What is creative thinking about. Development of creative thinking

Thinking is closely connected with creativity, but these two processes - creative and thinking - cannot be identified. Thinking is one of the types of cognition, while creativity is possible not only in the sphere of cognition, but, for example, in movement, singing, art, etc.

An important contribution to the study of creative thinking was made by J. Guildford (1967). He distinguished two types of thinking: convergent and divergent. Convergent (convergence) thinking is necessary to find one single correct answer. Basically specific solutions there may be several, but their number is still limited. divergent Guilford defines thinking as "the type of thinking that goes into different directions", thanks to this thinking, original and unexpected solutions arise. Guilford considered the operation of divergence to be the basis of creativity as a general creative ability.

Guilford also identified four main features of creativity:

1) originality - the ability to produce unusual ideas, images, associations, answers. Creative person almost always and everywhere seeks to find its own solution, different from others;
2) semantic flexibility - the ability to see an object from a new angle, find opportunities for its new use, expand the functional application in practice;
3) figurative adaptive flexibility - the ability to change the perception of an object in such a way as to see its new sides hidden from observation;
4) semantic spontaneous flexibility - the ability to produce a variety of ideas in an uncertain situation, in particular in one that does not contain guidelines for these ideas.

Subsequently, other attempts were made to define creative thinking, but they brought little new to its understanding, which was proposed by J. Gilford.

The creative process includes different stages: generation, or generation, of ideas, analysis and refinement of the put forward ideas and selection of the best ideas from several. In life situations, all three stages of the creative process are not always present. Therefore, situations can be divided based on which of the stages is most represented. There are tasks in which it is required to show the ability to generate ideas (the first stage of the creative process): the criterion for completing such tasks is the quantity and quality of the ideas put forward. There are situations that mainly require the ability to analyze and refine already put forward ideas (the second stage of creativity). In this case, a person must identify the consequences of accepting each of the ideas, find ways to strengthen positive effects and ways to minimize the negative. Finally, there are situations in which it is necessary to compare possible alternative ideas in terms of their practical value.

Today, psychologists are convinced that creative thinking can be taught. To do this, it is necessary to develop the appropriate abilities involved in the creative thinking process and overcome internal barriers to creativity. Psychologists usually name four internal barriers to creativity:

1) conformism - the desire to be like others. People are afraid to express original ideas, so as not to stand out from the rest. These fears are most often associated with the sad childhood experience of misunderstanding and condemnation of their ideas by adults or peers;
2) rigidity - the difficulty of switching from one stereotypical point of view to another. Rigidity does not allow improvement turnkey solutions, to see the unusual in the ordinary, the familiar;
3) the desire to find an answer immediately. It has been noticed that the best solutions come during a "creative break", when a person gives himself the opportunity to distract himself from the problem, to relax. If he seeks to resolve it immediately, by all means, then the risk of a premature, ill-considered decision is very high;
4) censorship - internal criticism of any own idea. People with severe internal censorship prefer to wait for a natural solution to the problem or try to shift the responsible decision to someone else. Such lack of initiative is usually formed in children whose parents adhere to authoritarian style upbringing and tend to criticize the actions of the child for any reason.

There are two competing ways of thinking: critical and creative. critical thinking is aimed at identifying flaws in the judgments of other people. Creative thinking is associated with the discovery of fundamentally new knowledge, the generation of one's own original ideas, and not with the evaluation of other people's thoughts. A person who has a too pronounced tendency to criticize gives it the main attention, although he could devote this time to creativity. On the contrary, a person whose constructive, creative thinking dominates over critical thinking is often unable to see the shortcomings of his own judgments and assessments.

The way out of this situation is to simultaneously develop both critical and creative thinking in the child from childhood. It is important to take care that both these types of thinking are in balance, accompany and periodically replace each other in any mental act. If a person expresses any idea, then he must immediately critically comprehend it. If an original, new thought is expressed by someone else, then along with its criticism, it is imperative to offer your own solution. In the lives of most people, in order to creative return was the maximum, you need a reasonable combination of creative and critical thinking.

Psychologists are trying not only to find out how a person solves new and creative problems, but also to find opportunities for improvement. creativity personality. Among the methods proposed, the method brainstorming, developed by N. Osborne, and the synectics method of J. Gordon.

At the heart of the method brainstorming lies the idea that the process of hypotheses must be separated from their evaluation. In everyday life, our assessments often hold back the flight of our fantasy and imagination, do not allow bold and innovative ideas to “break through” into consciousness. Therefore, the refusal of evaluation and criticism when participating in a brainstorming session helps to find original solutions. There are usually three phases of brainstorming: warm-up, idea generation, and evaluation. During the warm-up, people are given simple, often comic tasks like "How to transfer water in a sieve?". At the stage of generating ideas, a problem situation is proposed that needs to be resolved. Any ideas, even comic ones, are encouraged. All ideas are captured. Typically, a group of six to eight people is most effective. At the third stage, a group of experts evaluates each of the proposed ideas and selects the most promising ones.

Method synectics was developed as a modification of the brainstorming method, but in the process of practical use it turned out that it is suitable for finding not only a group, but also an individual solution. This method uses the main property of analogies: comparison of some complex object (process) with a simple one. At the same time, the properties of a complex object are better understood and understood. There are direct, personal, symbolic and fantastic analogies.

Straight analogy is used when a direct comparison of the object under study with well-known objects and processes is possible. The analogy is of particular value when objects are chosen from completely different areas of knowledge and practical activity than is customary for a person. For example, you can imagine a familiar person in the form of household utensils: a kettle or a vacuum cleaner.

Personal analogy (empathy) is used when a person puts himself in the place of the object being studied. So, the designer of a machine can imagine himself in the form of a bushing or gear, the architect of a bridge - in the form of its supporting structure. At the same time, the forces that act on a given object are better understood, and its strengths and weaknesses are clearly manifested.

Symbolic analogy allows you to display the object under study in a symbolic form, to select such symbols (signs) that better express its basic patterns. An example is tasks for finding items that symbolize professions: a teacher, a doctor, a driver.

fantastic analogy involves a comparison of the objects under study with fabulous, fantastic characters. It allows you to focus on as yet impossible, but desirable properties and features. It is likely that the idea of an airplane was born on the basis of its fabulous prototype - the flying carpet.

The use of the synectics method involves the active involvement of the imagination in the process of solving problems.

Do you know what creative thinking is? This is a category of thinking that leads to absolutely no typical solution question (problem). If a person systematizes and analyzes standard information in a new way, then he thinks creatively. The earlier the development of creative thinking begins, the easier it is for a person to assimilate new knowledge.

Features of the development of creative thinking

Given the rapid development of technological progress, we can safely say that creative thinking and creativity are methods for solving any problems that differ from those programmed in a computer.

Technique always acts according to the established program (algorithm), and looks for a classic way out of any situation.

Non-standard approach

A creative person knows how to break the established rules.

He needs a flexible non-standard mindset and the courage to be different from everyone else.

Most often, creative thinking goes against the well-known canons.

Ideas that at first seem crazy can lead to a brilliant discovery.

Everyone can boast of such thinking famous personalities who made a breakthrough in the world of science - I. Newton, I. Pavlov, M. Lomonosov and others.

Formation of creative thinking

Creativity starts from right upbringing and learning. It cannot be formed without knowledge of the surrounding world. A person first gets acquainted with the ordinary alignment of things, phenomena, and only then can they comprehend them in an extraordinary way, “recycle”.

Creative Thinking Traits:

Consideration of an object from different angles, taking into account its principles and significance.
The desire to create something new, something that did not exist before.
The ability to quickly switch from one thought to another.
Find multiple ways to solve a problem.

Improvise, look for new ways to solve any everyday problems.
Don't look back at existing traditions.
Expand your horizons, constantly learn something new. learned Spanish language? Start mastering molecular cuisine, conduct chemical experiments, learn sign language.
Travel. For the development of creative thinking, new impressions and acquaintances will be needed.
Try to do better and more than others.

