Creativity

"He's such a bright little boy!" My mother and her friends said things like that all the time, as they pointed to me when they thought I wasn't paying attention.

Now that I'm grown, I can let them in on a secret: There was never a time when I didn't pay attention to grownups as a kid. I watched them really close, all the time. Read More

In nonhuman animals, play and contests are sharply distinguished. Play is cooperative and egalitarian, and contestests are antagonisitic and aimed at establishing dominance. Hunter-gatherer humans accentuated play and avoided contests in order to maintain the high degree of cooperation and sharing that was essential to their way of life. In our society, with our competitive games, we often confound play and contest. What might be the consequeces of this for children's development? Read More

In the 20th century, art therapy mirrored modern art movements and the media of the time period—drawing, painting, and sculpting. And just as digital means of expression, image manipulation, and social multimedia have permeated the early 21st century art, they also are beginning to influence the field of art therapy…well, maybe. Read More

Is creativity an inborn personality trait or a set of learned skills? The answer determines whether we test for intrinsic talent or teach creative skills. Current research on screening for scientific creativity suggests why getting the answer right is critical to the future of women in science.

  Read More

Halloween cleans our bodies, our minds and our spirits, and prepares us for the coming of traditions of goodness -like Thankgiving, Christmas (and other holidays), and the New Year. Read More

As I sit here writing this column against the deadline, I’m reminded of my days as a young advertising copywriter when I occasionally needed a deadline as motivation to finish a boring project.  The deadline did more than motivate me to finish -- more often than not, it was what finally stimulated enough creative thinking to move me forward -- in other words, it motivated me to think outside of the box. “Thinking outside of the box.” Boy, has that phrase become overused. Read More

If American football were a food additive or a drug, it would be banned by the FDA. Or, if financial interests prevented its banning, its package would at least carry a surgeon general's warning: Football causes brain damage. The evidence that football causes brain damage is now indisputable. But the deleterious effects of our strong focus on winning go beyond football and brain damage. The compulsioin to win, in general, may be bad for our health. Read More

If you haven't yet come across the spellbinding video of the little girl giant puppet, check it out now. Referring to it, one blogger wrote about the "giant puppet rule of creativity." ... Read More

"Creativity" is employed to refer from literally any artistic product of a child through to the intricacies of the theory of evolution, the poetry of Shakespeare, the music of Bach or the ingenuity of the Apple company. How then, are we to refer to creativity at work to drive organizational performance? Read More