Divergent Thinking - Runco, Mark A.

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Résumé :
The research presented in this volume suggests that divergent thinking is an important component of the creative process. Divergent thinking tests are probably the most commonly used measure of children's potential for creative thinking. There are a number of unanswered questions about children's divergent thinking and creativity which are answered throughout the volume and may be identified as themes in the research. The first theme is that the capacity for divergent thinking may not be normally distributed across all levels of ability (a relevant premise is that creative abilities are not evenly distributed across domains of performance and achievement). A second theme is that divergent thinking is influenced by the conditions under which it is assessed. A third theme of the book is methodological; several chapters explore existing evaluations of divergent thinking tests. A final theme is that divergent thinking is important for both basic and applied research. From the perspective of basic research, the divergent thinking model offers an empirically supported view of a cognitive process. From the applied perspective, divergent thinking can be viewed as one component of giftedness and predictive of several expressions of real-world creativity.

Biographie:
Mark A. Runco

Sommaire:

Preface
DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES
Parental Divergent Thinking
Birth-Order and Family Size
Independence and Creativity
Television, Radio, and Children's Creativity
EDUCATIONAL ISSUES
Teachers' Judgements of Creativity
Enhancing the Originality of Ideas
Enhancing the Flexibility of Ideas
Problem Finding and CreativityEnvironmental Cues and Divergent Thinking
DIMENSIONS OF DIVERGENT THINKING
Ideational Originality
Ideational Flexibility
Four Indices of Divergent Thinking
High and Low Divergent Thinkers
ISSUES OF VALIDITY
Predicting Creative Performance from Divergent Thinking
The Interaction of IQ and Ideational Fluency
A Factor Analysis of Divergent Thinking Test Scores
The Threshold of Intelligence
Associative Hierarchies
OVERVIEW AND CONCLUSIONS
Objectivity in the Measurement of Creative Thinking
Future Research and Practical Suggestions
The Author
Author Index
Subject Index