It is difficult to imagine a less original way to express yourself than to say about your creativity. This quality is full of jobs or resumes. Employers require creativity from their employees, while being skeptical of mentioning it in the record of service. It turns out that creativity is a stumbling block about which many people have already broken their legs. How to be in this case? How to understand what creativity is? Is it worth it to develop? How is the development of creativity? Is it possible to improve it yourself? Let's talk creatively about creativity.
What is creativity?
Creativity is the ability to make unexpected decisions based on existing knowledge or experience. It turns out that creativity is the creative potential of a person helping him to create something new. There is confusion. All since childhood accustomed to the word "creativity".
Why invent some kind of creativity? How is it different from creativity? Replaces this concept, duplicates it or complements it? Everything is quite simple. Creativity is a process, and creativity is an ability that helps to engage in creativity. That is, if someone has developed creativity, it is much easier for him to create.
Since this property of a person depends on the course of his mental processes, it is interesting how creativity in psychology is understood. In this science, creativity is a stable characteristic that determines the creative talent of a person. It is customary to talk about the inner potential of the individual, which is revealed in response to the fulfillment of the task that has arisen.
According to Abraham Maslow, creativity is a universal property of people prone to self-actualization, that is, the full development of their personal capabilities. Only in the creative process does a person acquire the opportunity to open up completely, acting in an original, rather than stereotyped way.
To better understand the degree of development of creativity, there are criteria to help determine its presence.
Criteria of creativity
The main criteria that shape creativity include:
- Fluency - the ability to generate as many ideas as possible in a certain time;
- Flexibility - the ability to act not straightforward, adapting to the changing conditions of the problem;
- Originality - the ability to issue custom solutions;
- Development - detailed elaboration of ideas;
- Metaphoric - figurative and associative thinking;
- Susceptibility - the ability to notice unusual elements and contradictions;
- Abstractness - the ability to turn images into clear forms.
The presence of these skills in a person testifies to his creativity or creative potential. By the way, this personality characteristic is amenable to improvement with the help of games and tasks.
Development of creativity
As we have already found out, creativity is a weighty competitive advantage that helps to bypass rivals in all spheres of life. The development of creativity is an important condition on the road to success.
There are a lot of techniques to help achieve this.
Interrelation of random words
The easiest technique to help develop creativity on your own or with a friend, turning this method into a fun game. In order to start, you should take any text and randomly choose from it a few words. You can use different sentences, paragraphs or sections. It does not matter, the main thing is to close your eyes and poke your finger at random, choosing the first word. Then repeat the procedure and determine the second in the same way.
You can complicate the taskby adding the third, fourth, fifth, etc. After the words are defined, the most interesting stage begins - an attempt to link them in meaning. For example, the words "plane" and "shrimp." We are trying to find as many associations and relationships as possible. For example, "a dish of shrimp on board an aircraft" or "shrimp logo on one of the wings."
Now, let's try in the opposite direction: “toy flying shrimp”, “shrimp at the helm of the aircraft”, “transforming robot turning from shrimp into an aircraft”. It should be remembered that the more complex the task, the more actively the creativity develops.
Fictional character method
Considering that creativity is a non-standard approach to the performance of assigned tasks, it is advisable to carry out the development of creativity outside the box. Hardly any of us, trying to solve any problem, puts himself in the place of the hero of a movie or a computer game. Why not? After all, one head is good, but two is better.
Even if the second head is fictional. In this lies the beauty of creativity - complete freedom of action and unlimited flight of fantasy. Moreover, the lack of superpowers in a person is due, above all, the unwillingness of the latter to believe in them. This technique can be useful not only for the development of creativity and enhancement of the overall creative potential, but also in specific life situations.
for example, some puny fellow comes home at night. In a dark alley, several people approach him with a clear need for their eyes. Anticipating that the solution of the material problems of these guys falls on his shoulders, the guy starts screaming at the top of his throat as if following him friends, so that they accelerate and interfere in the dialogue. And let the "Skull", "Crutch" and "Bald" - fictional characters, you should not report this to the creeping gopnik.
The example is comic, but conveys the main essence of this method. It is necessary to imagine how a favorite film actor or fairytale hero would decide any situation. And then just try to interpret this decision to fit your real possibilities.
Six hats method
The technique of developing creativity is equally applicable, both in a team and by one person. It consists in the separation of roles, that is, hats, in the performance of tasks. As the name implies, six hats. Each is distinguished by certain rules of the game.
- Green - hat of creativity, the owner of which must come up with the most original solutions;
- White - the hat of logic, which put on should be based on existing data;
- Yellow - a hat of optimism, endowing the owner with irrepressible enthusiasm and inspiration;
- Black - the hat of pessimism, according to its color, must belong to the inveterate skeptic;
- Red - a hat of emotions that requires an intuitive approach to solving a problem;
- Blue - philosophical hat, the owner of which must put together and reflect on all previous approaches.
In the case of collective work, each participant is “given away” his own hat, according to the color of which he must think about the fulfillment of the task. If there are fewer participants or one in general, then you can alternately wear several hats, the main thing is not to finish playing until a split personality.
Since creativity is a departure from everyday life and standard solutions, the development of this quality also implies complete freedom of imagination. Discussing creativity in psychology, scientists came to the conclusion that this is a hidden creative potential that helps a person to self-actualize. Accordingly, the development of creativity should be a priority task in the process of raising a child or self-development of an adult.