Methods for the development of creative thinking

The human mind is unique, it is able to adapt to any life situation. In emergency cases, the brain can quickly gather all the necessary situation together, and issue an extraordinary solution.

If a person in ordinary life solves problems for creative thinking, nothing will take him by surprise. He will find the right way out of any, even the most difficult situation, which will also be beneficial.

Methods for the development of creative thinking are based on the fact that any person realizes only a small part of his potential throughout his life, and you need to find ways to “turn on” all the capabilities of the brain.

There are 2 main methods for developing creative thinking:

"Brainstorm"

It is based on the concepts of generating ideas and their critical evaluation.

The classic "brainstorming" consists of 2 teams.

The first team should develop as much as possible more ways solutions to the problem, no matter how unrealistic and even stupid they may seem at first glance.

The second - discusses, develops each proposal, and as a result should stop at any one decision.

Important Features of Brainstorming

clear division of responsibilities;
suggest maximum amount ways to resolve the issue;
be able to develop the craziest ideas that have been proposed;
be able to work in a team.

Synectics

Examples of synectics

Synectics is based on the following techniques:

association (search for similar processes, phenomena from a completely different sphere);
poetic symbols, images;
fantastic analogy. Why not offer a solution following the example of a fairy-tale character?

Both of these methods - "brainstorming" and synectics, should destroy the stereotypical perception of the world, and create a completely new, original type of thinking.

Development of creative thinking

Creative thinking is directly related to imagination.

A classic example of a well-developed imagination is children's fables. If a child begins to tell something fantastic, it means that his creative thinking is developing well.

The older a person gets, the more difficult it is for him to fantasize. The social stereotype says that an adult individual should be serious, strict, and not "fly in the clouds."

It is not right. After all, creative thinking is useful in any profession.

A person who lathers outside the box is able to offer bright ideas for business, to make a new discovery in medicine, chemistry or military affairs, to improve already created drugs, tools or equipment.

5 Creative Thinking Exercises

Word choice

Select the maximum possible number of nouns that reflect the essence of the concept. For example, light is life, sun, growth, etc.

the fire;
evening;
water;
table;
child;
old age.

Find the maximum number of similar features for completely different concepts:

well-earth;
cloud car;
locomotive-tablet;
stroller-piano;
tree alarm clock.

Predictions

Think about what might happen if:

if it rains non-stop for 3 days in a row;
pets will start talking to their owners;
apple juice will flow from the faucet in the bathroom;
fairy-tale characters will walk along the street.

Letter words

Name the maximum number of things with the letter K (Z, I, O) that are now in the same room with you.

Description of items

Fix your gaze on any object in the room. For example, on the table. Write 5 adjectives that match this item (large, wooden, comfortable, grey, smooth). Now write 5 adjectives that are completely inappropriate for this subject (sweet, blue, sad, lively, toy).

10 tasks for the development of creative thinking

Describe your job (family, girlfriend, favorite TV series) in 100 words.
Take your favorite aphorism and write your own work based on it (it doesn’t matter in verse or prose).
Write a little fairy tale(8-10 sentences) about the empty decanter.
Think of 20 reasons to learn sign language.
List 5 things you don't mind spending your last $1,000 on.
Give written instructions to your favorite dog (parrot, cat) on how to dance rumba.
You come home from work, the door of your house is wide open. Name 20 (including the most incredible) reasons why this happened.

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" Creativethinking"

Introduction

Creative thinking is one of the most interesting phenomena that distinguish man from the animal world. Already at the beginning of life, a person manifests an urgent need for self-expression through creativity, a person learns to think creatively, although the ability for such thinking is not necessary for survival. Creative comprehension is one of the ways of active knowledge of the world, and it is precisely this that makes progress possible, both for an individual and for humanity as a whole.

Issues of creativity, creative personality and creative features considered by the most various industries psychological science and are extremely important. But what is this out-of-the-box thinking? Why are most people satisfied with the usual solutions for their time and environment, while others offer completely new, unusual ideas?

The importance of the psychological study of thinking also lies in the fact that mental development problem situation carried out not only conscious level psyche, but the psyche as a whole, including its subconscious and unconscious subsystems.

Above all, thinking is supreme cognitive process. It is a product of new knowledge, an active form of creative reflection and transformation of reality by a person. Thinking generates such a result, which neither in reality itself, nor in the subject on this moment does not exist.

Thinking (animals also have it in elementary forms) can also be understood as the acquisition of new knowledge, the creative transformation of existing ideas.

The difference between thinking and other psychological processes also lies in the fact that it is almost always associated with the presence of a problem situation, a task that needs to be solved, and an active change in the conditions in which this task is set.

It is necessary to start cultivating creative potential from childhood, childhood is the foundation for a lifetime.

1. Aboutdefinition of creative thinking

To understand what creative thinking is, one should first understand what thinking is, what is creativity and how can it be connected?

Thinking is the movement of ideas, revealing the essence of things. Its result is not an image, but some thought or idea. The specific result of thinking can be a concept - a generalized reflection of a class of objects in their general and essential features.

Thinking is theoretical and Practical activities, suggesting a system of actions and operations included in it of an orienting-research, transformative and cognitive nature.

theoretical conceptual thinking- this is such thinking, using which a person, in the process of solving a problem, refers to concepts, performs actions in the mind, without directly dealing with the experience obtained with the help of the senses.

Theoretical figurative thinking differs from conceptual thinking in that the material that a person uses here to solve a problem is not concepts, judgments or conclusions, but images. They are either directly retrieved from memory or creatively recreated by the imagination. Such thinking is used by workers in literature, art, in general, people of creative work who deal with images.

Theoretical conceptual thinking provides, although abstract, but at the same time the most accurate, generalized reflection of reality. Theoretical figurative thinking makes it possible to obtain a specific subjective perception of it, which is no less real than the objective-conceptual one. Without them, our presentation would not be so rich and extensive.

The visual-figurative form of thinking consists in the fact that the thought process in it is directly connected with the perception of the surrounding reality by a thinking person, and cannot be carried out without it. A person is attached to reality, and the images themselves necessary for thinking are presented in his short-term and random access memory(in contrast to this, images for theoretical figurative thinking are extracted from long-term memory and then converted). Most developed in children preschool age, and in adults only in those who are engaged in practical work.

The visual-effective type of thinking lies in the fact that the process of thinking itself is a practical transformational activity carried out by a person with real items. The main conditions for solving problems in this case are the correct actions with the appropriate objects. This type of thinking is widely represented among people engaged in real production work, the result of which is the creation of any specific material product.

Thus, "thinking is mediated - based on the disclosure of connections, relationships, mediations - and generalized knowledge of objective reality." Thinking plays a huge role in cognition. Thinking expands the boundaries of knowledge, makes it possible to go beyond the direct experience of sensations and perception. Thinking is a process cognitive activity individual, characterized by a generalized and indirect reflection of reality. Thinking makes it possible to know and judge what a person does not directly observe, does not perceive. Thinking processes information that is contained in sensations and perceptions, and the results of mental work are verified and applied in practice. Thus, thinking is always cognition (reflection) of relationships and regular connections between objects and phenomena of the surrounding world.

Creativity is an activity, the result of which is the creation of new material and spiritual values. It assumes that a person has abilities, motives, knowledge and skills, thanks to which a product is created that is distinguished by novelty and originality, uniqueness.

A. Ponomarev shares the concept of creativity in a broad and narrow sense (broad sense calls "direct", narrow - "generally accepted"): "Creativity - in literally is the creation of the new.

R. Arnheim notes that to see the properties of an object means to perceive it as an example of the embodiment of a certain general concept that all perception consists in highlighting previously abstracted features. "Consequently, the abstract is contained not only in thinking, but also in other cognitive processes."

