Creativity and Mental Disorders: Subjective Dilemma The mentally ill have been viewed by society as being more creative than normal people. However, studies have shown that this may not be true in every case. Current research is inconclusive about whether the mentally ill have any more creative potential than those without mental disorders. I believe that this will never be truly resolved, because creativity is too subjective to be narrowed down to data that can be truly measured by researchers; however, I believe that further studies should be done in this field for the better of humanity. Creativity’s lack of measurability and subjective nature are the underlying problems with researchers search for discovering whether creativity and mental disorders are directly related. Some may say that you can measure creativity by creative accomplishments, however, there are researchers who have acknowledged creativities ambiguity. Two researchers who have acknowledged this are Matthew C. Keller and Peter M. Visscher in an academic journal for Nature Neuroscience, “Creativity is a slippery concept. There is no agreed-upon method for measuring it, and so no single metric is likely to capture it fully” (Keller & Visscher, 2015, p. 2). The subjective nature of creativity can be easily seen by how one may view modern art as creative, while another may view it as trash. Because creativity is subjective it will never be accurately measured. Researcher’s that acknowledge this may be
Creativity or the lack of encouraging creativity can be seen declining as you get lower in the class level in Anyons research. She states “Work tasks do not usually request creativity” and “Creativity is not often requested in social studies and Science projects”. In an article entitled “The Impact of Creativity on the Brain” by Judy Willis M.D; M.E.D posted on the website Radtech.com. “Neuroscience and cognitive science research are increasingly providing information that correlates creativity with intelligence; academic, social, and emotional success; and the development of skill sets and the highest information processing (Executive functions)”. This basically states that if creativity is encouraged then the upper intelligence functions of students are developed which includes social and emotional success. Which shows that if you stifle creativity you basically limit the
In the context of creativity’s stated definition, we will proceed to group our arguments into three themes of factors: cognitive ability, expertise training, and environmental conditions. The human brain is highly adaptable and can continue to develop new cognitive abilities, even past adulthood (Norman, 2015). Proper cognitive expertise and training can help workers produce and operate in ingenious ways (Ginamarie, Lertiz & Mumford, 2004). Finally, the working environment can both motivate or stifle creative output. Managers can influence all three components: expertise, thinking skills, and motivation (Amabile, 1998).
The first thing that comes to our minds when we think of “creativity” is things that have to do with arts. This is not true. Being creativity and having creativity can also be used in many activities or professions such as in businesses, creating a sport team, and in any other things you name it. Robinson has taught this through his book, “Out of Our Minds” but also how writers and artist see the world a little different compared to how others, scientists, mathematicians, historians, and psychologists look at the world. Also how educations and ageing plays a role in our creativity.
S. I. Hayakawa wrote and published an article named "What lt Means to Be Creative". This article challenged how a creative person could be defined and identified. In Hayakawa’s essay he presents several points of view an individual could be characterized as being creative. His writing forces you to contemplate on how a person’s aptitudes are categorized. Hayakawa tests your ability to be opened minded and makes you visualize how a person could be described as a creative individual but may discredited themselves due to society’s standard of this word. After reading his writing, I believe I can summarize his analogy.
In addition, Figure 1 shows the number of publications on psychological safety and creativity from 1970-2015. The study of those topics increases year by year. However, it shows only limited studies are addressed in the reputable journals. An opportunity for future study is widely open.
Creativity is often more about the process rather than the end project, it is useful for many reasons:
IQ is defined as a measure of intelligence that shows the ratio of an individual’s mental age to their chronological age, this is then multiplied by 100 (Cattel 1972). Creativity cannot be measured by undertaking an IQ test, creativity is subjective and the simplest way of defining it is the ability to create original, useful and surprising new things. However, over the years pioneering research has inspired psychologists to devise tests to measure creativity. The most famous Divergent Thinking test is Guildfords Alternative Uses Task established in 1967. This test proposes that the individual involved should think of alternative uses for a common item such as a brick. This way of measuring Divergent Thinking is universally used in contemporary testing of creativity.
A Beautiful Mind illustrates many of the topics relating to psychological disorders. The main character of the film, John Nash, is a brilliant mathematician who suffers from symptoms of Schizophrenia. His symptoms include paranoid delusions, grandiosity, and disturbed perceptions. The disease disrupts his social relationships, his studies, and his work. The more stressful his life becomes the more his mind is not able to distinguish between reality and fantasy.
Last exemplar showing creativity was the world wide web. The inventor Tim Berners-Lee, when inventing the WWW, changed the way we communicate, the way we socialise, the way we do research, the way we learn and many other things. This shows creativity, as this one computer network has changed the way of life, and potentially have made things easier. The obvious advantage of the WWW is that every website you can think of is found though this computer system, thus can’t really compare to any website, as if there was no WWW, then these websites would not be existent. Though there could be some negatives such as wrong information, and other factors, the WWW shows creativity because, creativity is about making people see things in different ways,
Deviant behavior is something that is usually disapproved and it is when someone goes against the ‘norms’ of society. According to the American Psychiatric Association (2015), mental illness is technically a health condition involving changes in behavior, emotion, or thinking. So where does mental illness come in to play with being a deviant behavior? Well, shockingly mental illness and deviance go hand in hand quite often. Everyone who is considered a ‘deviant’ may not be mentally ill, however, majority of people diagnosed with a mental illness are considered deviant. When sociologists study deviance, they are also studying mental illness. Mental illness is something that clearly will imply some sort of deviation from the defined norms of society.
According to Baird and colleagues, mind wandering can enhance creativity goals and problems that were encountered. Creativity finds solutions that are novel, and high quality (Matlin, 2009). J.P. Guilford researched how we measure creativity. Creativity should be measured by divergent production. This research demonstrates the number of different responses that are made for each test item (Matlin, 2009).
Men have called me mad, but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence--whether much that is glorious--whether all that is profound--does not spring from disease of thought--from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night - Edgar Allen Poe
The first step in studying creativity is to define what it is. One of the first issues that must be addressed is the relationship between creativity and high intelligence. Since the same word, genius, is often used to refer to people who are highly creative and also to people who are highly intelligent, a common assumption is that creativity and high intelligence are the same thing. This, however, is a misconception.
Creative intelligence is an innate characteristic with which we are born; this is an aspect in the development of our mental
Creativity and creative process figure prominently in the theories of both Freud and Jung. Freud considers the source and motivation for creativity while Jung focuses on creative process. According to Freud, creativity is rooted in conflicts. The creative process is a response to the need to resolve conflicts. Freud includes daydreams and fantasies in the realm of creative works. They are inner desires, frustrations, or discontent transformed into art, literature, or music. Jung also believes human consciousness provides the content for art, literature and music. He identifies two types of creative processes: psychological and visionary. The psychological mode originates out of the collective unconscious and archetypes. Visionary creative processes are transcendental and universal in both meaning and response. This visionary mode is limited to the gifted few being capable of its expression (Malchiodi, 2007).