Components of Creativity

By: Unknown on 12:31

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The environment a creative practitioner is in, has a great effect on their work. When I say environment, I mean both physical (location) and psychological. As an example, I can mention the story of E-Ink, which is the first electronic ink service, and products such as the Amazon Kindle use their technology.

      The environment of the MIT Media Lab was highly conducive to the team’s work.Housing physical and social scientists from a wide array of disciplines, the lab fosteredcross-pollination of ideas. There was a high degree of psychological safety, where peoplespouted “wacky” ideas without fear of ridicule. Moreover, a range of resources facilitatedexperimentation. Finally, even undergraduates in the lab enjoyed a great deal ofautonomy to follow their hunches. (Source 

Componential Theory of Creativity - Harvard Business School)

The document I just mentioned also offers us a glimpse into Theresa Amabile's theory on creativity.

The influences on creativity include three within-individual components: domain-relevant skills (expertise in the relevant domain or domains), creativity-relevant processes (cognitive and personality processes conducive to novel thinking), and task motivation (specifically, the intrinsic motivation to engage in the activity out of interest, enjoyment, or a personal sense of challenge). The component outside the individual is the surrounding environment – in particular, the social environment.

Expertise, or Domain-relevant skills include knowledge, expertise, technical skills, intelligence, and talent in the particular domain where the problem-solver is working – such as product design or electrical engineering. These skills comprise the raw materials upon which the individual can draw throughout the creative process – the elements that can combine to create possible responses, and the expertise against which the individual will judge the viability of response possibilities. 

Domain- relevant skills are essential to critical analysis, decision- making and evaluating potential of eventual ideas.

Creativity-relevant Processes(originally called creativity-relevant skills) include a cognitive style and personality characteristics that are conducive to independence, risk-taking, and taking new perspectives on problems, as well as a disciplined work style and skills in generating ideas. These cognitive processes include the ability to use wide, flexible categories for synthesizing information and the ability to break out of perceptual and performance “scripts.” The personality processes include self-discipline and a tolerance for ambiguity. 

Creative skills depend on an individual's personal practice and are key in project progression.

Task Motivation. Intrinsic task motivation is passion: the motivation to undertake a task or solve a problem because it is interesting, involving, personally challenging, or satisfying – rather than undertaking it out of the extrinsic motivation arising from contracted-for rewards, surveillance, competition, evaluation, or requirements to do something in a certain way. A central tenet of the componential theory is the intrinsic motivation principle of creativity: People are most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the work itself – and not by extrinsic motivators. Because, as research has shown, salient extrinsic motivators can undermine intrinsic motivation, their presence or absence in the social environment is critically important. So, too, is the presence or absence of forces that can support intrinsic motivation. 

Motivation is important through the whole process of creation. It can be influenced my many factors.