It turns out that such different geometric concepts, like a point, a straight line, a triangle, a trapezoid, a circle, an ellipse, a parabola, which, due to the captivating simplicity and completeness of the structure, were considered abstractions that do not depend on reality, in fact, are associated with it and with concrete-figurative representations. The figure below clearly demonstrates that all these abstractions can be "seen" on various sections by the plane of an ordinary cone.

A point is obtained if the plane passes through the top of the cone (1); a triangle is formed when a plane intersects a cone along its axis (2); a straight line segment can be obtained if the plane passes as a tangent to the side surface of the cone (3); a trapezoid is formed if the upper part is separated from the triangle formed by section 2 using a plane parallel to the base (4); the circle can be obtained by doing transverse section cone by a plane parallel to the base (5), the ellipse is formed by the same section, but drawn at an angle (6); a parabola appears if the cutting plane passes parallel to the axis of the cone, but not through it itself (7). Thus, by changing the location and mutual orientation of the cone and the secant plane, one can not only obtain a number of figures expressing abstract concepts, but also imperceptibly, in a visually effective way, move from one abstract concept to another.

Thus, we can conclude that thinking and creativity are connected.

J. Gilford believed that the "creativity" of thinking is associated with the dominance of four features in it:

A. Originality, non-triviality, unusual ideas expressed, a pronounced desire for intellectual novelty. A creative person almost always and everywhere seeks to find his own solution, different from others.

B. Semantic flexibility, i.e. the ability to see an object from a new angle of view, to discover its new use, to expand the functional application in practice.

B. Image adaptive flexibility, i.e. the ability to change the perception of an object in such a way as to see its new sides, hidden from observation.

D. Semantic spontaneous flexibility, i.e. the ability to produce a variety of ideas in an uncertain situation, in particular one that does not contain guidelines for these ideas.

Subsequently, other attempts were made to define creative thinking, but they brought little new to its understanding, which was proposed by J. Gilford.

In foreign psychology, creative thinking is more often associated with the term "creativity". Creativity is the creative capabilities (abilities) of a person that can manifest itself in thinking, feelings, communication, certain types of activity, characterize the personality as a whole and / or its individual aspects, products of activity, the process of their creation. Creativity is regarded as the most important and relatively independent factor of giftedness, which is rarely reflected in intelligence tests and academic achievements. On the contrary, creativity is determined not so much by a critical attitude to the new in terms of existing experience, but by receptivity to new ideas.

Thus, thinking is a process of cognition, the use of the term "creativity" in a purely psychological context rather means the whole set of results of creative thinking, its conditions, the introduction into practice of products of creative thinking, and creativity is a special quality, a property of a person, manifested in a pronounced creative thinking abilities.

2. What is creative thinking?

Creative thinking is thinking based on imagination. It creates new ideas A New Look on things. It connects certain objects or images in a way that they have not been connected before. It is endless and varied. Creative thinking is the process of creating something new that is of interest to individuals, groups, organizations or societies. Creative thinking is the ability to look at a problem from the outside.

It is believed that the source of creative thinking is right hemisphere.

3. Right hemisphere of the brain

The main area of specialization of the right hemisphere is intuition. As a rule, it is not considered dominant. It is responsible for the following functions.

Nonverbal Information Processing: The right hemisphere specializes in processing information that is expressed not in words, but in symbols and images.

Parallel Information Processing: Unlike the left hemisphere, which only processes information in a precise sequence, the right hemisphere can process a wide variety of information at the same time. It is able to consider the problem as a whole without applying analysis. The right hemisphere also recognizes faces, and thanks to it we can perceive a set of features as a whole.

Spatial orientation: The right hemisphere is responsible for the perception of location and spatial orientation in general. It is thanks to the right hemisphere that one can navigate the terrain and make mosaic puzzle pictures.

Musicality: Musical abilities, as well as the ability to perceive music, depend on the right hemisphere, although, however, for musical education responds to the left hemisphere.

Metaphors: With the right brain, we understand metaphors and other people's imaginations. Thanks to him, we can understand not only the literal meaning of what we hear or read. For example, if someone says: “He is hanging on my tail,” then it is the right hemisphere that will understand exactly what this person wanted to say.

Imagination: The right hemisphere gives us the ability to dream and fantasize. With the help of the right hemisphere, we can compose various stories. By the way, the question "What if ..." also asks the right hemisphere.

Artistic ability: The right hemisphere is responsible for the ability to fine arts.

Emotions: Although not a product of the functioning of the right hemisphere, it is associated with them more closely than the left.

Creative thinking is not necessarily associated with only one of the previously discussed types of thinking, say, verbal-logical; it may well be both practical and figurative.

The most productive work of the brain is when both hemispheres function, doing their work, without interfering with the work of the second hemisphere.

The poet uses the right hemisphere to create metaphors, the flight of fancy also provides the right hemisphere, however, the process of translating his feelings into verbal form or, in other words, the selection of words is carried out by the left hemisphere.

· The right hemisphere helps the architect to align the spatial relationships and the aesthetic image that he seeks to create. Nevertheless, all calculations and measurements are made by the left hemisphere.

· For a scientist, the left hemisphere helps to analyze the problem under consideration, but the right hemisphere often intuitively prompts such moves, with the help of which the most difficult riddles are solved.

The most effective creative work becomes possible when both the right and left hemispheres work, when logical thinking is combined with intuition.

In his book, M. Zdenek gives as an example enough interesting case to show visually the work of the right and left hemispheres of the brain in humans:

“Imagine that two people who were in their early thirties underwent surgery in a hospital to remove one hemisphere of the brain. Let's say that the right hemisphere was removed from one, and the left hemisphere from the other.

Before the operation, both patients were right-handed, and their left hemisphere was dominant. No deviations from the norm were observed. The remaining hemisphere of both functions normally, but it does not know how to compensate for the removed hemisphere, how to replace the missing "partner".

The first patient sits on the edge of the bed. A week ago, due to a tumor, the entire right hemisphere of the brain was removed. The left one works fine. We'll call him Larry.

The second patient is in the same room as the first, he sits on a chair and looks out the window. This patient also had the entire left hemisphere removed due to a tumor. The right one works fine. Let's call him Rick.

Now imagine that you are involved in the examination and study of these patients. You enter the room to inspect them and see the following situation. (Remember, the right hemisphere controls the movements of the left side of the body, and the left controls the right.)

Larry's remaining left hemisphere allows him to control the right half of his body without problems (right arm, right leg, etc.); he is holding a cup of coffee right hand and swings his right leg. You ask him, "Would you like to add some cream to your coffee?" He replies, "No thanks." His voice is even, almost without any intonation. There is a newspaper on the bed in front of him, and you notice that he is looking at the headlines. If you ask him, he will be able to solve the mathematical problem just as freely as he did before the operation.

But as you continue to talk to Larry, you begin to notice the devastating effect the operation has had. Due to the fact that he does not have a right hemisphere, left half his body is paralyzed. While he can carry on a conversation, his responses are sometimes odd. He takes everything literally. You ask him, "How do you feel?" And to this he answers you: "Hands." Larry completely lost the ability to think imaginatively, he also lost his intuition.

You wheel Larry out into the hallway for a change of scenery. He has no idea where his chamber is and where he is, because he also lost his ability to spatial orientation. You understand that he is not able to put together the simplest picture-puzzle. He is also unable to dress without assistance. He doesn't understand that the sleeves of his shirt have something to do with his arms.

Suddenly, two people start arguing and yelling at each other. Larry understands the words, but does not perceive the emotions behind these words. He does not pay attention to the tears of his wife and does not respond to the words of comfort. He is not even upset by what happened to him, because the normal reaction to grief, to misfortune is simply inaccessible to the left hemisphere, which he had left after the operation.

