Potential Originality and Effectiveness: The Dynamic Definition of Creativity

By Giovanni Emanuele Corazza. 2016

363 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Given the central role of creativity in the future post-information society, a call for a pragmatist approach to the study of creativity is advocated, that brings as a consequence the recognition of the dynamic nature of this phenomenon. At the foundation of the proposed new theoretical framework lies the definition of creativity itself, which is turned from static to dynamic through the introduction of the concept of potential originality and effectiveness. Starting from this central definition, and through the introduction of the auxiliary definitions for focus area, creativity goal, creative agent, creative potential of an agent, creative potential of an environment, creative process, product of a creative process, creativity potential of a process, representation of the product of a creative process, and estimator, we arrive at the definitions of creative achievement and creative inconclusiveness. Although both aspects are key in the creative process, creative inconclusiveness was not part of previous definitions, but it is argued that its role is fundamental for effective education in creativity. The new definitions are shown to have full backward compatibility with the extant corpus of scientific research in creativity, as well as forward effectiveness in suggesting novel investigation approaches to support the consideration of new theoretical hypotheses.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Mechanical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/90cff49866ffb4a2df763dae01f340c33fce9b4e

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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Mechanical Engineering

Citations in the corpus

How teachers perceive factors that influence creativity development: Applying a Social Cognitive Theory perspective (2018, background): “Corazza (2016) argued this definition narrowly represents creativity as a static creative achievement, failing to recognize its dynamic nature as an iterative process.”
Ingredients of Creativity: Originality and More (2017, background): “Undaunted by the size of the task, over the last 70 years a number of researchers have attempted to develop such a universal definition (Cardoso de Sousa, 2008; Corazza, 2016; Freedman, 2010; Morgan, 1953; Rhodes, 1961; Runco & Jaeger, 2012; Weisberg, 2015).”
Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration: Assessment, Certification, and Promotion of 21st Century Skills for the Future of Work and Education (2023, background): “Moreover, Corazza (2016) challenged this standard definition of creativity, arguing that as it focuses solely on the existence of an original and effective outcome, it misses the dynamics of the creative process, which is frequently associated with periods of creative inconclusiveness and limited…”
A Dynamic Definition of Creativity (2019, background): “The selected ideas then go on to become creations and are then studied in literature for innovation and creativity (Girotra, Terwiesch, & Ulrich, 2010); however, does that mean the rejected ideas were not creative? Therefore, if creativity is continued to be defined in terms of novel and useful idea”
Creative Experience: A Non-Standard Definition of Creativity (2020, background): “In recent years, several creativity researchers have offered considerations for how to conceptualize the definitional criteria of creativity (Corazza, 2016; Plucker, Beghetto, & Dow, 2004; Runco & Jaeger, 2012; Simonton, 2018; Smith & Smith, 2017).”
Exploring the Link Between Mind Wandering, Mindfulness, and Creativity: A Multidimensional Approach (2018, positive): “In particular, using the results of the present study as a baseline, future research may facilitate the development of appropriate experimental paradigms to understand the causal role of both constructs with respect to the dynamics of the creative thinking process (Corazza, 2016).”