Creativity Training: A Cross Cultural Approach

To define creativity in precise terms is not only difficult but may also be restrictive, because many aspects involved in this type of behaviour still lack an objective and quantitative means of measurement. In general, research writers define creativity as a mental synthesis among cognitive factors which are distant and unrelated, or as the discovery of new factors which enlarge our perceptual field. This is what J.P. Guilford calls “the divergent thought” to point out the impulse to explore which is typical of this behaviour. In this sense, the creative phase of our mental activity is seen as distinct from the rational phase. The former is stimulated by an emotional need to explore new ways and the latter more concentrated on the rational use of logic in the problem solution process.