When you return to the room, you ask him if he would like to listen to music. You turn on the radio and understand. That he is completely indifferent to melodies. Close friend Larry enters the room, but Larry doesn't even recognize him because his left brain has a hard time recognizing faces.

Ask Larry if he has any dreams, and you will hear back that nothing like this has ever happened. If he still dreams of something, then his dreams will certainly describe something from what happened in the recent past.

What about the second patient? All this time he was sitting on a chair and watching you. You immediately notice that only the left leg works because the other half of the body is paralyzed. Then you notice that he is very sad. When you try to communicate with him, you smile and say that he looks better. Although he cannot speak, you hope that he understands your speech. His wife enters the room and he immediately recognizes her. Simple words of comfort and expressions of love comfort Rick a little. Rick's wife brought a small tape recorder with her, she turns it on and Rick enjoys the music. When the song ends, Rick, unable to say his name or express his feelings in words, shocks everyone by starting to sing the anthem he learned as a child. You thank him that he was able to sing the hymn so that you understood his words, and ask him to sing something else. But Rick's right brain only remembers the simple lyric pieces he learned in early childhood. And he can also mumble a simple prayer that he learned when he was just a child.

To keep Rick entertained, you bring him a stacked puzzle picture and he has no trouble putting it together correctly. When you take him out in a wheelchair into the corridor, you understand that he is perfectly oriented and understands where his ward is and where he is.

Rick will never be able to read or solve math problems on his own, but he enjoys listening to poetry. And the dream researcher testifies that at night Rick had REM, and this suggests that he must be dreaming about something. »

Almost visually, we were able to see how a person's behavior changes if one of the hemispheres ceases to function. And also, here you can see how closely the work of both hemispheres is connected, and that they can exist separately, but for the full functioning of thoughts, space, and understanding of everything that happens, the work of the right and left hemispheres of the brain is needed directly.

4. Creative thinking

Psychologists have spent a lot of effort and time to find out how a person solves new, unusual, creative problems. However, there is still no clear answer to the question of the psychological nature of creativity.

The most significant advantage of traditional intelligent search over creative search is that it is guaranteed to produce an acceptable result. But this is only possible under a few assumptions:

1. The problem or task, in principle, has the only correct solution or a clearly limited circle of correct solutions.

2. An algorithm for solving this problem is known.

3. There are complete and correct initial data for its solution.

Thus, in traditional thinking, fidelity is required, the correctness of each step in solving the problem. If a mistake is made somewhere, then final result turns out to be incorrect. An example is the solution of mathematical or physical problems. In creative thinking, the fallacy of some specific step does not necessarily lead to incorrectness of the overall result. In creative thinking, it is important for us not so much how true certain elements of information are, but how useful this or that combination of them will turn out to be, whether it will allow us to see the problem from a new angle, to see possible ways her decisions. So, if thinking is an integrator of the intellect, then creative thinking, based on the unity of associative processes, being a generalized and highest property of thinking, is an instrument of this integration, a means of systematizing and mutually including mental functions into each other. This highlights the adaptive nature of creative thinking - it is necessary condition full development of the entire system of human intellectual functions.

Science has only a few data that make it possible to partially describe the process of solving such tasks by a person, to characterize the conditions that contribute to and hinder finding right decision. Let's look at some simple examples of creative tasks:

Task 1. How to destroy a tumor located in the depths of the body with the help of special rays without damaging its healthy tissues? It is known that in order to remove this tumor, such a concentration of rays at its location is necessary, which is dangerous for healthy tissues. At the location of the tumor, it is necessary to create the desired concentration of rays without damaging the surrounding tissues of the body, and there is no other access to the tumor than through other tissues of the body.

Task 2. How to add four equilateral triangles from six matches?

Task 3. How to cross out nine dots arranged in a square with four straight lines, without lifting a pen or pencil from the paper?

All these tasks have the same feature that characterizes creative thinking, namely, the need to use an unconventional way of thinking, an unusual vision of the problem, and thinking beyond the usual way of reasoning. In Problem 1, for example, one has to guess that there is no need to direct beams towards the tumor from a single source. In problem 2, it is necessary to move away from the usual attempts to look for its solution in the plane and turn to spatial representations. In problem 3, it is also necessary to admit the possibility of straight lines going beyond the part of the plane bounded by nine points. This means that in all three cases, after analyzing the conditions of the problem, it is necessary to direct the thought in an unusual way, i.e. apply for real creative way solutions. (The figure shows ways to solve each of these problems.)

In the course of research on creative thinking, conditions have been identified that contribute to or hinder the rapid finding of a solution to a creative problem. Let us consider these conditions in a generalized form.

1. If in the past certain way Since the solution of some problems by a person turned out to be quite successful, this circumstance encourages him to continue to adhere to this method of solution. When meeting with new challenge one seeks to apply it first.

2. The more effort was put into finding and putting into practice new way problem solving, the more likely it is to be revisited in the future. The psychological cost of discovering some new solution is proportional to the desire to use it as often as possible in practice.

3. The emergence of a stereotype of thinking, which, due to the above conditions, prevents a person from abandoning the former and looking for a new, more suitable way to solve the problem. One of the ways to overcome such an established stereotype is to stop trying to solve the problem altogether for a while, and then return to it with a firm attitude to try only new ways to find a solution.

4. The intellectual abilities of a person, as a rule, suffer from frequent failures, and the fear of another failure begins to automatically arise when faced with a new task. It generates defensive reactions that interfere with creative thinking, usually associated with the risk to one's own "I". As a result, a person loses faith in himself, he accumulates negative emotions that prevent him from thinking. The feeling of success is as necessary for strengthening the intellectual potencies of people as the feeling of the correctness of any movement for its assimilation.

5. Maximum efficiency in solving intellectual problems is achieved with optimal motivation and appropriate level emotional arousal. This level for each person is purely individual.

6. The more knowledge a person has, the more diverse his approaches to solving creative problems will be. However, the relevant knowledge must be multidirectional, since they have the ability to orient thinking towards different approaches to a decision.

At creative people often miraculously combine the maturity of thinking, deep knowledge, various abilities, skills and peculiar "childish" features in views on the surrounding reality, in behavior and actions. But, as is already known, not all people show creative abilities, and scientists GLindsay, K. Hull and R. Thompson found the answer to the question, why are not all people creatively gifted? And they wrote down their opinion in a book and called it: "Brainstorming"

“If you want to think creatively, you must learn to let your thoughts complete freedom and not try to direct them in a certain direction. This is called free association. A person says everything that comes to his mind, no matter how absurd it may seem. Free association was originally used in psychotherapy, but now it is also used for group problem solving, and this is called brainstorming.

Brainstorming is widely used to solve different kind industrial, administrative and other tasks. The procedure is simple. A group of people gather to freely associate on a given topic: how to speed up the sorting of correspondence, how to get money to build a new center, or how to sell more prunes. Each participant offers everything that comes to his mind and sometimes does not seem to be relevant to the problem. Criticism is prohibited. The goal is to get as many new ideas as possible, because the more ideas will be proposed, the more chances for a really good idea to appear. Ideas are carefully written down and, at the end of the brainstorming session, critically evaluated, usually by another group of people.

Creative thinking in a group is based on the following psychological principles(Osborne, 1957).

1. The group situation stimulates the processes of generating new ideas, which is an example of a kind of social assistance. It has been found that a person of average ability can come up with nearly twice as many solutions when working in a group than when working alone. In a group, he is influenced by many different decisions, the thought of one person can stimulate another, and so on. However, experiments show that the best results are obtained by the optimal alternation of periods of individual and group thinking.

2. In addition, the group situation causes competition between members of the group. As long as this competition does not provoke critical and hostile attitudes, it contributes to the intensification of the creative process, as each participant tries to outdo the other in putting forward new proposals.

