Comments on Debate in Divergent Thinking Tests and Creativity

This week's debate was whether or not divergent tests are the best way to measure creativity. The affirmative team argued that it was the gold standard of measurement since it was created so long ago and still used after a couple updates. The negative side agreed that is was a valid measure of creativity but should be supplemented with other tests such as the consensual assessment technique or self-report. The affirmative side definitely made the application of divergent more clear to me in the fact that they show different domains of creativity and they are best for the measuring the general population. They made good points such as arguing that children should be able to be measured and the divergent thinking test doesn't rely on experience or education such as the consensual assessment technique might. It also is a very objective measure of creativity. However, after the debate I liked Anastasia's example that the divergent thinking test was like the SATs of measuring creativity instead of intelligence. It was an objective standard that doesn't always correlate with the consensual assessment test. I think that divergent thinking tests are best to measure little-c and the consensual assessment test is best at measuring Big-C. The argument between the two groups about process versus person is very interesting as well. I think you can be a very creative person and still have an unoriginal process as long as the product is creative. That might be why in general I still believe the consensual assessment technique is the most valid.

MacArthur Fellow Sally Temple

As students studying Psychology we should all be interested in a 2008 MacArthur Fellow Sally Temple. Dr. Temple is a neurologist studying stem cells in the brain and researching specifically how stem cells create certain tissues and form to make up systems such as the central nervous system. She discovered that even adult brains have stem cells which means that the brain does have some regenerative processes. Her research is fascinating and most likely significant to the future of medicine and stem cell use. Dr. Temple studies brain cells and their capacity to create treatments for damage to the central nervous system. Not only is she an expert in her field but she works in a creative capacity as she searches and experiments new ways to use stem cells. Her work is very cool and she seems worthy of the grant money to help fund her research. If you want to know more about her I have placed the link to her page on the MacArthur Foundation website below:

http://www.macfound.org/fellows/813/

The Psychological Value of Research in Creativity

The first question on this week's PDQ for Wednesday is "In your opinion, what is the value of doing research on creativity?". I found this question to be central to the topic of this course. I also wanted to talk about it not only in my PDQ but in this blog and possibly get some feedback from my classmates. The reason I believe research in creativity is so important is not because I find creativity important in all aspects of our life, even though I do, I find it interesting and important when applied to coping mechanisms and therapeutic approaches. Creativity has been important in creating all aspects of culture including but not limited to innovative technology, enjoyable art and media, and problem solving to society's many issues. This however, in my opinion is not what makes it necessary to study creativity in a psychological setting. Creativity is a desired trait in most careers and in most aspects of life but you can be creative and not necessarily analyze it to use it successfully. I feel that the most important research and the research that will become much more relevant in the future is how we can use our creative outlets to express our emotions and teach people skills in new ways. Music therapy, dance therapy, and art therapy are underutilized in my opinion. In the field of psychology more research should be done to support these therapies because they can be much more significant in therapy and education. Creativity is a trait that should be explored more to find new uses to benefit people psychologically.