This article provides an update on the blind-variation and selective-retention theory of creativity (BVSR), beginning with an overview of its historical development. That brief narrative is then followed by a more extensive summary of recent enhancements in BVSR's conceptual foundations, including formal definitions of creative, sighted, and blind…

We discuss classroom activity comprised of small groups of students collaboratively tinkering with programs of dynamically manipulable figural models, posing problems regarding their mathematical properties and behaviors. We analyzed data from students' discourse taken from two classroom interventions employing a framework of creative mathematical…

A "Study and Research Path" (SRP) is a model, based on the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD), which describes the inquiry processes that take place when a new, generating question (Q[subscript 0]) is considered. The investigation of the question through different study and inquiry approaches leads to a rooted tree sequence of…

This article explores the extent of influence of culture on implicit theories of creativity among laypeople from the United States and Singapore, as well as the ethnic groups in Singapore. Adaptive and innovative styles of creativity were examined, as well as their own conceptions of creativity. Laypersons from the United States and Singapore were…

Too often, psychological debates become polarized into dichotomous positions. Such polarization may have occurred with respect to Campbell's (1960) blind variation and selective retention (BVSR) theory of creativity. To resolve this unnecessary controversy, BVSR was radically reformulated with respect to creative problem solving. The reformulation…

This article presents a discussion of research and theoretical perspectives on creativity and instructional design, offering a conceptual model of the connection between these two constructs that was originally proposed in the dissertation work of the first author (Clinton, Creativity and design: A study of the learning experience of instructional…

This article proposes a unified framework for understanding creative problem solving, namely, the explicit-implicit interaction theory. This new theory of creative problem solving constitutes an attempt at providing a more unified explanation of relevant phenomena (in part by reinterpreting/integrating various fragmentary existing theories of…

Theories of the creative process--including psychoanalytic, Gestalt, association, perceptual, humanistic, cognitive-developmental, and composite theories--are summarized and a new one offered, based on studies of creative scientists' descriptions of their work.

This paper first reviews existing models of creative problem solving in art and then proposes the Model for Idea Inception and Image Development in Art. This model consists of five stages: (1) associative exploration; (2) problem parameter exploration; (3) multiple focus exploration; (4) primary focus exploration; and (5) refinement. (Author/DB)

Two dimensions of Carl Jung's psychological system (preference for information and choice of decision making processes) are applied to creativity research. Examples of four personality types (sensing- thinking, sensing-feeling, intuition-feeling, and intuition-thinking) are represented by prominent social scientists. A systems model of science is…

This paper offers an extension of Graham Wallas' model of the creative process. It identifies periods of problem solving, incubation, and growth with specific points of initial idea inception, creative frustration, and illumination. Responses to creative frustration are described including denial, rationalization, acceptance of stagnation, and new…

Findings demonstrated that the Guilford-Mednick conceptualization of original thinking is applicable to preschool as well as to older children. (Author/RH)

This document contains three papers describing theoretical approaches and empirical findings concerning the role of anxiety in self-actualization. "Opposing Views of Anxiety and Self-Actualization" by Paul F. Zelhart describes theories of self-actualization that take opposite views of the role of anxiety in psychological development…

The author reviews research and theory about the role of incubation (a period in which there is no apparent activity toward problem solving but some progress toward a solution occurs) in creative thinking. Note: For related information, see EC 120 233-238. (CL)