creativity.

Lateral thinking

It is important to develop literal thinking, i.e. “redirected”. There are three stages of this method: focus-break-connection, where:

It is necessary to select a “reference point” - an object on which the individual will focus;
Having chosen an object to focus on, you need to “break the logic” of this object. Starting from the usual pattern, it is violated and changed;
It is possible that you will get an absurd idea about a subject, then you need to find something logical in the resulting result.

Six Hats Method

The role-playing game “six hats” will contribute to developed thinking. Hats are usually fictitious, the point being to give a particular hat color and give it a role. By “putting on” one hat or another, an individual switches on the corresponding mode of thinking. In other words, the method not only develops imagination, but also helps to solve a possible problem by looking at it from different angles and applying different points of view.

Trying on different roles not only develops creativity, but also solves problems

Reverse brainstorming

This technique is quite contradictory, since you need to look not for a solution to a certain problem, but for its worsening. Instead of talking about “how to fix it,” the wording is changed to “how to make it worse.” You need to draw up all possible options that could lead to complete failure and consider them. The root of the problem may lie in the proposed options. Therefore, an adequate solution that can help can be found faster than with a regular brainstorming.

Reading inscriptions backwards

It is better to do reverse reading at least in pairs. When a person reads words from the end, the brain literally activates creativity to understand what is being said. So, one person reads it backwards, the other person guesses the original phrase.

Pun

The play on words has many variations, for example:

The most common one is to name two slightly similar words and look for their similarities in properties, colors, etc.
A children's game that requires you to find a rhyme for a word, often a name, is also suitable for training an adult.
There is also an option in which a person is offered a certain number of words, for example, 15. Using each of them, changing their places, adding new ones, you need to come up with a story.
At first glance, it’s a simple game, but in reality it’s a complex game where you’re given one letter of the alphabet, and within 15 minutes you need to write as many words as possible on it.

Creative thinking is valued for its ability to create something unique. Despite the association of creativity with musicians and artists, representatives of this type of thinking are far from limited to these professions. It is of great importance in science, pedagogy, economics, almost everywhere. The important thing is that this mental orientation can be trained.

Stereotypes

A talented person is talented in everything. What talent do you have? It cannot be that there is no talent: even a song performed at a corporate party may well turn out to be a sign of real talent. It's all about the stereotypes that are imposed on us by life itself or by the people who surround us since childhood. They are the ones who tell us what is “good” and what is “bad”. As a result, we, like staunch tin soldiers, carry out tasks strictly according to instructions.

Now remember how in childhood you easily got out of any situation. If you can't remember yourself, take a close look at how your own child does it.

The first thing that distinguishes a child from an adult is the ability to think freely figuratively. For a child, every word is a whole picture, every event is a fairy tale. The kid himself can easily transform into any fairy-tale hero and for this he does not have to wait for a costume party. External resemblance to a famous character doesn’t bother him much; he has a creative (different from the generally accepted) approach to everything.

Over the years we are losing this road. We learn rules that we rarely want to break. All because it’s easier, more familiar. Such actions do not cause indignation (envy) of colleagues, do not infuriate (misunderstanding) parents/husband/wife/ and so on.

Most people agree to play according to standard rules. And then the person becomes bored with himself, with his family, with his friends. Meanwhile, her “crazy” classmate Yulka has already headed a department in a large state corporation, her husband is a famous and fashionable photographer (he, by the way, is also “out of this world”). They are happy, and soon they will have their first and, of course, talented child.

So you have something to strive for.

Creativity is just the ability, under normal conditions with all the known components, to put together something that will make, if not turn the world upside down, then at least look at things differently.

Therefore, creative people are especially valued in advertising agencies. They are the ones who force us to buy something that just five minutes ago we didn’t want at all. They are the ones who make us swallow saliva at the mere appearance of “low-calorie” yogurt on the screen. They are the ones who know how to direct our standard thoughts along any path they need.