3. As the number of ideas increases, their quality increases. The last 50 ideas tend to be more useful than the first 50. Obviously, this is due to the fact that the task is becoming more and more interesting for the group members.

4. Brainstorming will be more effective if group members stay together for several days. The quality of the ideas they propose at the next meeting will be higher than at the first. Apparently, for the appearance of some ideas, a certain period of their "maturation" is required.

5. It is psychologically correct that the assessment of the proposed ideas is carried out by other people, since usually the shortcomings of one's own creativity are noticed with great difficulty.

Creative Thinking Barriers

Conformity - the desire to be like another - is the main barrier to creative thinking. A person is afraid to express unusual ideas for fear of seeming ridiculous or not very smart. A similar feeling can arise in childhood, if the first fantasies, products of children's imagination, do not find understanding in adults, and gain a foothold in adolescence, when young people do not want to be too different from their peers.

Censorship - in particular internal censorship - is the second major barrier to creativity. The consequences of external censorship of ideas can be quite dramatic, but internal censorship is much stronger than external censorship. People who are afraid of their own ideas tend to react passively to the environment and do not try to creatively solve problems that arise. Sometimes unwanted thoughts are suppressed by them to such an extent that they cease to be realized at all. Superego is what Freud called this internalized censor.

The third barrier to creative thinking is rigidity, often acquired in the process of schooling. Typical school methods help to consolidate the knowledge adopted to date, but do not allow you to teach how to pose and solve new problems, improve existing solutions.

The fourth obstacle to creativity may be the desire to find an answer immediately. Excessively high motivation often contributes to the adoption of ill-conceived, inadequate decisions. People achieve great success in creative thinking when they are not bound by everyday worries. Therefore, the value of annual holidays lies not so much in the fact that, having rested, a person will work better, but in the fact that it is during the holidays that new ideas are more likely to arise.

Of course, the effectiveness of the results of free creative fantasy and imagination is far from obvious; it may happen that out of a thousand ideas proposed, only one will be applicable in practice. Of course, discovering such an idea without the expense of creating thousands of useless ideas would be a big savings. However, these savings are unlikely, especially since creative thinking is often rewarding regardless of the use of its results.

5. Critical thinking

creative thinkingintellectual

To highlight the truly useful, effective solutions creative thinking must be complemented by critical thinking. The purpose of critical thinking is to test the proposed ideas: whether they are applicable, how they can be improved, etc. Your creativity will be unproductive if you cannot critically check and sort the resulting output. In order to conduct the appropriate selection properly, it is necessary, firstly, to keep a certain distance, that is, to be able to evaluate your ideas objectively, and, secondly, to take into account the criteria, or restrictions that determine the practical possibilities for introducing new ideas.

What obstacles stand in the way of critical thinking? One of them is the fear of being too aggressive. We often teach our children that to criticize is to be impolite. Closely related to this is the next barrier - the fear of retribution: by criticizing other people's ideas, we can cause response criticism of our own. And this, in turn, can give rise to another obstacle - a reassessment of one's own ideas. When we like what we have created too much, we are reluctant to share our solution with others. We add that the higher the anxiety of a person, the more he is inclined to protect his original ideas from extraneous influence.

Finally, it should be noted that with excessive stimulation of creative imagination, critical ability may remain undeveloped. Unfortunately, the inability to think critically is one of the possible unforeseen results of the desire to increase the creative activity of students. It should be remembered that for most people in life, a reasonable combination of creative and critical thinking is required.

Critical thinking must be distinguished from critical attitude. Despite the fact that, due to the specifics of its approach to problem solving, critical thinking prohibits some ideas or discards them as useless, its ultimate goal is constructive. On the contrary, the critical attitude is inherently destructive. The desire of a person to criticize solely for the sake of criticism is more emotional than cognitive in nature.

6. Development of a creative personality

creative thinkingintellectual

At the present stage of development of society, there is a clearly expressed need for specialists with a high level of development of creative potential, who are able to think systematically, set and solve outside the box. various tasks. In a rapidly changing social and technical development especially important qualities people become creative activity, innovation, non-standard solutions. The task of educating people with a creative mindset has become an urgent social necessity.

The development of creative thinking is inseparable from the formation performing skills and skills. The more versatile and perfect the skills and abilities of a person, the richer his fantasy, the more real his ideas. The development of creative thinking takes place in the process of education and upbringing. It is formed in the process of interaction with the world, through mastering the content of material and spiritual culture, art in the process of learning. Therefore, it is possible to talk about a special, purposeful formation of creative thinking, about a systemic formative impact.

plays an important role in preparing for creative work elementary School. It is at the early school age that psychological basis for such activity. Imagination and fantasy, creative thinking develop, curiosity, activity, initiative are brought up, the ability to observe and analyze phenomena, make comparisons, generalize facts, draw conclusions, and practically evaluate activities are formed.

Creativity should be considered not only as a professional characteristic, but also as a necessary personal quality that allows a person to adapt to rapidly changing social conditions and navigate in an ever-expanding information field.

The success of the development of creative systems thinking during vocational education is largely determined by the level of formation of the main components of creative thinking at earlier stages of personality formation. These components include:

Ability to analyze, synthesize, compare and establish cause-and-effect relationships;

Critical thinking (detection of various kinds of errors, mismatches) and the ability to identify contradictions;

Forecasting the possible development of events;

The ability to see any system or object in terms of the past, present and future;

Ability to build an algorithm of action, generate new ideas;

Generate unusual ideas, deviate in thinking from traditional schemes, quickly resolve problem situations.

The specific nature of creative thinking is determined by the non-traditional nature of the methods of its diagnostics and development. They usually do not regulate the activities of students, do not imply the presence of correct or incorrect answers, do not limit their number. Non-standard solutions and their diversity are evaluated. The value of these techniques lies in the fact that they can be used not only for diagnosis, but also for the development of creative thinking. Classes for the development of creative thinking can be carried out not only individually, but also by giving tasks to subgroups, in the form of KVN, “brainstorming”, which causes increased interest among students, requires the ability to negotiate with each other, make many decisions. As an example, tasks are offered for KVN among students aged 14-16, which can be transformed.

Goals and objectives:

Stimulation of the ability to think;

Development of creative thinking;

Team building;

Development of communication skills.

Exercise 1

Pictures interpretation

Several patterns are offered (for example, various lines - wavy, spiral, circle, broken line). It is proposed for a certain period of time to write as many interpretations as possible for each drawing. For example: a wavy line - mountains, waves of the sea, the back of a dragon; spiral - circles on the water, target, solar system; circle - sun, coin, hatch; broken line - roofs of houses, graph, drawing on the cake. Interpretations can be different, including humorous ones. Counted up total interpretations for all the drawings in the allotted time, their non-standard, originality.

Task 2

Use of items.

Various items are offered (for example: long iron nails, sawdust, empty glass bottles, shoe boxes). It is suggested to write down as many ways of using these items as possible. The total number of named uses is counted, their originality is taken into account.

Examples of uses: long iron nails - to make hooks, teeth for a rake, a yoga mat; sawdust - fuel, for garbage collection, for stuffing toys, for thermal insulation, additive to compound feed; empty glass bottles - for storing cereals, as a musical instrument, for rolling out dough, used as a vase, for building a wall of a house; shoeboxes - for storing letters, to use as a house for a hamster, to kindle a fire.

Task 3

Inventing a story.

Multiple words are suggested (e.g. KEY, BOAT, WATCHMAN, OFFICE, ROAD). It is necessary to compose a logically connected, complete story in 10 minutes. The brightness, originality of images, unusual plot are evaluated.

Task number 4.

Unfinished story.

Suggested text. It takes 10 minutes to come up with and complete the end of the text. Completion, brightness, originality of images, unusual plot twist, unexpected ending are evaluated.

