Unified Theory of Creativity

12 June 2017

Unified Theory of Creativity

(Integrative, system, multifactor, complex, synthetic, synergetic, general, componential, interactionist, autopoietic)

The history of the development of the unified, theory of creativity

1. A Unified Theory of Creativity built on the Principle of the “Economy of thought” which is seen as the basis of the theory of knowledge and the concept of “the unity of the world.” (E. Mach, 1872; R. Avenarius, 1876) and “Economy of effort in thinking” that underlies the laws of artistic creativity (A.A. Potebnya 1862; A.N. Veselovsky 1904; D.N. Ovsianiko-Kulikovsky, B.A.Lezin, 1907).

2. The assumption of the unity of the psychological mechanisms of phantasy, poetic creation, children’s play, adults’ day-dreams and wit “Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming” (Sigmund Freud, 1908).

3. The General Theory of Creativity, based on the laws of artistic and technical creativity, created by a group of authors (I.O.Beletsky, I. Lapshin, A.L. Pogodin, V. Kharziev, T. Raynov et al.) and set out in the 8-volume work “Issues of Theory and Psychology of Creativity”, edited by B.A. Lezin, published in 1907-1923 in Kharkiv.

4. Creating a General Theory of Creativity –“Eurology” uniting technical, scientific and artistic creativity. The theory is based on intrinsic relationships between the creativity of nature, the universal laws of the Universe and the general evolution of nature (P.K. Engelmeyer, 1910; M.A. Bloch, 1920).

5. An autonomous theory of creativity, based on universal methodological principles and its own specific method (S.O. Gruzenberg, 1923); Unified methodological and value foundations of creativity (B.G. Yaroshevsky, 1972); General psychology as a particular manifestation of the unified theory of creativity, the concept of the creative nature of the human psyche (V.T. Kudryavtsev, 1990).

6. Visionary creativity is a manifestation of the collective unconscious, space images and universal archetypes (C. Jung, 1930, 1955); Synchronicity: Science and Myth ( A. Combs, M. Holland, 1996); Creativity as synchronicity, is holistic, complex, deeply meaningful, surprising, dependent on chance and is the embodiment of the historical, abstract and timeless into time (Rita Durant, 2002).

7. Creativity as a realization of innate structures and mechanisms: Mythological thinking (C. Levi – Strauss, 1931); Innate generative structures of language (N.Chomsky, 1955); Archaic thinking (M. Eliade, 1963); “The unconscious is structured like a language” (Jacques Lacan, 1979); The hidden, unconscious mechanisms and patterns of human knowledge (M. Foucault, 1966), Primitive, primordial thinking (S. Martindale, 1976, 1990).

8. Creativity as the generation and selection of combinations.
Producing random images through spontaneous variation, which the outer environment selects (W. James, 1890); Generation of random combinations or ideas and their creative choice (H. Poincare, 1913); Production of random combinations of possible solutions to a problem and their critical evaluation (J. Hadamard, 1954); Combinational creativity, which is the easiest method to achieve creativity, involves unfamiliar combinations of familiar ideas (Margaret Boden, 2004); Select-and-combine model of creativity in designing and creating artefacts (V.Goel, 2014); creativity as ‘the process of making alterations to, and new combinations with, preexisting ideas and artefacts, to create something new (D. Henriksen, P. Mishra, 2014); Creativity as conceptual combination” (G. L. Murphy, 1990; E. J. Wisniewski, 1996; F.J. Costello, M.T. Keane (2000).

9. The hypothesis of the unity of mechanisms of humour, scientific discovery and art. The universal mechanism of “bisociation” underlying all forms of personal creative activity Creative act is a bisociation of two apparently incompatible frames of thought, independent matrices of perception or two unconnected matrices of experience. The result is either a collision ending in laughter, or their fusion in a new intellectual synthesis, or their confrontation in an aesthetic experience. In the creative act, the artist uncovers, selects, reshuffles, combines, and synthesizes already existing facts, ideas, faculties, and skills. (A. Kostler, 1964).

