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22 - Creativity’s Role in Society

from Environmental Differences in Creativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2019

By
Dean Keith Simonton
Edited by
James C. Kaufman  and
Robert J. Sternberg
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Robert J. Sternberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

Although psychologists are prone to view creativity as an individual phenomenon, and thus focus on the personal characteristics of creative people, cultural anthropologists and sociologists have emphasized that creativity also takes place at a larger, more aggregate level of analysis. This larger, more comprehensive perspective is illustrated using representative research on creativity in cultures, cities, nations, and civilizations. This research introduces such aggregate-level phenomena as societal complexity, population growth, religion, ideology, political systems, scientific and technological multiples, and configurations of culture growth. Notwithstanding the importance of these aggregate factors, it remains necessary to incorporate the individual level of analysis. The latter is absolutely essential to understand creative productivity, creative personality, and creative development – all three operating within and across creators.
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The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity , pp. 462 - 480
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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