Analyzing Ambiguity in the Standard Definition of Creativity

Abstract

The increasingly rich and diverse literature on creativity has its core in psychology, but spans the cognitive sciences from artificial intelligence to philosophy and borrows from the wider humanities. Perhaps because of this immense breadth, there remains considerable disagreement with respect to the identity of the object of research. How to define creativity?According to the "standard definition," creativity consists of "effectiveness and originality." This definition is (relatively) consensual and therefore appears to capture something common to academic concepts of creativity. I conduct a conceptual analysis of the definition; thereby, I isolate and describe two ambiguities. Firstly, the definition leaves open the choice of the context and norms against which to measure originality and effectiveness. Secondly, it does not discuss the possible role of a subjective judge.My goal is not to propose yet another model of creativity, but to clearly identify the possible meanings of the word creativity in academic research. The existence of different interpretations does not necessarily reflect a fundamental disagreement about reality, but rather a failure to achieve consensus on a shared technical language. Therefore, simply recognizing and acknowledging the competition between diverse interpretations can form the basis for successful communication and for a complementary division of labor; it could improve the viability of interdisciplinary collaborations and prevent unnecessary fragmentation of the field.

New technologies and ambient marketing communication

“…Anna Schiebe (2013) uses wording like unconventional and original in form and utilizes the element of surprise when defining marketing. Creativity (which is by consensus understood as a vector of originality and usefulness/relevance -in Runco and Jaeger, 2012;Amabile and Pratt, 2016;Colin, 2017;Walia, 2019;Carruthers and MacLean, 2019;and others) thus becomes necessary for this type of communication. Creativity is an aspect thanks to which ambient communication and guerilla campaign become more successful than classical forms of marketing of communication.…”

Understanding creativity in primary English, science, and history

“…While most interviewees attempted to define creativity, there was a general difficulty expressing abstract perceptions of creativity. This is perhaps not surprising as despite the general academic consensus around 'the standard definition' of creativity, the concepts of novelty and value each remain open to a range of different interpretations (Colin, 2017). This ambiguity was recognised by a participating science expert: "Creativity is interesting because…it's a really nebulous term and you could ask different people what their definition is, and it would all be a different one".…”

Impact of Daily Choral Singing and Creative Writing Activities on the Cognitive Development of Second-, Third-, and Fourth-Grade French Children from Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds

“…Recently, a consensus has emerged with a standard “bipartite” definition of creativity as requiring both originality and effectiveness [ 23 ]. The former term refers to the uniqueness and novelty value of a proposition, while the latter refers to its relevance, appropriateness, and utility [ 24 ]. In other words, creativity requires the ability to conceive ideas and generate responses that are not only novel, but also adaptive [ 25 ].…”