10. Creativity is the Realization of Creative Cosmic Force, the fundamental nature of the Universe and an intrinsic characteristic of being. Manifestation of the Vital Force (George Coghill, 1929; Herbert Read, 1943; S. Buhler, 1951; E. Sinnott, 1955, 1957; Th. Dobzhansky, 1954, 1974); Creativity as the quality of protoplasm and the primary, fundamental quality of life (Harold H. Anderson, 1960); Creativity as a Life Force (d’Arsy Hayman, 1960; G. Kneller (1965); Cosmological approach to Creativity, holism, and emergent evolution as the fundamental factors of change and creation (F. Barron, 1965, 1995); Manifestation of the super-conscious and realization of the spectrum of creativity (W. Harman, J. Reinhold, 1984); Creativity is the ordering of the Universe (P. Davies, 1989); The Universe as unfolding creation. Creativity is the celebration of the unfolding of the Cosmos (B. Swimme, Th. Berry, 1992, 1994); God is the symbol of creativity in nature and universe laws of self-organization and complexity (Stuart A. Kauffman, (1995, 2008); Unity and creativity are the fundamental characteristics of our Universe. Creative properties of Nature. Theory of Creative Systems. (Christopher Chase, 1996); Universe’s creativity reveals itself in the laws of nature, human consciousness and mind (F. D. Peat, 2000); The narrative, contingent, coherent Universe as a creative process (Gianluca Bocchi, Mauro Ceruti, 2002); Creativity as God and Dao (Gordon Kaufman, 2004, 2007); Universal, cosmic system approach to creativity (Alfredo Montuori, 2011).

11. Creativity is the universal of universals and the ultimate ground of the universe.

It is the process which underlies all creatures, the fundamental force which spurs on the universe, that ultimate principle by which the many which are the universe disjunctively, become the one actual occasion. It lies in the nature of things that the many enter into complex unity (Alfred Whitehead, 1929).
He coined the term “creativity” in his Religion in the Making (1926).

12. Creative Evolution. Life and consciousness are synonymous with invention and freedom. Life in its entirety, is regarded as a creative evolution a reality which is making itself (A. Bergson, 1907); Emergent Evolution and The Emergence of Novelty (S. Alexander, C. Lloyd Morgan, 1923); Holism and Evolution. The creation of wholes, and ever more highly organized wholes is an inherent character of the universe (Jan Smuts, 1926); Creativity is the forming principle and way of a human being, with person as the primary creative reality (E. Mounier, 1936); artistic creativity as participantion in the Divine Intelligibility, emanation of “spiritual unconscious”, realization of Divine intuition, deep subjectivity an artist’s habitus (J. Maritain, 1953); Evolution as the concentration and planetarization of consciousness (Teilhard de Chardin, 1955).

13. Creativity as a form of global, universal evolution, emergent process of self-organization ( E. Jantsch, 1980; F. Capra, 1989; N.N. Moiseev, 1989, H. Bloom, 1995, 2010; L. Gabora, 1997; H. Morowitz, 2002; K. Urban, 2003; M. Ceruti, 2008; L. Margulis, 2008; A. Montuori, 2014).

14. Transcendental creative systems: An exploration using General Living Systems Theory. Creativity is considered synonymous with life for life processes are a continuous act of creation. Life is a conscious or unconscious creative process and creativity is inherent in everything from the processes of the simplest cell to the theoretical thoughts. (Сarlisle Bergquist, 1999).

15. Evolutionary epistemology: the idea of unified, innate structures and mechanisms of evolutionary development of nature, language, cognition and creativity. Understanding creativity as Blind Variation and Selective Retention (D. Campbell, 1960, 197; K. Popper, 1972; S. Toulmin, 1972; C. Lumsden, E. Wilson, 1981; C.S. Findlay, C. Lumsden 1988; F. Wuketits, 1990).

16. Evolutionary Approach to Creativity: The principle of the Darwinian theory of evolution (R. Dawkins, 1975; Cultural transmission and evolution L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, M. W. Feldman, 1981; R.Boyd, P.Richerson, 1985; W. Durham, 1991; G. Cziko, 1997, 1998; C. S. Spencer, 1997); Chance permutation, formation configurations, social acceptance (D.Simonton, 1988, 1989); Evolutionary theory of creativity as variation and selective retention: Generation of alternatives, selection, retention (D.N. Perkins, M. Csikszentmihalyi, 1988); Memes’ are the cultural equivalent of genes (M. Csikszentmihalyi; R. Aunger, 2000; A Mesoudi, A. Whiten, K. Laland, 2004; N. Creanza, L. Fogarty, M. W. Feldman,2012,2015; A.Mesoudi, 2019, 2020).

17. The creative process is integral to natural and human evolution and human creativity builds upon creative evolution in nature. This theory describes the relationship between creativity and both heightened future consciousness and wisdom. (Thomas Lombardo, 2011).

