Why Big Theories are Fruitless, Fragmentation is Ideal, Defining Creativity is Overrated and Method-Driven Research is Urgent: Some Thoughts on the Flourishing State of Creativity Science
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Big theories Healthy pluralism Method-driven creativity scienceThis comment considers Glăveanu's observations about the state of creativity studies.I agree with Glăveanu's view of creativity research but disagree that it is bad.The history of psychology shows that "big theories" inevitably fail to fulfill their promise.Instead, as George Kelly argued long ago, complex problems with many facets are better served by a mix of big and small theories.Likewise, the diversity of creativity research is a sign of healthy pluralism, not lamentable fragmentation.Science doesn't proceed via central planning, and claims of "fragmentation" and "wasted effort" raise disturbing questions about who gets to decide what other scientists should study.Finally, creativity research should be more method-driven than it is.Methods are interesting in their own right, and they can be heuristics for generating good ideas as well as tools for solving problems.All told, this era of creativity research will be remembered as a period of renaissance rather than decline.I'm happy to have a chance to read and reflect on Glăveanu's (2014) essay on the state of creativity studies.We Americans are justifiably known for our thick-headed optimism -"It will all be okay" could be our motto, alongside "Does that come in a bigger size?"so it is easy for us to miss signs of impending disasters.Fields do occasionally wither or wander into dead ends.In experimental social psychology, one field I work in, a classic critical piece (Ring, 1967) predicted a doom that did come to pass.Is the science of creativity headed for a similar crisis?My own perspective on this topic is shaped by having too many irons in too many fires.Much of my work is in creativity, but I have separate lines of work in aesthetics, motivation, emotion, psychophysiology, experience-sampling methods and psychopathology.I also have a humanities side that reads and appreciates history and criticism.Traveling in many circles has provided a sort of anthropological perspective on the growing field of creativity.
Author: Paul J. Silvia
Institution: University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W1990220963