published_or_final_version / abstract / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This design thesis project explores the psychology, significance, and power of play. The value of play is supported through historical and cultural context. Research for the subject unfolds the relationship between play, productivity and the mastery of creative thinking. Examination of the engagement of play addresses its power to inspire in both design education and practice. It also touches upon crucial dynamics of physical, intellectual, social, and emotional development in the human life cycle of learning. As the facilitator of play in the context of three-dimensional space, I seek to elucidate the value of activating human behaviors that stimulate play such as curiosity, imagination, spontaneity, and personal expression. Serious fun is no game; play provides a meaningful strategy for solving serious design problems and developing mastery in the classroom and the practice of design. / by Annette M. Piskel. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Idea generation is the essence of design as everyday problem solving. Generating ideas can be a matter of life and death or simply a distraction from our normal existence. The eureka moment also means that sometimes people improvise and repurpose whatever is at hand to solve their own problems. As a consequence, a chair becomes a bookshelf; a shoelace can be used to stop bleeding. Generating alternative uses for common household objects should be facilitated by generating alternative situations in which improvisational design might be needed. One way to encourage as many alternative ideas as possible is to think through heuristics of discovery. A number of directions have emerged concerning what can be used as good design heuristics to trigger creative mindsets. Does "walking away from the problem" or "letting the mind wander" really help generate a greater number of alternative ideas? How might shifting a perspective activate proper associative processing and enhance creative performance? Prior studies in generating novel uses often directed people to focus on objects, situations, and events, or to switch between a different time or space. One plausible method yet to be studied systematically, however, is for participants to think of different roles people can take in a society, such as chef, physician, mechanic, athlete, and so on. This dissertation research sets out to uncover certain creative mindsets and potential design heuristics that promote alternative solutions to problems ordinary people encounter in daily life. The studies conducted for this dissertation particularly focus on two mindset conditions: the mind-wandering group was manipulated to "let things come to your mind" and the human-centric group was manipulated to "think of different roles," both conditions representing widespread beliefs among professional designers about generating ideas. In two online experiments, participants were asked to generate as many alternative uses of common household objects as they could using either the mind- wandering or the human-centric mindsets triggered by different search heuristics. Study 1 had a control group and names of objects. Study 2 presented pictures of objects to half the participants and names of objects to the other half. The dependent variables were the fluency of ideas, the originality of ideas, the diversity of assignable roles and the response time between ideas. Results in both studies support the effectiveness of thinking of different roles in the human-centric mindset condition in increasing the fluency of alternative uses and the originality of ideas. Participants given no particular search strategy frequently reported that they tended to have things come to their minds, but they didn’t differ from the mind- wandering mindset group and were outperformed by those using the human-centric mindset strategy. Furthermore, seeing pictures didn’t necessarily give either mindset group the edge in generating more uses and more original ideas. Presenting the names of objects and providing specific roles with the search heuristics seemed enough to help induce a diversity of roles and hence more alternative uses and more original ideas. Those who let their minds wander did take longer to generate ideas than those using the focused associations of roles. The general findings in the dissertation are consistent with previous research showing that those who generated more ideas were more likely to generate more original ideas and those who persisted in ideation more frequently produced more original uses. On the whole, this dissertation research provides significant evidence for the heuristics of roles as a powerful perspective shifter to enhance everyday design concepts for human scale.

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Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts. Jewellery Design))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / In this thesis I concern myself with a rather particular process of making jewellery – a creative process which epitomises repetitive, labour-intensive and timeconsuming actions, results in an “optimal” experience (Csikszentmihalyi 1990) and leads to meticulous and refined products. In dealing with this process I present its conceptual framework which I understand as a sequence of physical, mental and emotional elements through which I move from fascination (the initiating factor of the process) to product (a concrete and legitimising by-product of the process). As I progress from fascination to product, I move through the distinct, yet interwoven stages of ideation, planning and preparation, production, meditation, incubation and insight. These stages, together with fascination and product, constitute a continuous, three-dimensional spiralling form which characterizes the conceptual structure of my process. Within that conceptual structure, I differentiate between the phase of decisionmaking and the “experiential” phase (here signifying “to experience”). The former phase comprises the stages of ideation, planning and preparation, and production; whereas the latter phase stretches over the stages of production, meditation, incubation and insight. I define decision-making as a sequential thought-process and distinguish between an open-ended and a highly restricted or defined type of decision-making. The open-ended type takes the form of free experimentation and dominates the stage of ideation, leading to those ideas which I choose to translate into concrete jewellerypieces. As I move from ideation to planning and preparation, and subsequently to production in developing and implementing my idea, I increasingly make use of the restricted type of decision-making in the form of relying on previously accumulated knowledge and experience. Understanding decision-making as “a logical process leading to a conclusion” (Loy 1988:146), I interpret decision-making in general, and the restricted type in particular, in terms of the philosophical notion of dual thoughtprocesses, based on the causally and sequentially linked elements of decision-making. As the stage of production progresses, the dual thought-processes of decisionmaking are increasingly relegated to my sub-conscious. Consequently, my consciousness is free to engage in what I refer to as meditation, as a result of which I move into the experiential phase of my process. My meditative state of mind can be ascribed to non-dual, spontaneous and random thought-processes which bring with an atmosphere of incubation out of which insights arise. As a result of my non-dual mind-set I experience both my thinking and my acting during meditation as non-dual, accumulating or resulting in an exhilarating, overtly positive, worthwhile and fulfilling experience. Even though this experience acts as a motivation for engaging in the process and is therefore of enormous significance, the tangible product of the process does serve a legitimizing function as it endows my almost excessively time-consuming and labour-intensive acts with purpose. However, as a result of the input of enormous amounts of personal energy over prolonged time-spans my process leads to an intimate relationship between my products and me, causing a dilemma and paradox as I struggle to let go of my jewellery-pieces.

Prominent definitions and theories of 'Creativity' provide core data for themes that frame the Creative Process Assessment Matrix (CPAM). Its framework is based on Wallas' stages of the creative process and the P theory (Person, thinking Process, Press/Persuasion and Product). The CPAM's structure and content was derived from current, reliable and valid research. Issues relating to assessment procedures, as well as psychological factors (blockers and stimulators) gave rise to the Creative Assessment Test Questionnaire (CATQ#4), containing questions that document creative assessment prerequisites. Recognized creativity tests (Word-Association, Instances and TCT-DP) were evaluated to determine whether they successfully address and test for relevant creative process criteria. Results indicated that all three tests only addressed a minority of CPAM's 60-point criteria. CPAM offers understanding of the environmental impact and influence on creativity, and renders it measurable. Finally, the CPAM measures the setting, sensory stimulation and what postulates the initial spark of creativity. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Prominent definitions and theories of 'Creativity' provide core data for themes that frame the Creative Process Assessment Matrix (CPAM). Its framework is based on Wallas' stages of the creative process and the P theory (Person, thinking Process, Press/Persuasion and Product). The CPAM's structure and content was derived from current, reliable and valid research. Issues relating to assessment procedures, as well as psychological factors (blockers and stimulators) gave rise to the Creative Assessment Test Questionnaire (CATQ#4), containing questions that document creative assessment prerequisites. Recognized creativity tests (Word-Association, Instances and TCT-DP) were evaluated to determine whether they successfully address and test for relevant creative process criteria. Results indicated that all three tests only addressed a minority of CPAM's 60-point criteria. CPAM offers understanding of the environmental impact and influence on creativity, and renders it measurable. Finally, the CPAM measures the setting, sensory stimulation and what postulates the initial spark of creativity. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)