Creative Thinking: Problem Solving Skills and the Arts Orientation

This book presents the results of a series of studies of the relationships between thinking skills and the artistic personality. The relationships are explored in fifth grade, eighth grade, 12th grade and college through research with groups and individuals. Logic, insight, divergent thinking and creative thinking are routinely assessed in relation to indications of artistic interest or talent. Although each study is separate in its methods, results converge on a portrait of the developing artist as an individual who finds problems and solves them in his or her own way. The functional definition of creative thinking guides the research, and is validated by the results at all grade levels. The book also furnishes a conception of creative thinking as extremely difficult. This statistical conception is proposed as an explanation for why nonconformity is a common theme in stories by creative individuals-they are distant from the mode, using the distance to achieve self-definition. Educational implications focus on cognitive skills training within the context of the arts and a balance between conventional and exceptional educational experiences to build bridges between arts students and the wider community.