An example of the beginning of a text: “It was getting dark. It was raining lightly. At the tram stop, under the same umbrella, stood two girls. They were talking quietly about something. All of a sudden…"

Task 5.

A form is proposed on which 12 circles with a diameter of 3 centimeters are drawn. It is necessary to draw as many objects or phenomena as possible in 10 minutes, using circles as a basis. You can draw inside and outside the circle, for one drawing you can use 1, 2 or more circles. Drawings must be signed. The completed work is evaluated by the number of drawings, their unusualness, originality, the frequency of occurrence of rare objects (sea urchin, volcanic eruption, shield of a Roman soldier, and others).

Task 6

Speed of thought.

Subgroups are given one form each with words in which letters are missing (each subgroup is different). Each dash is one missing letter. Within ten minutes, you must enter the missing letters. Words must be singular nouns. The results are evaluated by the number of written words.

Table. Sample form

d-lo (case)	p-l-a (shelf)	s-o-ok (call)	s-i-ot (slush)
k-sha (porridge)	o-r-h (hoop)	k-o-a (krone)	k-s-a-nick (shrub)
s-yes (soda)	k-r-he (cardboard)	s-e-lo (glass)	w-s-k- (smile)
in-for (vase)	s-r-o (grain)	k-s-a (roof)	a-ee-ying (orange)
n-ga (leg)	v-s-ok (east)	t-a-a (grass)	s-a-c-i (station)
m-on (mine)	s-g-ob (snowdrift)	k-u-ka (mug)	ch-r-i-a (blueberry)
d-la (share)	v-t-a (branch)	a-t-ka (pharmacy)	k-p-s-a (cabbage)
k-no (movie)	p-d-ak (jacket)	s-u-a (stupa)	d-e-n-k (diary)
in-yes (water)	k-sh-a (cat)	s-a-ka (fairy tale)	t-l-v-s-r (TV)
h-to (miracle)	b-l-on (broth)	p-e-a (play)	k-n-u-t-r (conductor)

Task 9

Induction. Students are offered cards with the names of objects or objects (for example, "apple", "gasoline", "Moscow"). It is suggested that you record as more categories(classes) of objects to which the given object belongs. For example: an apple is a fruit, a fruit, a food product, a product, a ball; gasoline - fuel, liquid, flammable substance, oil product, commodity, solvent; Moscow - city, capital, transport node, industrial, cultural, scientific, shopping center, geographical name. The results are judged by the number of categories or objects recorded.

Task 10

Short vowel (voice - short form of vowel)

There is no time limit for this assignment. The goal is to test creative thinking. If you can't solve some puzzles, come back to them later and look at them again with a fresh look. Very often, the answer comes by itself, because the brain subconsciously continues to work on the task, even when you are busy with something else.

Conclusion

Creative thinking is aimed at creating new ideas, its result is the discovery of a new or improvement of the solution of a particular problem. In the course of creative thinking, new formations arise concerning motivation, goals, assessments, meanings within the cognitive activity itself. It is necessary to distinguish between the creation of an objectively new, i.e. something that has not yet been done by anyone, and subjectively new, i.e. new to this particular person. The following can act as obstacles to the development of creative thinking: 1. A tendency to conformism, expressed in the desire to be like other people, dominating over creativity, not to differ from them in their judgments and actions.

2. Fear of being a "black sheep" among people, of seeming stupid or ridiculous in their judgments.

Both of these tendencies can arise in a child in early childhood, if his first attempts at independent thinking, his first judgments creative character do not find support from surrounding adults, cause them to laugh or condemn, accompanied by punishment or imposition on the child by an adult as the only “correct” most common, generally accepted opinions.

3. Fear of seeming too extravagant, even aggressive in their rejection and criticism of other people's opinions. Quite common in our culture next opinion: to criticize a person means to be ignorant towards him, to show disrespect to him. This, unfortunately, we teach our children from childhood, without thinking at all that in this case the acquisition of politeness, tact, correctness and other useful qualities occurs due to the loss of another, no less valuable property: dare, have and be able to defend, openly express and defend own opinion without worrying about whether others like it or not. This, in fact, is the requirement for a person to always remain honest and frank.

4. Fear of retribution from another person whose position we criticize. By criticizing a person, we usually evoke a response from him. The fear of such a reaction often acts as an obstacle to the development of one's own creative thinking.

5. Overestimation of the importance of their own ideas. Sometimes what we ourselves invented or created we like more than the thoughts expressed by other people, and so much so that we have a desire not to show our own to anyone, not to share it with anyone and keep it to ourselves.

6. Highly developed anxiety. A person with this quality usually suffers from increased self-doubt, and is afraid to openly express his ideas.

7. There are two competing ways of thinking: critical and creative. Critical thinking focuses on identifying flaws in other people's judgments. Creative thinking is associated with the discovery of fundamentally new knowledge, with the generation of one's own original ideas, and not with the evaluation of other people's thoughts. A person whose critical tendency is too pronounced pays the main attention to criticism, although he himself could create, and not bad. On the contrary, the person whose constructive, creative thinking dominates over critical thinking is often unable to see flaws in his own judgments and assessments.

Each creative person is a bright originality. At the same time, considering creative qualities, one cannot but be surprised at the striking resemblance inner world different personalities.

Bibliography

1. Lindsay G., Hull K.S., Thompson R.F. Creative and critical thinking// Reader on general psychology. Psychology of thinking. Ed. Yu.B. Gippenreiter, V.V. Petukhov. M.: Publishing House of Moscow University, 2001

2. Rubinstein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007

3. Zdenek, M. Development of the right hemisphere / M. Zdenek-Mn.: Potpourri LLC, 2004

4. Nemov, R.S. General Basics psychology / Book. one.

5. Beskova I.A. How is creative thinking possible? M.: IFRAN, 2003.

6. Ponomarev Ya.A. Psychology of creativity. - M.: Publishing house "Nauka", 1976.

7. Luk, A.N. Psychology of creativity / A.N. Luk-M.: Nauka, 1978.- 127p.

8. Woodward R. Stages of creative thinking // Reader in general psychology. Psychology of thinking. Ed. Yu.B. Gippenreiter, V.V. Petukhov. M.: Publishing House of Moscow University, 2001

9. Stolyarov A.M. Heuristic techniques and methods for activating creative thinking. - M: VNIIPI, 1988.

10. Tikhomirov O.K. Psychology of thinking. - M.: MSU, 1984.

11. Khjell L., Ziegler D. Theory of personality. St. Petersburg: Peter, 1997.

12. Olah A. Creativity and personal change.

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"Free" thoughts

When solving problems, we rely on past experience, what happened before or what we once dealt with. Unconsciously we ask ourselves: what have I learned in life? After that, we choose the most promising approach and reject the rest.

Such thinking lacks flexibility, it generates standard and unoriginal ideas. The solutions found with its help exactly repeat our past experience or - at least - outwardly similar to it.

With a creative approach, we do not rush to the problem, armed with past experience, but ask ourselves: how many points of view on it, how to rethink and solve it? The goal is to come up with as many answers as possible, including non-template ones.

One of the forms of creative thinking - conceptual mixing - allows you to make associations between different topics. Kids are real experts at this. Their thoughts are like water: just as pure, fluid and all-encompassing. Everything is mixed and combined, many connections are created. Therefore, children spontaneously create.

In school, we are taught to define, discriminate, separate, and categorize. AT later life these categories remain separate and do not touch. The "liquid" thinking of the child seems to freeze in an ice mold, where each cell is a category. That is why it is so difficult for many to use their imagination and creativity.

For new opportunities, you need to “free” your thoughts. Fortunately, our brain is able to learn and change until death. This means that we can increase our creativity if we practice.

Warming up for the brain: creating associations

Choose four words at random.Come up with a criterion by which one becomes superfluous.For example: dog, cloud, water and door.

Criterion 1: The dog, water, and door can be in the house, but the cloud is not.

