The Creative Person, Product, Process and Press: The 4P's

Michael Lee Scritchfield, 1999

Introduction to the 4P's

Creativity as a whole entity, or a single field to be studied, is composed of four parts or strands. They were described by Rhodes (1961) as being: understanding the traits, characteristics or attributes of the creative person; describing the operations or stages of thinking used in the creative process; identifying outcomes and qualities of creative products; and examining thenature of situations and itsÇ context within the creative press (or environment). The above figure illustrates how these four strands can stand alone but how, by their nature, they operate almost always as a synthesis of two or more simultaneously. In fact the most complete picture of any one of the 4PÇs can be best viewed when considering the influence on it by one or more of the others. With that said however, a close look at each of them individually will perhaps promote a better understanding of what they are. It will also give a clearer vision of why they are considered a viable framework for studying creativity.

The Creative Person

In the early days of creativity research psychologists and most others were very interested in the people who demonstrated an ability to be creative. This explains why most of the early work in this field was concentrated on the person. There are two burning questions surrounding creativity in a person. They are: How creative am I?; and How am I creative?

The first examines the level of creativity that is in each person. This is one of the basic precepts that everyone in the field of creativity knows to be true every person is creative. There are some creativity assessments that can be used to measure the level of creativity in a person. The best know and most widely accepted is the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT).

The TTCT measures the creative originality, elaboration, fluency and flexibility of the person assessed. The second question is concerned with the style of the creative person. The creativity assessments that are best know and most used to identify a person's style are the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

The KAI measures thinking style and relates whether a person is either an adaptor or an innovator. The MBTI measures four separate scales on a paired either-or assessment. The pairs are: extraversion-introversion; sensing-intuition; thinking-feeling; and perceiving-judging. Through research it has been determined that there are some tangible characteristics, or abilities, of a creative person. They are, but not necessarily limited to: fluency, capacity to make order from chaos, curiosity, elaboration, openness, risk-taking, flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity, originality, complexity, imagination, independence.

Torrance (1979) created a model for studying and predicting creative behavior in people. The model included: abilities, like the ones mentioned above; skills, which relates to creativity skills such as recognizing and applying strategies for creating; and motivation, oneÇs personal commitment to creative pursuits. Where all three intersect in the model is the focal point of highest creative behavior.

The Creative Process

The creative process really concerns itself with how creativity occurs. It examines the thinking stages or operations that happen when people behave in a creative manner. Most of the early research focused on how highly creative people described the mental process that they went through to create whatever products they created. Wallas (1926) described the creative process and suggested that it has four stages. They are: preparation, examining the challenge in all directions; incubation, thinking about the problem in a not-conscious manner; illumination, the emergence of a happy idea; and verification, a validity check on the idea and refining it to a more precise form.

The Creative Product

Almost as big as the universal question of, What is creativity?, is the question, How do I know it is creative? That it refers to a product, or outcome, irrespective of what that product is. The product may be an idea, a song, a fractal algorithm, a race car or a recipe à tangible or intangible it doesnÇt matter. It can come from any and all sorts of human endeavor. These products or outcomes may be created by a group of people or an individual, and can have a fluctuating range of both usefulness and novelty. Creative products or outcomes, as described by Besemer & O'Quin (1987), have three characteristics. They are: novelty, describes the originality or newness of the product (originality, germinality, and transformality); resolution, how the product addresses the challenge it was created for; synthesis, how the product goes beyond just addressing the challenge.

The Creative Press

Creative press refers to the environment the person is in, or the product is produced, or the process occurs. It is concerned with the climate and everything that affects the climate where creativity takes place. This is where creativity and creative behavior can flourish or be fatally hindered. VanGundy (1985) identified three categories that affect a group's creative climate. They are: internal, external and interpersonal relationships. Internal relates to one's personal perceptions of the external climate. The external are the factors, physical and other, that exist all around the person, product or process. Interpersonal relationships with others is self explanatory. Goran Ekvall of the Swedish Employment Security Council developed, through research, ten dimensions that are related to creative climate or environment. They are: challenge and motivation; freedom; dynamism; trust and openness; idea time; playfulness and humor; conflict; idea support; debates; and risk-taking. All but one of these dimensions have a positve correlation to the creative climate. That means when they are present and supported then the climate or environment is more likely to enhance creativity. The one dimension that has a negative correlation to the creative climate is conflict. The more conflict there is the less possibility there is for the climate to enhance creativity.

Summary

This is a brief summary one approach to understanding creativity. The creative person, product, process and press (environment), as a complete model, is a good framework for understanding creativity.

References:

Besemer, S. P. , & O'Quin, K. (1987). Creative product analysis: Testing a model by developing a judging instrument. In S. G. Isaksen (Ed. ). Frontiers of creativity research: Beyond the basics (pp. 341-379). Buffalo, NY: Bearly Limited.

Isaksen, S. G. , Dorval, K. B. , & Treffinger, D. J. , 1994. Creative Approaches to Problem Solving (CAPS). Dubuque, Iowa. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Rhodes, M. (1961). An analysis of creativity. Phi Delta Kappan, 42, 305-310.

Torrance, E. P. (1979). The search for satori and creativity. Buffalo, NY: Creative Education Foundation & Creative Synergetic Associates.

VanGundy, A. (1984). Managing group creativity: A modular approach to problem solving. New York: American Management Association.

Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. New York: Franklin Watts.