Individual Creativity for Theoretical and Practical Implications

Question: Discuss about theIndividual Creativity for Theoretical and Practical Implications. Answer: Theoretical and Practical Implications for Nurturing Individual Creativity The principal element in all sort of creativity is an urge to act creative. Thus, creativity is influence by the grounded values as supported by the Schwartz'z model of dynamic structure (Dollinger, Burke, Gump, 2007). The culture of Singapore is based on strict grounded personal values and these personal values promote creativity. The creative individuals have different set of values in comparison to non-creative individuals. Their creative values are influenced by generation of novelty in the overall approach via the application of divergent thinking and evaluation of the novelty of convergent thinking over how the novel is the approach. In other words it can be stated that the urge of doing something novel lead to the generation of creativity (Cropley, 2006). In Singapore, there is always an urge to thrive for something different be it on technological advancements or construction beauty and this constant hunger promotes creativity among the citizens. However, not only the urge, the area of the convergent thinking guided by novelty depends on the knowledge. This divergent and convergent concept of creativity must work together in sync in order to generate a novel thought. Divergent thinking ability helps in the generation of the solution and the convergent analysis is dependent on the memory abilities that are required to generate creative ideas and the performance standards (Brophy, 1998). Divergent thinking minus convergent approach leads to several problems like reckless change. However, too little or too much of both the components of creativity hamper the overall creative framework. Moreover, the majority of the intelligence theories gives importance on the convergent component of creativity and ignores the divergent thoughts. The creative person does not alternate between the divergent and convergent thought easily unless they are successful in reaching at an advanced stage of the cognitive development (Cropley, 2006; Brophy, 1998). Apart from the influence of knowledge over creativity, there also lies a significant influence of culture over the development of the creative thoughts and conforming behavior. Knowledge and culture are two most basic pillars of life among the people of Singapore (Sidhu, 2015) and these two predominant factors promote creativity. Moreover, Singapore'sprimary curriculumhas creativityenlisted amongst the eight core skills and values and this importance over creativity as a skill promote their creative development (Shaheen, 2010). Cultural background of a person has an indirect effect on the creativity of an individual. However, individuals with creative ideas may fail to implement those ideas optimally. The emotion working behind as the source of creativity plays a crucial role in determining individual creativity. Individualistic persons with an independent construal of self find to easier to implement their creative thoughts than those of collectivistic persons who nurture an interde pendent construal of self. The importance of culture is, it shapes up the psychological framework of a person to an extent at which one views oneself as being independent from the influence of the social groups. In order to generate and successfully implement creative ideas or thoughts, one needs to give importance to his or her culture, instead of ignoring the same. The person belong from the collectivistic culture can also successfully nurture their creative thoughts via the use of two complementary strategies. The strategies involved assist the collectivistic members in order to overcome emotional deficits of creativity. Collectivistic members have a tendency to become psychologically restrained than their individualistic counterparts. This will influence them to engage into individualistic yet creative behavior. However, both in the case of the collectivistic and individualistic members, emotional deficit prevents from being creative. Proper setting of assertive goals will assis t them in developing their creative mind set (Ng, 2003). In Singapore, dual-career couples has individualistic min set and this further assist in development of their creativity (Quek, Knudson-Martin, Orpen Victor, 2011). The complexity or the efforts involved in solving a problem creatively depend on the creative problem solving skills (CPS). However, before judging the creativity skill, it is required to ascertain the complexity of the problem. The complexity of the problem depends on the attributes of the problems and these attribute will define that nature of the logical thoughts that are required to solve that particular problem. A completed process requiring CPS, demands an alternative period of divergent ideation and convergent evaluation. A comprehensive CPS must involve proper formulation of the problems along with the required solution and both these task demands convergent and divergent ray of thoughts. Not only the evaluation of the process via application of the convergent and divergent thoughts, a person must be successful in judging which sort of evaluation is appropriate for that particular problem (Brophy, 1998). Thus, creativity depends on the cultural background of a person as in influence by their creative problem solving skills and their ability to successfully implement their convergent and divergent thoughts. To develop creativity in Singapore context, a person needs to skillfully implement both convergent and divergent thoughts warped under the light of their cultural belief to be creative. The culture of Singapore is vibrant and versatile and this will further assist in nurturing the creativity parameter of citizens of Singapore. References Brophy, D. R. (1998). Understanding, measuring, and enhancing individual creative problem-solving efforts.Creativity Research Journal,11(2), pp. 123-150. DOI: 10.1207/s15326934crj1102_4 Cropley, A. (2006). In praise of convergent thinking.Creativity research journal,vol. 18(3), pp. 391-404. https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1803_13 Dollinger, S. J., Burke, P. A., Gump, N. W. (2007). Creativity and values.Creativity Research Journal,vol. 19(2-3), pp. 91-103. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10400410701395028 Ng, A. K. (2003). A cultural model of creative and conforming behavior.Creativity Research Journal,vol. 15(2-3), pp. 223-233. DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2003.9651414 Quek, K. M. T., Knudson-Martin, C., Orpen, S., Victor, J. (2011). Gender equality during the transition to parenthood: A longitudinal study of dual-career couples in Singapore. Journal of social and personal relationships, 28(7), 943-962. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407510397989 Shaheen, R. (2010). Creativity and Education. Online Submission, 1(3), 166-169. Sidhu, R. (2015). Knowledge economies: the Singapore example.International higher education, vol. 52.