18. Cultural Evolutionary approach to creativity. Non-Darwinian evolutionary process. Evolution of culture and cognition M. Donald (1991, 1998), Evolution and the meaning of life (D. Dennett, 1995); Autocatalytic model of culture (S. B. Kauffman, 1999); Natural and sexual selection in the evolutionary of creativity (G. Feist, 2001), Self-organization, autocatalysis, self-regeneration and communal exchange of innovations (Liane Gabora, 1998, 2006, 2008); Evolutionary Approaches to Creativity (L. Gabora, Scott Barry Kaufman, 2011); Evolutionary systems approach creativity (A. Montuori, 2011).

19. Honing Theory: An Integrative, Complex Systems Framework for Creativity.

Creativity fuels the process by which culture evolves through communal exchange amongst minds that are self-organizing, self-maintaining, and self-reproducing. The assemblage of human worldviews evolves over time, as did primitive life, not through Darwinian competition and survival of the fittest, but through mutual exchange and psychological entropy reducing the restructuring of increasingly resilient components (Liane Gabora, (1996, 2017).

20. Creativity as an adaptation, interaction with the environment and development ( Jean Piaget, 1971; Howard E. Gruber, Paul H. Barrett, 1974; D. Feldman, 1980); Creativity as a special form of development (D. Feldman, H. Gruber, 1982, 1986); Creativity and development as a spontaneous and directed transformation (D. Feldman, 1988).

21. Evolving Systems Approach to Creative Work. This developmental, systemic, pluralistic, interactive, constructionist approach views the creative person as an evolving system in an evolving milieu. The creative person is considered unique, and developmental change is multidirectional. (H. Gruber, 1988; H.E.Gruber, D.B. Wallace, 1999).

22. Developmental perspective of creativity a confluence of factors (or dimensions) that he believes are necessary for understanding the complex, multifaceted and interactive development of creative giftedness. Those dimensions include (a) cognitive processes, (b) social/emotional processes, (c) family aspects (i.e., birth order and gender within the family), (d) education and preparation (informal and formal), (e) characteristics of the domain and field, (f) social/cultural contextual aspects, and (g) historical forces, events, trends (D. Feldman, 1999; D. Feldman, H. Gardner, 2003).

23. Creative Interaction. Relationship between the individual and materials, people, and circumstances (C. Rogers,1962); Transactional relationships between the individual and environment (M. Stein,1962); Fusion of heterogeneous elements, such as the unity between the actions of the subject and the objective world (F. Hacker, 1965); Creativity as a harmonious interaction of the individual with his environment (H. Anderson, 1965); Encounter, interrelation of the intensively conscious human being with his world (R. May 1975); Creativity as a developmental interaction (Ya. A. Ponomarev, 1976); Finding a balance between subject and object, individual and the universe (S. Arieti, 1976).

24. A Conceptual Model of four dimensions of creativity (“logic of life”):
1) Interaction with the universe; 2) interaction with the self; 3) the transaction between the two; 4) continual fitting of specific incomings and outgoings.
And, consequently, for a creative person:
1) increasing one’s openness and inclusion in the environment; 2) focusing one’s experience through self-differentiation and self-realization; 3) striving to simultaneously activate openness and focus; and 4) extracting meaning from experience through increased aesthetic sensitivity. (R. Mooney, 1954, 1956, 1963).

25. A Holistic Model of Creativity represents the interaction of some key factors: 4 Ps Model: process, product, person, and press (J. M. Rhodes, 1961); the 4th is place) (S.E. Golann, 1963), (the 4th is the environment or climate or situation or place) ( R. Mooney, 1962); 5 Ps Model: the 5th P should be Persuasion (Dean K. Simonton, 1988, 1990); the 5th P should be Potential (Mark Runco, 2006, 2007; (the 6th Ps: process, product, person, place, persuasion and potential); 4Ps-E Model: the 5th is problem and environment as place (Klaus Urban, 2003), 4 Ps -S Model the 5th is Sense (meaning) (Sergey Markov, 2011, 2012), 8 Ps Eight P model, adding Problems, Propulsion, and both Purpose and Public (R.J. Sternberg, S. Karami, 2022).

26. The Social, Contextual Theory of Creativity, represents the multifactorial space of interaction of the person with the world (S. Arieti, 1976; D.K. Simonton, 1975, 1990; T. Amabile, 1983; M. Csikszentmihalyi, 1988, 1993, P. Goldfarb, S.C. Brackfield, 1990; R.W. Woodman, L. F. Schoenfeldt, 1989, 1990; D. Harrington, 1990; H. Gardner, 1993).

27. Creatology, which is based on the creation of a creatological matrix that includes the manifestation of creativity at the level of culture, organization, small groups and individuals, as well as the ability, process and product of creativity (Istvan Magyari-Beck, 1977, 2011).

