Self Motivation; Social Environment IDENTIFIERS Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

This paper examines the nature and evaluation of creative behavior, tracing the origins of creativity research and developing an interdisciplinary framework for such research. The first part of the paper is devoted to identifying the nature of some common misconceptions regarding the nature and evaluation of creative behaviors, and tracing their historical origins. It is argued that the currently accepted model for evaluating creative behavior, the Torrance Tests model, is misleading, culturally biased, and inhibitory of the very behavior that it attempts to measure. The second section focuses on an alternative approach toward the study of creative behavior that draws on research in developmental psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, behavioral science, and neurology. This approach, expressed most clearly in the work of T. M. Amabile, asserts that people will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by the interest, enjoyment, satisfaction, and challenge of the specific task and not by external pressures. Creativity is best conceptualized not as a personality trait or a general ability but as a behavior resulting from particular constellations of personal characteristics, cognitive abilities, and social environments. Contains 135 references. (MDM) * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ***********************************************7-4*******************