4 confusing terms in Creativity
J. P. Guilford gave a very robust model of structure of our intellect. Although it is quite a complex 3 dimension concept to explain to a general reader of this blog, we can understand it like this - there is some content entering your brain in different ways, your brain does some operation to it and it results in a product.
Like, you read the above para. Some content entered your brain in the form of words written by me, your brain tried to recall, relate with your knowledge base and you decided to read further.
The pic below represents the Guilford Model. The combination of these factors (5 x 5 x 6 =150 in all) decides the level of Intellect. Let us see the lowest level of Intellect. Visual - Unit - Cognition. It means the lowest Intellect person should be able to identify, tell, name / touch / face of someone. Should be able to tell, name, identify, which word, letter is this etc. Like a toddler, the lowest human intellect, can identify her mother by touch, smell, voice.
Going up the ladder, the highest intellect is evaluation - behavioral - implications. What do the Honourable Supreme Court judges do ? They evaluate the implications of behavioral trends.
In my opinion, if one really understands, incorporates the 150 factors (Now a days 180 factors), s / he is a human X-ray machine to study, scan, people, situations just by meeting for a few minutes, reading about them, watching their videos etc.
Someday I will plan a 2-3 hour long workshop to elaborate this model.
Convergent thinking, Divergent thinking, Intelligence and Creativity are often confused terms people use indiscriminately. Let's see what is the relationship between them.
Convergent thinking and Intelligence are related terms. I strongly believe that Intelligence is convergent thinking with speed and accuracy. Look around us. People whom we consider intelligent people, who score high on intelligence tests are the ones who think of solutions very fast. They are very particular, meticulous, about bureaucratic details, procedures followed etc. A typical government machinery, routine corporate, falls under this category. Selection, promotion, in all aspects the deciding factor is how scrupulously are the details followed in taking decisions.The Police, Armed Services, Intelligence services whose job essentially is of the maintenance type, fall under this category. As an unwritten law, but long practice, the creative, thinking types are eliminated at a very early stage in many selection processes. This is essential also. As you cannot be humane, kind, to someone with AK 47 in hand. You need to neutralize him with speed and accuracy, more than his.
Divergent thinking and Creativity are related terms. Divergent means deviation, going away from the routine. A scene much familiar to us all reading Road Diverted board every here and there. Divergent thinking relates to the flexibility, originality dimensions of creativity. It is one of the reasons, may not be explicitly stated, that there is more innovation, production, research, in a pluralistic society which allows you to practice your beliefs. The ever increasing emphasis on being an “inclusive” society, organisation, is also an extension of the core concept of divergence. Yesterday I read very explicitly stated policy on an education institute website that they welcome and promote people of all nations, origins, sex, sexual orientation, physical status…..with all things getting machine based, remotely operated, the boundary lines are nearly non existent. It is not uncommon to see people exploiting the differently abled people to work for peanuts. That is the misuse of Divergent thinking.
How much together or opposite Intelligence and Creativity are ?
A long debated question since time immemorial. In the initial phases of intelligence research, early 1900, it was believed that there is a g factor of Intelligence. G means general. If one was deemed to be intelligent, then he was intelligent per se’ across all domains, activities. But it was proved to be wrong soon. Different theories emerged leading to the most comprehensive Multiple Intelligences theory by Howard Gardener which we will see later in more details
Then came the concept of creativity. For long time it was believed that Intelligence and Creativity are interchangeable terms and one assumes the other.
However, longitudinal research (A research in which the subject, means the person being studied, is studied for a long time like 20 - 25 years) conclusively proved that there is low degree of correlation between Intelligence and Creativity. That is, presence of one does not imply presence or absence of the other.
In simpler terms it means that a highly intelligent person may not be creative. Without being judgemental I would like to recall, I have not seen any IIM Risk Management Professor risking to leave job and do own venture. Or some senior bureaucrat on MSME, advising all everything about venturing, doing some venture.
A creative person on the other hand, may not have even basic Intelligence like we saw Einstein asking the tram conductor to count fare and return change which he used to pocket quietly. We see so many Ph. D.s, cine stars, painters, writers, so creative but devoid of simple business sense. A glaring social example is an old controversy between Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi over asking for lifetime royalty of the songs sung by them. The simple, creative, Mohammed Rafi thought once you have been paid for singing, your right is over. Lata Mangeshkar’s stand was, if the Company stands to earn money from that song, record, why should the artiste also not be paid that long ? The end result - till date, Lataji earns from the sale of songs shevsung in the 1950s, she is living a comfortable life, hardly anyone knows what happened to the Rafi sahab family thereafter…..
Conclusively, we can say that till a level, intelligence is essential for the fluency, elaboration aspects of creativity, but Intelligence can stand alone.
Dr Prakash Moghe
Moghe Education Consultancy
8085906062, 7489447223
drpnmoghe@gmail.com
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