Explaining Creativity The Science of Human Innovation

by Sawyer, R. Keith

• ISBN13: 9780195304459
• ISBN10: 0195304454
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Explaining Creativity is an accessible introduction to the latest scientific research on creativity. In the last 50 yearss, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists have increasingly studied creativity, and we now know more about creativity that at any point in history. ExplainingCreativity considers not only arts like painting and writing, but also science, stage performance, and business innovation. Until about a decade ago, creativity researchers tended to focus on highly valued activities like fine art painting and Nobel prize winning science. Sawyer brings thisresearch up to date by including movies, music videos, cartoons, videogames, hypertext fiction, and computer technology. For example, this is the first book on creativity to include studies of performance and improvisation. Sawyer draws on the latest research findings to show the importance ofcollaboration and context in all of these creative activities.Today's science of creativity is interdisciplinary; in addition to psychological studies of creativity, Explaining Creativity includes research by anthropologists on creativity in non-Western cultures, and research by sociologists about the situations, contexts, and networks of creative activity.Explaining Creativity brings these approaches together within the sociocultural approach to creativity pioneered by Howard Becker, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Howard Gardner. The sociocultural approach moves beyond the individual to consider the social and cultural contexts of creativity,emphasizing the role of collaboration and context in the creative process.

Author Biography

R. Keith Sawyer is Associate Professor of Education at Washington University. He is the author of many books on creativity, including Improvised Dialogues, Creating Conversations, and Group Creativity.

Table of Contents

Part I Conceptions
Chapter 1 Introduction	3	(6)
Chapter 2 Conceptions of Creativity	9	(26)
INTERLUDE 1 Defining Creativity	35	(4)
Part II Individualist Approaches
Chapter 3 Personality Psychology	39	(18)
Chapter 4 The Second Wave: Cognitive Psychology	57	(20)
Chapter 5 Biology	77	(20)
Chapter 6 Computational Approaches	97	(16)
INTERLUDE 2 From Individual to Context	113	(4)
Part. III Contextualist Approaches
Chapter 7 Sociology	117	(20)
Chapter 8 Culture	137	(18)
Chapter 9 History	155	(18)
INTERLUDE 3 Applying Individualist and Contextualist Approaches to Creativity	173	(4)
Part IV Artistic Creativity
Chapter 10 Visual Creativity	177	(28)
Chapter 11 Writing	205	(18)
Chapter 12 Music	223	(20)
Chapter 13 Acting	243	(16)
INTERLUDE 4 Goodbye to Our Creativity Myths	259	(4)
Part V Everyday Creativity
Chapter 14 Science	263	(18)
Chapter 15 Business Creativity	281	(14)
Chapter 16 How to Be More Creative	295	(20)
Epilogue	315	(4)
References	319	(28)
Index	347