28. Three-Ring conception of giftedness is superior to general intellectual ability, task commitment, and creativity, interaction of the three components is necessary for creative accomplishment (Joseph Renzulli, 1978, 1986); Munich Model of Giftedness (MMG) (K.A. Heller, E.A. Hany, 1986; K.A. Heller, 2005).

29. The holistic, multi-factor models of intellect, which is the basis for the whole range of creative activity: General Theory of Intellect, Structure of Intellect (SI) (Joy Guilford, 1967, 1977); Multiple Intelligence Theory (H. Gardner, 1983, 1999); The triarchic theory of intelligence: analytical, creative or synthetic, practical (R. Sternberg, 1985, 1988).

30. Complex approach to creativity (S.G. Isaksen, M.I. Stein, D.A. Hills, S.S. Gryskiewicz, 1984).

31. Transgressive theory of creativity: creativity as crossing, and overcoming material, social and symbolic borders (J. Kozeletsky, 1987, 1997); Transdimensional transition ” from the disjunction to the conjunction, from opposition to the complementarity and to the creation of a metasystem (A.A. Koblyakov, 2003).

32. Componential Model of Creativity: special skills, creative skills, intrinsic motivation (Amabile, 1983, 1988); domain-relevant skills, creativity-relevant processes, intrinsic task motivation and the social environment (T. Amabile, 2012 ).

33. The Creativity Syndrome: integration, application, and innovation (D.W. MacKinnon, 1960,1983; M.D. Mumford, S.B. Gustafson, 1988).

34. A multifactorial creative complex that includes both personality factors (cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, attitudinal, affective, or psychodynamic) and social and environmental factors (R.S. Albert, M.A. Runco, 1989, M.A. Runco, 1993, 1996; M.A. Runco, D. Kim, 2011).

35. Systems Theory of Creativity, creativity as a unity of three systems: domain, field, and person (M. Csikszentmihalyi (1988, 1999, 2015), H. Gardner, 1993; M. Csikszentmihalyi, D. Feldman, H. Gardner, 1994).

36. The Ecological Model of Creativity includes 4 domains and 4 dimensions of creativity (R. Schultz, 1990).

37. Semantic intersections, dialogue and rhetorical techniques as universal mechanisms of meaning-making and creativity (Y. Lotman, 1990, 1992).

38. Confluence multiple component approach to creativity D.N. Perkins, 1981, T. Lubart (1991,1994, 1999), R.W. Wiesberg, 1993, R. Sternberg, T. Lubart (1995, 1996).

39. The conceptual model and logical structure of creativity (G. Kaufmann, 1993).

40. General Theory of Creativity (Center for the Study of Creativity, Buffalo):
1. Conceptual model of creativity: Creativity as a multifactorial construct that predicts creative behaviour and is the result of an interdisciplinary approach. (M. Murdock, S. Isaksen, S. Vosburg, D. Lugo, 1993).
2. A multifactor interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary approach to creativity, studying it as a whole (S. Isaksen, M. Murdock, G. Pussio, 1993).
3. The ecological approach to creativity, essential characteristics of which are a variety of research methods, as well as their wide contextuality (G. Puccio, D. Treffinger, S. Isaksen, M. Murdock, 1994).

41. Interactionist, multi-component model of creativity in an organizational context (R. W. Woodman; J. E. Sawyer; R. W. Griffin, 1993, 2007).

42. Synergetic Theory of Creativity as the transformation of chaos into order:
Synergetic approach to creativity (H. N. Knyazeva, S.P. Kurdyumov, 1988, 1992, 1999; D. Chernavsky, 1990; I.S. Dobronravova, 1991); Synergetics as a Theory of Creativity (H.Haken, 1991); Creativity as a universal process of self-organization, creative role of chaos. (S. Kauffman, 1993, 2008); Creativity as the interpenetration of dialectical tendencies to disorder and order (F. Barron, 1995); Creativity and theory of nonlinear dynamic systems (D. Schuldberg, 1999, 2021), The order – Chaos dynamic of creativity( P.A. Lambert, 2020); Nonlinear Dynamical Systems, chaos theory, and creativity (D. Schuldberg, S. Guisinger, 2020).

43. The Investment Theory of Creativity requires a confluence of six distinct, but interrelated, resources: intellectual abilities, knowledge, styles of thinking, personality, motivation, and environment. (R. Sternberg & T. Lubart, 1991, 1995).

44. An Integrative Approach to Creativity (J.F. Feldhusen, B.E. Goh, 1995).

45. A Unified Theory of Creativity: A quantum model. Discontinuity relates to the sudden appearance of ideas as a significant feature of creativity (A. Goswami, 1996, Kazuo Koyama, 2017).

