Thesis(M.A.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2010 / Title from PDF (viewed on 2010-01-28) Department of Psychology Includes abstract Includes bibliographical references and appendices Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1961. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: leaves 137-141.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2004. / Title from title page screen (viewed Sep. 23, 2004). Thesis advisor: R. Steve McCallum. Document formatted into pages (ix, 60 p. : ill.). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-42).

Accidently sent an old version of chapter 4 -- this is the final version of the manuscript and thesis / Background: Creativity is the generation of effective and useful ideas, and it has played an integral role in the field of surgery: new techniques, technologies and practices in surgery originate from generation and implementation of creative ideas. Creativity also plays an important role in clinical problem-solving. It is therefore an important ability in the surgical profession. However, despite its importance, literature on creativity in surgery is limited. Research Question: What is the current state of the literature on creativity in medicine, and how creative are surgeons, as measured by a divergent thinking tool? Study Design: Scoping review & survey with semi-structured interviews. Primary Outcome: Divergent thinking (as measured by the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults [ATTA]) Study Setting: McMaster University Medical Center Participants: Surgeons and surgeon trainees in the Department of Surgery Analysis: Descriptive statistics and regression analyses to explore factors associated with divergent thinking. Discussion: We found only 54 primary studies on creativity in medicine, 3 of which were conducted in surgery. Most of the creativity research was conducted in the field of nursing. Our survey of divergent thinking found that while surgeons had an average level of divergent thinking, they struggled to produce original ideas whilst displaying high levels of fluency and flexibility. Being male was significantly negatively associated with divergent thinking. Surgical experience was marginally negatively associated with divergent thinking, suggesting that the training process may be stifling the ability to generate original ideas. Surgeons reported a stifling of creativity in the surgical training process, which corroborated our findings. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Creativity is an important ability in medicine. We found that creativity is being understudied in the field of medicine –only 3 studies on creativity have been conducted in surgery. Thus, we designed a survey of divergent thinking, a process used to generate creative ideas, in surgeons and surgeon trainees at the McMaster University Medical Center. We use an abbreviated version of the Torrance Test for Creative Thinking (TTCT), the most widely use measure of creativity in the world. We found that surgeons and surgeon trainees have similar divergent thinking levels to the average adult but struggled to come up with original ideas. Being male was linked to lower divergent thinking scores. Years of surgical experience trended towards a negative link with divergent thinking, suggesting that the training process may be stifling the ability to think originally.

This thesis attempts to answer a central question in the field of creativity: what creativity looks like in various domains of activities ? Finding a satisfying answer to this question involves answering what 'creativity' is. Therefore, the first chapter is dedicated to establishing a shared understanding of the term creativity. Following this, determining what creativity looks like in various domains is answered in that same chapter with a new theory of cognition, called the Cognitive Space Theory. This theory organizes the content of domains according to ten fundamental cognitive spaces. These cognitive spaces cover a broad range of human creative expressions. In the second chapter, a questionnaire based on the theory is developed and validated. This questionnaire assesses the exploration and mastery of the ten cognitive spaces postulated in the theory. The results of two studies are reported to demonstrate the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. The third chapter uses the latter questionnaire to predict the creative activities and creative achievements of university students in eight different domains ranging from sport to science. Finally, the fourth chapter discusses the implications of the theory applied to education. The chapter concludes with future avenues of research in neuroscience, cognition, and artificial intelligence.

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Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-118).

Creativity is increasing in value worldwide, but the processes underlying various creative abilities remain ambiguous. The most frequently used assessments of creativity (i.e., divergent thinking tasks; creative problem-solving tasks) differ in surface features and are also rarely examined together. These inconsistencies, in addition to mixed findings in the literature, have caused considerable debate among creativity researchers concerning the particular roles of independent or dual processes that lead to success on different creativity tests. The present study expounded upon these mixed findings using a factor analytic method. The results indicated that individual differences in working memory and fluency ability impact performance on divergent thinking and creative problem-solving tasks, but to differing degrees. These results are discussed as supporting a dual-process view of creative thinking.

The problem was to investigate the relationships between the incidence of figures of speech in selected types of pupils' compositions and pupils' divergent thinking.

This research explores the relationship between mindsets and divergent thinking skills. Specifically, the research questions sought to answer whether there was a positive association between a higher presence of divergent thinking skills and a creative growth mindset, as well as the impact environment has on creative growth. A total of 184 second and sixth grade students from a larger urban school district were surveyed. Data collection included: student surveys, two divergent thinking assessments, direct observation of the students and teacher notes. Results indicate most students identify with a creative growth mindset, but are lacking specific strategies to demonstrate creative growth. In addition, reflective survey results revealed the impact environment can have in helping students recognize and apply the specific strategies and characteristics highly creative people possess.