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7 - The Role of the Knowledge Base in Creative Thinking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2010

By
John F. Feldhusen
Edited by
James C. Kaufman  and
John Baer
John F. Feldhusen
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Psychology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
California State University, San Bernardino
John Baer
Affiliation:
Rider University, New Jersey
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Summary

Creativity is adaptive behavior. At a low and simple level it is exhibited by 2-year-old Mary, who, deprived of her pacifier, sees her thumb as an acceptable substitute. Later it is 6-year-old Christopher who wants to play Santa Claus on Christmas Eve but does not have access to a commercial Santa Claus outfit. However, he sees how to adapt some cotton for a beard, some shiny black paper for boots, and some red cloth he has seen in a closet for a coat. What emerges, with a bit of help from his mother, is a credible creation of Santa and of a Santa Claus suit. It is a problem or need that causes Mary and Christopher to seek and create a solution as opposed to simply crying or doing nothing. Later there is a teenager who plans a costume party for his friends or the graduating senior who has designed an attractive vita to enhance her summer job search. Wherever there is need to make, create, imagine, produce, or design anew what did not exist before – to innovate – there is adaptive or creative behavior, sometimes called “small c.” On the other end there is “big C” in the invention of a new automobile that runs on both gasoline or electricity, the composition of a new symphony, the discovery of a new drug that reduces the dementia of Alzheimer's disease, or the production of a new work of art.

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Creativity and Reason in Cognitive Development , pp. 137 - 144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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