Criterion 2: The words "dog", "water" and "cloud" contain the letter "o", but the word "door" does not. Etc…

Additional techniques:

Randomly choose six words and divide them into two groups of three words. Each group should have its own selection principle.

Make two lists (A and B) of four words each. Come up with a criterion by which a word from list A is associated with a word from list B.

Make a list of five words chosen at random. Choose one of the five words and find principles by which it can be connected with the other four.

- Choose any two words. Create a murder scene with these two words. Add three more words chosen at random. Each of them must become evidence. With the help of this evidence, come up with the circumstances of the murder and the suspect.

Pick four words at random. Using exactly these words (not derivatives and not associations), come up with a newspaper headline. Write an abstract for this article.

Formulate a task

What is the essence of your creative task? Can you describe her in one sentence of six words? “Do what no one else could”, “Clients who are happy to use my product”, “Pass all exams this session”, “Stay happy as a bachelor for as long as possible”, etc.

Describing a complex problem in one sentence of six words stimulates your imagination. The more precise the wording, the easier it is to find a solution. Imagine that a creative task is a drawing on a box, without which it is difficult to assemble a puzzle.

100 ideas

One of the obstacles to creativity: when you have a good idea, it can prevent you from coming up with a better one. Therefore, you need to produce ideas, without thinking about whether they are good or bad, whether they can be implemented, whether they will solve the problem.

Give yourself the opportunity to think uncensored. To do this, set a goal in terms of time and number of ideas. Thus, you direct creative energy in the right direction. Innovative companies most often set a quota of 100 ideas per hour. Let's try it too.

Come up with and write down 100 uses for bricks. You will see that the first 10-20 will be standard, familiar, well-known: lay down a wall, climb higher, build a grill, maintain bookshelves etc. The next 30-50 ideas will be more original. As you get closer to 100, your brain will start making extra effort and produce more creative and unconventional alternatives.

For this process to be most effective, you need to curb your inner critic and start writing down all ideas, including the most obvious and bad ones. The first third will most likely include old, identical ideas, the second third will contain more interesting ones, and the last third will most likely reveal noteworthy, unexpected and difficult inventions. If we had not set ourselves the goal of producing such a large number of ideas, these last thirty would not see the light

Get rid of the routine

Routine often becomes the enemy of creativity. Make changes to your daily routine. Make a list of what you do out of habit, always the same. Usually, activities from such a list are performed almost thoughtlessly.

Try changing the way you do them a little over the course of a week, day, or month. For example, take a different route to work or school, change your sleep and work hours, start reading a different newspaper, meet new people, drink juice instead of tea, go to a different restaurant, take a bubble bath instead of a shower, watch a different TV program, etc. d.

Technique: questions

Most have been taught not to question authority, especially at work, school, or family. Because of this, we rarely ask the right questions. To achieve a fresh look and develop curiosity, you need to constantly doubt everything. Make it part of your daily life.

Why?This question helps to understand the current state of affairs, to question the generally accepted opinion.

What if?..It helps to explore new possibilities, to imagine what will happen to the world if you change something or implement a new idea.

Why not?This question will help you understand the limitations and factors that stand in the way of positive change.

If you need to get to the bottom of a problem, use the five whys method:

1. Why do people prefer competitors' fries over ours? Because it tastes better.

2. Why is it tastier? Because their seasonings are better than ours.

3. Why are their seasonings better than ours? Because their chef is the best.

4. Why is our chef worse? Because we considered the change of chef to be unimportant, and for twenty years now we have been working with an incompetent employee.

5. Why haven't we hired a new chef yet? Because no one dared to offer it to the owner.

mental maps

Mind maps are one of the simplest and most effective tools for releasing creativity. They were designed by British scientist Tony Buzan, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks.

Today, mind maps form an integral part of training courses and problem-solving methods in many companies and institutions. You can use them for personal purposes such as holiday planning.

This technique allows you to generate many ideas in a short time and present a large amount of information in a confined space. All key concepts related to a particular topic will be organized in such a way as to encourage the search for associations.

It is the search for connections between ideas that makes us more creative.

1. Take a white sheet, the more the better, and five or six markers or colored pencils. Lay the sheet in front of you horizontally. In the center of the sheet, draw or symbolize the theme of your card as brightly as possible. Don't worry about the quality of the drawing. Use different colors.

2. Having completed the central image, begin to write down the most significant ideas along the lines emanating from the center. Then add keywords and concepts to them, like branches of a tree. Feel free to form associations and try to complete the sheet as quickly as possible. Create ideas in the form keywords simply.

3. Once you feel that you have collected enough material through free association, look at the result. All your ideas are on a piece of paper. You will notice connections that help organize and summarize these ideas. If there is a repeated word, it may be something important. Connect different parts of the map with arrows, codes and colors. Delete unnecessary parts of the map.

Don't forget to use images as they serve as anchors for remembering keywords. Try to write one word per line. It trains attention and disciplines. The mental map can be endless. It is completed only when there is enough information to solve the creative problem.

Reading, silence, play

It is well known that in the process of creation most active shows the right hemisphere. All of these techniques help to train neural networks in this area. And here are a few more ways:

1. Reading stories, short stories and novels. Fiction develops the intellectual abilities needed to think differently, more creatively.

2. Silence. By engaging in activities that do not involve talking, we significantly suppress the activity of the left hemisphere. Thus, we reduce the activity of dominant thought patterns in neural networks, as if reducing the volume of our consciousness.

3. Any activity or game that trains the imagination. puzzle, board games, crosswords, theatrical, musical or dance improvisations and many other activities not only train our ability to produce different ideas, but also allow us to see the entertaining side of the creative process.

- a complex and largely mysterious process that has gone through a long path of evolution. We use it all the time, but very rarely think about its essence. Why do some people find themselves at a loss when life puts before them challenging tasks? And others, seemingly not really straining themselves, find completely original solutions that allow them not only to solve the problem that has arisen, but also to achieve success, make a career, become a leader? Because the latter are smarter than the former?

Not at all. Great amount people are used to solving problems in a standard way, following learned rules or given algorithm. We are taught this way at school, so when faced with a problem, we ask friends for advice or look for ready-made recipes on the Internet. And there are people who independently find a non-standard solution and even enjoy it. Why? Because they have a creative mind.

About the importance of creative thinking, creativity, creativity to the point, today you can hear everywhere. These qualities are indicated in vacancies for prestigious positions, they are offered to be developed at numerous seminars, trainings, and coaching. Teachers talk about them to parents, leaders to subordinates. But unfortunately, for many, these concepts remain vague and obscure. Let's look into them.

Creativity as an activity

Let's start with the fact that the ability to create is inherent only in man, and the need for creative activity all people have from birth. Yes, yes, children are born with this need. The potential, of course, is different for everyone, but it is there, and it can be developed at any age.

Creativity in psychology is defined as a spiritual and practical activity aimed at creating something new. This new can be born in any field, and not just in the field of art or science. In construction and pedagogy, in cooking and management - creativity is possible everywhere.

Any human activity can be of two types:

Reproductive is a reproducing activity according to a given pattern. For example, when a child writes a dictation, a housewife bakes a cake according to a recipe, a builder builds a house according to a drawing, or a needlewoman knits a scarf according to a pattern. This is very important and desired activity, a necessary part of training, professionalism is impossible without it. Yes and in everyday life there is no point in "reinventing the wheel" every time.
Creative activity is what is called creativity, it is distinguished by the novelty of the result or methods. It is built on the basis of reproductive, but, having mastered professional techniques, a person begins to feel the need to do something of his own, original, new, since he is bored and uninterested in following only someone else's model.

But it is not for nothing that creativity is called spiritual and practical activity. The need to create something new gives rise to an idea, a plan, a project in a person. It is the emergence of a new, original idea and the comprehension of the ways of its implementation that is creative thinking.

