Mark Runco

1. Mark A. Runco
University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

2. Nature & Nurture
 “hereditary genius”
 Twin studies
 DRD2 & DRD4 with certain divergent thinking test
scores
 Fluency but not originality
 Controlling general intelligence

3. Creativity as Problem Solving
 Not all problem solving requires or allows creativity
 Creativity as
 Problem finding
 Self expression
 Exploration
 Play

4. Divergent Thinking
 Guilford (1968) & Torrance (1995)
 Open-ended (vs. convergent, conventional, correct)
 Fluency, originality, flexibility
 Improvements
 Scoring, predictions, criteria, stimuli & tasks, etc.
 Questions of testing or measuring any creativity

5. Generality vs. Domain Specificity
 Verbal, mathematical, musical, spatial, kinesthetic,
inter- and intrapersonal, and naturalistic
 Low correlations among performances
 Yet specificity may reflect level of analysis
 Performance not process
 Ideational processes, interpretive processes

6. Hierarchical Framework for the Study of Creativity
Creative Potential Creative Performance
Person Products
Personality Traits, Idiosyncrasies, & Inventions, Patents, Publications
Characteristics Ideas
Process Persuasion
Cognitive Systems
Social Individual-Field-Domain
Historical
Interactions
Press Person X Environment (PxE)
Distal State X Trait
Evolution
Zeitgeist
Culture
Immediate
Places & Environments

7. Creativity as Adaptation
 Art as healing, cathartic
 Creative problem solving as coping
 Yet creativity can be maladaptive (E.g., writers)
 Adaptation can lead to conformity
 Creativity can be proactive rather than reactive

8. Creativity & health
 Creativity leads to health
 Creativity leads to illness
 Health leads to creativity
 Illness leads to creativity
 Third (“hidden”) variable
 Overinclusive thinking

9. Blind vs. Directed Process
 Simonton on Gurenica
 Evaluations of ideas
 The Dark Side of Creativity

10. Overview
 Nature and nurture (“range of reaction”)
 Generality and specificity
 Problem solving and problem finding
 Divergent thinking (and measurement as whole)
 Adaptation
 Health (psychological & physical)
 Blind vs directed process