Handbook of Creativity Assessment (2024), Creativity Textbook (3rd Ed., 2023) & Encyclopedia of Creativity, 3rd Ed.

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Creativity influences each of our lives and is essential for the advancement of society. The first edition of the successful Encyclopedia of Creativity helped establish the study of creativity as a field of research in itself. The second edition, published in 2011, was named a 2012 Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association’s Choice publication.

Featuring 232 chapters, across 2 volumes, the third edition of this important work provides updated information on the full range of creativity research. There has been an enormous increase in research on the topic throughout the world in many different disciplines. Some areas covered in this edition include the arts and humanities, business, education, mental and physical health, neuroscience, psychology, the creative process and technology.

Fundamental subjects are discussed such as the definition of creativity, the development and expression of creativity across the lifespan, the environmental conditions that encourage or discourage creativity, the relationship of creativity to mental health, intelligence and learning styles, and the process of being creative. Creativity is discussed within specific disciplines including acting, architecture, art, dance, film, government, interior design, magic, mathematics, medicine, photography, science, sports, tourism and writing.

Creativity and Education, Four Volume Set

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This four-volume Major Work brings together seminal articles and research studies in the field of creativity, drawing from educational and psychological research.

The collection focuses on creativity in the classroom, the roles of educators and students, how creative processes relate to education and learning, and an analysis of the socio-cultural contexts for creativity in education.

Critical issues, such as the relationship between intelligence and creativity, and motivation, are also explored. Articles are supported with a context-setting introduction from renowned creativity scholar Mark Runco.


Creativity, 2nd Edition: Theories and Themes: Research, Development, and Practice

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An integrative introduction to the theories and themes in research on creativity, the second edition of Creativity is both a reference work and text for courses in this burgeoning area of research. The book begins with a discussion of the theories of creativity (Person, Product, Process, Place), the general question of whether creativity is influenced by nature or nurture, what research has indicated of the personality and style of creative individuals from a personality analysis standpoint, and how social context affects creativity. This wide-ranging work then proceeds to coverage of issues such as gender differences, whether creativity can be enhanced, if creativity is related to poor mental or physical health, and much more.

The book contains boxes covering special interest items, including one-page biographies of famous creative individuals, and activities for a group or individual to test or encourage creativity, as well as references to Internet sites relating to creativity.

 

Divergent Thinking and Creative Potential

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Divergent thinking tests are given more often than any other test of creativity. They are not actually tests of creativity per se but are instead assessments of creative potential. They are based on sound scientific theory and have been improved many times over the years.

This volume describes the theory supporting the use of divergent thinking tests. It also presents specific research findings. It describes what has been discovered about divergent thinking in the past 10 years. Unlike other volumes, it focuses on divergent thinking rather than attempting to cover all of creativity assessment. It gives the specifics of research so the validity of the claims can be easily determined.

Each chapter is based on a specific research project so each stands alone. A large number of topics are covered, including the impact of experience, the role of time in creative thinking, differences among various tests of divergent thinking, the use of new scoring methods, and the relationship of divergent thinking with other facets of the creative process.

 

The Creativity Research Handbook Volume 3

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Few topics are as important—or as intriguing—as creativity. It plays a huge role in virtually every field, from art to organizational science, from counseling to technology. It is related to both psychological and physical health, the effectiveness of problem solving, and innumerable everyday activities. Each of us will benefit, on personal and professional levels, if we interest in our creative potential and make decisions taking sound research into account.

The present volume, one of three in The Creativity Research Handbook series, goes into great depth about the research on creativity. It will bring the scholar up to date and bring the newcomer up to speed about what has been done in creativity research. These volumes cover long-standing areas of study, such as development and creativity, as well as new applications of creativity research, including economic research and studies of stress and creativity. Each chapter is thorough and focuses on reliable research. No other source will bring anyone up to date quite so well as The Creativity Research Handbooks.

 

The Creativity Research Handbook Volume 2

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Few topics are as important—or as intriguing—as creativity. It plays a huge role in virtually every field, from art to organizational science, from counseling to technology. It is related to both psychological and physical health, the effectiveness of problem solving, and innumerable everyday activities. Each of us will benefit, on personal and professional levels, if we interest in our creative potential and make decisions taking sound research into account.

The present volume, one of three in The Creativity Research Handbook series, goes into great depth about the research on creativity. It will bring the scholar up to date and bring the newcomer up to speed about what has been done in creativity research. These volumes cover long-standing areas of study, such as development and creativity, as well as new applications of creativity research, including economic research and studies of stress and creativity. Each chapter is thorough and focuses on reliable research. No other source will bring anyone up to date quite so well as The Creativity Research Handbooks.

 

The Creativity Research Handbook Volume 1

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For years, the research on creativity has been divided into person, process, product, and press (environment) foci. However, the field is now much more extensive and diverse than it was when this scheme was proposed, and these four categories no longer capture its essence. The Creativity Research Handbook shows how extensive and diverse the field has become.