46. Synthetic Theory of Creativity: creativity as attitudes, processes and creative acts that express the uniqueness of the individual (B. Clark, 1997, 2002; Yan Wang, Qinlong Hou, 2018).

47. A Multi-Paradigmatic Approach: Four dominant paradigms of creativity: functional, interpretive, radical structuralism, and radical humanism (T. Rickards, S. de Cock, 1997).

48. Creativity as the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors (J. S. Dacey, K. H. Lennon, 1998).

49. Systems Theory of Creativity. Creativity is viewed within the context of general systems theory. (W. Cowington, 1998; A. Hieronymi, 2013).

50. Creativity as a manifestation of Transcendental creative systems (Carlisle Bergquist, 1999).

51. General Theory of Linguistic Creativity (Robert-Alain de Beaugrande, 1979, 2002).

52. The General Theory of Creativity is based on the universal transdimensional transition from disjunction to conjunction, from opposition to additionality and the creation of a metasystemic whole (A.A. Koblyakov, 2003).

53. General Theory of Creativity WICS (Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity synthesized) (R. Sternberg, 2003, 2005).

54. Component Model of Creativity: divergent thinking and acting, general knowledge and thinking base, specific knowledge and skills, focusing and task commitment, motivation and motives, openness and tolerance of ambiguity (K.K. Urban, 2003).

55. A General Theory of Creativity in Advertising (R. E. Smith, X. Yang, 2004; Lee Early, 2007).

56. General Algorithmic (computational) Theory of Creativity (E.A. Konijn, J.F. Hoorn, 2005).

57. A General theory of creativity and innovation (R. K. Sawyer, 2006, 2008, 2012).

58. A Unified Theory of implicit attitudes, stereotypes, self-esteem, and self-concept
(A. Greenwald, 2006, 2009).

59. Unified theory and connectionist model of creativity, incubation, insight, and creative problem-solving. The explicit-implicit interactionist theory and the CLARION computer model (S. Helie, R. Sun, 2010).

60. Creative Systems Theory. A systemic autopoietic theory of creativity (Takashi Iba, 2010).

61. The Theory of qualitative levels of Creativity: The theory of “Big” creativity (Big – C) L. Terman, 1924; J.N. Shurkin, 1992); Historical (h-creativity) and personal (p-creativity) creativity (M. Boden, 1991, 2004); “Big” and “Little” creativity (“Big C and Little C”) (H. Gardner, 1993); Theory of Everyday Creativity (N. Vandermark, 1991); Theory of personal creativity (M. Runco, 1996; 2004); Theory of everyday creativity (L.W Barsalou, J.J. Prinz, 1997); Theory of “small” (little-c), democratic creativity (A. Craft, 2001); Psychological similarities between small and large creativity processes (R. J. Sternberg, 2003); Little-C theory of democratic creativity (J. A. Plucker, R. A. Beghetto, 2004); New category of creativity, called “mini-c” creativity (J. C. Kaufman R. A. Beghetto, 2007); The four-c model (J. C. Kaufman R. A. Beghetto, 2009); The little-c/Big-C theories (A. Kozbelt, R. A. Beghetto, M. A. Runco, 2010).

62. Creativity as a multidimensional, dynamic socio-cultural phenomenon that simultaneously integrates psychological, social and material spheres and weaves together various dimensions which have historically been studied in isolation or even in opposition. Creativity also includes the oftentimes unnoticed creativity that fuels social interactions, institutions, and social movements. Creativity gives meaning and joy to human existence and represents a key marker of our humanity’s cultivation of those values and virtues that lead to living meaningful, peaceful, sustainable, and wise lives. In the Post-Information age, сreativity becomes a necessity for the dignity and survival of the human species. (V. P. Glaveanu, M. H. Hanson, Jhn. Baer, B. Barbot, E. P. Clapp, G. E. Corazza, B. Hennessey, J. C. Kaufman, I. Lebuda, T. Lubart, A. Montuori, I.J. Ness, J. Plucker, R. Reiter-Palmon, Z. Sierra, D. K. Simonton, M. S. Neves-Pereira, R. J. Sternberg, Advancing Creativity Theory and Research: A Socio-cultural Manifesto, 2019).

64. Posthuman universal emergent, collective, and ecological nature of Creativity. Creativity has its own affective agency, independent of human action or intent. It can be understood as a force, like love, or gravity, or electricity, that moves through but is never contained by or within. (Daniel Harris, Stacy Holman Jones, A Manifesto for Posthuman Creativity Studies, 2022).