Creativity

Beschreibung

How cognitive psychology explains human creativity Conventional wisdom holds that creativity is a mysterious qualitypresent in a select few individuals. The rest of us, the commonview goes, can only stand in awe of great creative achievements: wecould never paint Guernica or devise the structure of the DNAmolecule because we lack access to the rarified thoughts andinspirations that bless geniuses like Picasso or Watson and Crick.Presented with this view, today's cognitive psychologists largelydiffer finding instead that "ordinary" people employ the samecreative thought processes as the greats. Though used and developeddifferently by different people, creativity can and should bestudied as a positive psychological feature shared by allhumans. Creativity: Understanding Innovation in Problem Solving, Science,Invention, and the Arts presents the major psychological theoriesof creativity and illustrates important concepts with vibrant anddetailed case studies that exemplify how to study creative actswith scientific rigor. Creativity includes: * Two in-depth case studies--Watson and Crick's modeling of the DNAstructure and Picasso's painting of Guernica-- serve as examplesthroughout the text * Methods used by psychologists to study the multiple facets ofcreativity * The "ordinary thinking" or cognitive view of creativity and itschallengers * How problem-solving and experience relate to creativethinking * Genius and madness and the relationship between creativity andpsychopathology * The possible role of the unconscious in creativity * Psychometrics--testing for creativity and how personality factorsaffect creativity * Confluence theories that use cognitive, personality,environmental, and other components to describe creativity Clearly and engagingly written by noted creativity expert RobertWeisberg, Creativity: Understanding Innovation in Problem Solving,Science, Invention, and the Arts takes both students and layreaders on an in-depth journey through contemporary cognitivepsychology, showing how the discipline understands one of the mostfundamental and fascinating human abilities. "This book will be a hit. It fills a large gap in the literature.It is a well-written, scholarly, balanced, and engaging book thatwill be enjoyed by students and faculty alike." --David Goldstein, University of Toronto

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Robert W. Weisberg

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Cognitive Psychology Kognitive Psychologie Psychologie Psychology Psychology Special Topics Spezialthemen Psychologie

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"It's a special treat to read a book that goes against conventionalwisdom and that reinterprets past work in a light of a new theory."(PsycCritiques, April 25, 2007) "Among science's many joys is the devlish joy of contrarianism.It's a special treat to read a book that goes against conventionalwisdom and that reinterprets past work in light of a new theory.Robert Weisberg's hefty, heterodox Creativity: UnderstandInnovation in Problem Solving, Science, Invention, and the Artsis a major work for the psychology of creativity." --Paul J. Silvia (PsycCRITIQUES)
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