The Handbook contains extensive reviews and is intended to provide a comprehensive review of creativity research, first by the breadth of coverage of the chapters and second, by the depth and coverage within each chapter. The Handbook is divided into two parts, the first disciplinary and the second topical. The approach is a comprehensive one—authors do not focus on their own models or theories but instead give complete overviews. The disciplinary structure allows a more sensitive and accurate placement of research. The disciplinary framework also facilitates exchanges with the wider scholarly community—research on creative thinking, for example, shares assumptions with the cognitive sciences, and the disciplinary assignment can help individuals studying creativity to benefit from those sciences. Several of the contributions demonstrate how creativity research has benefited from such disciplinary connections. Part 2 contains six topical chapters; each of them focuses on one critical topic.

 

Encyclopedia of Creativity, Two-Volume Set, 2nd Edition

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The first edition of the successful Encyclopedia of Creativity served to establish the study of creativity is a field in itself. Now completely updated and revised in its second edition, coverage encompasses the definition of creativity; the development and expression of creativity across the lifespan; the environmental conditions that encourage or discourage creativity; creativity within specific disciplines like music, dance, film, art, literature, etc.; the relationship of creativity and mental health, intelligence, and learning styles; and the process of being creative. This reference also appeals to a lay audience with articles specifically on the application of creativity to business settings. Available online via ScienceDirect and in limited print release.

 

The Dark Side of Creativity

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With few exceptions, scholarship on creativity has focused on its positive aspects while largely ignoring its dark side. This includes not only creativity deliberately aimed at hurting others, such as crime or terrorism, or at gaining unfair advantages, but also the accidental negative side effects of well-intentioned acts. This book brings together essays written by experts from various fields (psychology, criminal justice, sociology, engineering, education, history, and design) and with different interests (personality development, mental health, deviant behavior, law enforcement, and counter-terrorism) to illustrate the nature of negative creativity, examine its variants, call attention to its dangers, and draw conclusions about how to prevent it or protect society from its effects.

 

The Routledge Companion to Creativity

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Creativity can be as difficult to define as it is to achieve. This is a complex and compelling area of study and this volume is perfectly poised to explore how creativity can be better understood, and used, in a range of contexts. The book not only centers on creativity in wider organizational theory, but also defines the conditions in which creativity can flourish, and assesses how the contemporary business environment has an impact on creative solutions.

The volume grounds the concept of creativity in a sound theoretical framework and explores issues of practical and theoretical consequence covering a range of themes, including:

  • innovation and entrepreneurship
  • creativity and design
  • environmental influences
  • knowledge management
  • meta-theories of creativity
  • personal creativity
  • structured interventions

Comprising contributions written by an unusually wide array of leading creativity scholars, The Routledge Companion to Creativity is an insightful and cutting edge resource. It is an essential purchase for anyone with an interest in creativity from a business, psychology, or design perspective.

 

Creativity and Affect

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The authors of this volume attempt to cohere the field of creativity and affect in a scholarly fashion by categorizing and characterizing some of its major features, including environmental influences; underlying processes; specific affective states; the role of atypical or pathological personalities; unconscious processes; physiological components; proactive and reactive stimuli; intrinsic motivation; eminence versus everyday creativity; and testing of assessing the affective component of creativity. The authors also examine and discuss the role that emotions, feelings, and moods play in the creative process.

This volume also provides a vehicle for students and psychotherapists, with which they can fully appreciate the feelings generated by the creative process and the various stages of it. How does a creator feel during its more mundane phases? Can he or she tolerate the frustration of failing and being unsuccessful most of the time? What is the real joy of achievement, success, and ultimate acceptance by one's peers in a given field? Do we have to exhibit major psychopathological features in order to achieve eminence in specific fields? What is the role of mind altering substances, mood disorders, and the like? This volume answers these questions and more.

 

Problem Finding, Problem Solving, and Creativity

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Many individuals studying problem solving consider creativity a special type of problem solving. On the other hand, many individuals studying creativity view problem solving as a special type of creative performance. What is truly the role of creativity in problem solving? What is the role of problem solving in creativity? And how are problem solving and creativity related to problem finding? This book addresses these questions, and fills an obvious need for an overview of the research on problem finding.

 

Divergent Thinking

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The research presented in this volume suggests that divergent thinking is an important component of the creative process. Divergent thinking tests are probably the most commonly used measure of children's potential for creative thinking. There are a number of unanswered questions about children's divergent thinking and creativity which are answered throughout the volume and may be identified as themes in the research.

The first theme is that the capacity for divergent thinking may not be normally distributed across all levels of ability (a relevant premise is that creative abilities are not evenly distributed across domains of performance and achievement). A second theme is that divergent thinking is influenced by the conditions under which it is assessed. A third theme of the book is methodological; several chapters explore existing evaluations of divergent thinking tests. A final theme is that divergent thinking is important for both basic and applied research. From the perspective of basic research, the divergent thinking model offers an empirically supported view of a cognitive process. From the applied perspective, divergent thinking can be viewed as one component of giftedness and predictive of several expressions of real-world creativity.

 

Theories of Creativity

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The complex field of creativity has shifted away from the traditional humanistic, child-centered approach toward a more empirical approach. Both conceptually and methodologically, attention is now paid to the creative performances of adults and their achievements in a variety of settings.

Theories of Creativity explores this new emphasis and the renewed interest in the field in an exciting collection of articles by leading authorities who represent major approaches to the study of creativity.