My excerpts (46) Richard Grieg Philip Zimbardo " Psychology and Life "
Why do Americans think Asians have innate advantages in mathematical abilities? Perhaps Americans emphasize innate ability, while Asians emphasize hard work.
Creativity refers to an individual's ability to generate novel and appropriate ideas and products in a specific environment.
Divergent thinking is the ability to generate many unusual ideas about a certain problem.
Convergent thinking refers to the ability to integrate information from different sources to solve problems.
Other measures of convergent thinking focus on the study of epiphanies, situations in which a solution to a problem suddenly comes to mind.
You can emulate the risk-taking model in which highly creative individuals are willing to go into "uncharted territory." There is a pattern of preparation whereby highly creative people often spend many years gaining expertise in the field in which they hope to become successful. There is a pattern of intrinsic motivation in which highly creative individuals engage in their work because they derive pleasure and satisfaction from what they create.
It is possible that some forms of mental illness enable people to become more creative; it is also possible that efforts to become more creative increase an individual's likelihood of developing mental illness. Alternatively, it's possible that certain characteristics of an individual's brain make them more creative and more susceptible to mental illness.
