Creativity And Cognition; More Than Just Aptitude.

Running Head: CREATIVITY AND COGNITION; MORE THAN JUST APTITUDE.

Creativity and Cognition; more than just Aptitude.
Odalys Pacheco
PSYC 6235-3
Dr. Ruth Crocker

Walden University
May 18, 2009

Abstract
Most of the people think of being creative as someone with an extreme talent or gift like Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, to name a few. Perhaps the word creativitywhat first brings to thought is great paintings, sculptures, music and poetry. Beyond those extreme talents there are other things that humans do in their daily life activities that can consider a person creative. Thus it is important to not let those talents define creativity but focus more in the quality and the functioning of creativity since in many of these cases only some are capable ofcreative thinking. From a cognitive perspective human beings are naturally creative, in many times one tent to show it more than others and those that do are also not afraid to take risks and sometimes even go against the current. Nevertheless, creativity is the opportunity to go far and beyond of what is expected and to be filled with new and rich ideas.

Introduction
It is amazing how thehumans have evolved from living in caves, barely any clothing to what it is now. Throughout this evolution the world has come across with great inventors, artists, sculptors, musicians, scientists and more, yet these gifted people are not the only models of the great use of creativity. People mistakenly picture this as the only definition or example of creativity without being aware that theconcept of thinking itself can be done creatively. Stenberg (1999) provided a great example, “For instance, the mere fact that we readily construct a vast array of concrete and abstract concepts from an ongoing stream of otherwise discrete experiences implies a striking generative ability; concepts are creations” (p. 190). How many times people say that they are not creative? The functioning of humancognition is what permitted this evolution to occur in the first place as well as the use of creativity. Creativity and cognition play together a very important role especially when cognition is used mainly to resolve a problem, given that this can also be done creatively. Sternberg (2005) indicates that a person has to have skills in order to reevaluate a difficult issue in which a solutionwithstands yet he or she also needs to have “the attitude that leads to this redefinition” (p. 348). A great recommendation to become an effective leader in life, is to be aware that one needs “creative skills and attitudes to generate powerful ideas; analytical intelligence to determine whether they are good ideas; practical intelligence to implement the ideas effectively and to persuade others tolisten to and follow the ideas; and wisdom to ensure that the ideas represent a common good for all stakeholders, not just for some of them” (Sternberg, 2005, p. 348).

Creativity
To define creativity Smith (2005) stated that it is best defined by means of the originality of its products, not by their splendor, value, utility, and or productivity. In other words, what might not be of good usetoday has the possibility of becoming useful in the future (Smith, 2005). Amabile (1996) refers to (cited in Sternberg, 2005) “creativity as to skills and attitudes needed in generating ideas and products that are (a) relatively novel, (b) high in quality, and (c) appropriate to the task at hand” (p. 348). Equally, Gardner (1989) described that “‘Creativity is best described as the humancapacity to regularly solve problems or to fashion products in a domain, in a way that is initially novel but ultimately acceptable in a culture’” (as cited in Meneely & Portillo, 2005, p. 156). The occurrence of creativity “emerges in context within a person–environment system that can be studied with psychological and performance-based assessments” (Meneely & Portillo, 2005, p. 164). Lewin...