The short answer is, it’s complicated. But there are some tangible traits that separate a bank teller from an artist.
BY FAISAL HOQUE | May 1, 2014
A great deal of creativity comes from finding the relationship between two unrelated things and defining the value residing in those connections.
Through our diverse experiences, we can use divergent thinking to piece these connections together and come up with innovative solutions.
But, what is it that makes some people more capable of this than others?
A 2013 study in the Creativity Research Journal helps shed some light on this subject. Researchers Edward Nęckaa and Teresa Hlawaczb wanted to test the effects of temperament and divergent thinking on 60 visual artists and 60 bank officers.
Temperament, in psychology, is thought to be the part of people’s personalities that is innate, rather than learned. This includes traits such as introversion or extroversion.
Divergent thinking, however, is a process in which you’re generating ideas by exploring many solutions–using such tools as freewriting and associative thinking. This is the opposite of convergent thinking, in which you’re taking logical steps to arrive at a conclusion.
So, how does temperament and divergent thinking affect creativity?
Read the full article @FastCompany.
[Image: Flickr user John McStravick]