"Discovery" of creative thinking

For a long time, up to the middle of the 20th century, the highest form mental activity abstract-logical thinking was unconditionally considered. His strict laws, derived by ancient philosophers, were studied at school, and people who were not inclined to logical thinking were treated condescendingly. Even tests for the level of intelligence (IQ), developed at the beginning of the last century, were focused on testing the proficiency in logic and the development of abstract logical thinking.

But it turned out that among individuals with an intelligence level above 135%, there are almost no outstanding scientists, world-famous cultural figures, artists, writers, and those who have achieved great success in business. People who score high on these tests are unable to solve problems. non-standard tasks they can't come up with anything new and original. And the dynamically developing industry, the emergence of new industries and services, and increasing competition required precisely not standard solutions.

The tests were refined, improved, entire research teams were engaged in them, for example, at Stanford University in the USA, but still this did not solve the problem. People with high IQ, responsible, erudite, highly intelligent professionals were unable to go beyond strict instructions and come up with something of their own. But success was achieved by the middle peasants, those whose level of intelligence was only slightly higher than the permissible limit of the norm.

It was then that it became clear that logical thinking is not a panacea and is more productive and effective thinking - creative. It allows a person:

find a way out of seemingly hopeless situations;
solve non-standard tasks that are not amenable to algorithmic methods;
discover new scientific laws;
create new things;
see any problem from a completely non-standard angle of view.

After all, it was not for nothing that A. Einstein said: "I would never have made my discoveries in the process of rational thinking."

Thinking "in different directions"

Significantly, one of the first to speak about a special type of thinking was intelligence researcher and developer of IQ tests J. Gilford. Years of research led him to the conclusion that the most amazing scientific discoveries and original inventions are made not on the basis of logic, but contrary to it. And classical logical thinking, both deductive and inductive, is not able to solve non-standard problems in which there is no single correct answer.

A special kind of thinking that contradicts the logical, but is the basis of creativity, Guilford called "divergent" - divergent, going in different directions, multidirectional.
This thinking differs from standard logical thinking, which is linear, that is, directed in one direction, focused on achieving the only correct or optimal solution.

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, psychologists actively studied creative thinking, as they realized that human civilization exists, and the state thrives thanks to creative people endowed with creative abilities. Those who have long been condescendingly called eccentrics.

Features of creative thinking

Today, this kind of thinking is treated with due respect, and many books have been written about it. And you and I can highlight its features and even “try on” them for ourselves.

Associativity

J. Gilford, calling this thinking divergent, emphasized its non-linear nature. It obeys not the laws of logic, but the laws of associations. The process of creative thinking looks something like this: some thought, idea, task, flaring up in the human brain with a bright spark, scatters hundreds of impulses through neural circuits. This idea evokes many associations, and the most diverse, seemingly completely unrelated information is involved in solving the problem.

Creative thinking in structure resembles an extensive network, a web that connects different parts and departments of the brain. And a brilliant idea, or even more than one, cannot but fall into such a web. Nonlinear thinking provides a person with the opportunity to see the problem from different angles, to find different ways her decisions. famous American poet and literary critic Ezra Pound wrote: "Genius ... is the ability to see ten things where a common person sees one and talented person two or three, plus the ability to reflect this multiple perception in the material of his art.

non-standard

This is one of the most important characteristics of creative thinking, which avoids any standards or patterns, does not obey the strict rules and laws of the algorithm. A person who owns this thinking is able to find a non-standard solution to even the most banal, mundane and boring task.

Moreover, original solutions creative people issued even when there is no special need for it. Because creative thinking is largely spontaneous, as it is connected with the subconscious, with the area of intuition.

figurative character

Creative thinking relies on images, not concepts. It's in the form bright image an idea or idea appears, and imagination for creativity has greater value than rational thought. After all, imagination is responsible for the process of the birth of new images. By the way, it is no coincidence that the center of creative abilities is located in the right hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for operations with images.

But this does not mean that words and concepts do not participate in creative thinking. They are necessary in order to comprehend, analyze, verify the correctness of the born idea, and in order to acquaint other people with it.

problematic

The source and accumulator of creative thinking is a problem. It can be generated by the process of development of science, and the needs of improving technology, and the evolution of art, and the development of business, and simply life circumstances.

If a person has a penchant for creativity, but there is no problem, then he will invent it or find it and will be happy with it, since a creative person evaluates any problem as a stepping stone to success, to the realization of his own "I". And sometimes the very discovery of a problem is a genuine discovery and depends on the degree of giftedness of the discoverer.

Openness to new

Creative thinking requires a variety of knowledge, and the more areas of life or science are connected to the thinking process, the better. This is due to the associative nature of creative thinking. The more spontaneous easy process the birth of associations, the higher the person's ability to be creative.

But associations are connections between different blocks of information stored in our memory. Therefore, interest in everything new, greedy (and sometimes indiscriminate) absorption of new knowledge is salient feature creativity. After all, comprehension of the new is a stimulus for creative thinking, and information is construction material for creativity.

Can creative thinking be controlled?

For a long time, many researchers considered creativity to be a spontaneous process, and creative thinking to be intuitive, uncontrollable, and subject to inspiration.

In a way, they are right, of course. Creativity does not obey cold reason. But for the most part such reasoning tried to justify the spontaneity of the creators. So it was until they decided to put creative thinking at the service of business.

In the middle of the 20th century, many design bureaus, firms, offices appeared in the USA, whose specialists were obliged to give rise to new, original and preferably brilliant ideas for business promotion, advertising, marketing, etc. Naturally, those who paid the salaries of these specialists was not going to wait for inspiration to descend on his employees and they would be illuminated by a brilliant idea.

It was then that psychologists began to study creative thinking in earnest. By the way, not only in the West, but also in our country. Moreover, the need for new ideas and brilliant discoveries in our country was of a state nature, and research was also supported by the state.

As it turned out, creative thinking is indeed connected with the subconscious, but it can be influenced, albeit also using original methods.

Need a problem. It is she who starts the process of thinking. And the more complex and non-standard this problem is, the greater the guarantee that thinking will switch to creative level. The problem, or rather thinking about it, activates the brain, creates dozens or even hundreds of foci of excitation in the cerebral cortex. Without the active work of the brain, the birth of associations, the connection of the subconscious and creative thinking is impossible. Just lying on the couch waiting for inspiration is pointless.
Need a push. Under normal, comfortable conditions, our thinking is linear. It's easier, lighter, less energy is wasted. Thought, like a bundle of electrochemical impulses, also moves more easily along the beaten path in the neural circuits of the brain. And it leads to a template solution or to the conclusion that there is no solution at all. Therefore, at present, many methods have been developed that force the thought to leave the beaten path of standard solutions and thereby activate creative thinking. But sometimes an external impetus is enough for such activation: an unusual event, a vivid image, a cascade of associations.
We need a positive incentive. The incentive can be different - from the expected praise, to a solid fee or even the pleasure that many people receive from the creative process itself.

It turned out that envy can be an effective stimulus. Yes, yes, ordinary envy - when, reading about the successes of others, considering the results of someone else's creativity (published books, paintings, crafts, etc.), a person begins to think that he could do it too.

Creative thinking is a very important and necessary mental process, but it is not a gift of God inherent in the chosen few. Creativity is available to absolutely everyone, you can develop abilities for it at any age, the main thing is to awaken the need for this in yourself.

How creative thinking works in practice - learn from the video.

Portal for the student. Self-training

What is creative thinking about. Development of creative thinking

Features of the development of creative thinking

Non-standard approach

Formation of creative thinking

Creative Thinking Traits:

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"Brainstorm"

Important Features of Brainstorming

Synectics

Examples of synectics

Development of creative thinking

5 Creative Thinking Exercises

Word choice

Predictions

Letter words

Description of items

10 tasks for the development of creative thinking

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