ABSTRACT

Creativity has been defined and studied from many points of view. It has been seen as a special form of intelligence, an ability developed through persistence and hard work, a genetically endowed talent, a unique personality trait, a response to psychopathology, or a mature defensive response to instinctual forces (Eysenck, 1995; Heilman, 2005; Panter, Panter, Virshup, & Virshup, 1995; Simonton, 2000). Creativity has been conceived of as the birthright of each human being. Because humans were created in the image of God, a divine and definitive creator, our basic human nature is believed to be creative (Azara, 2002; Fox, 2002). In fact, modern creativity research does not focus on creativity as a unique ability or skill, but rather as a typical way of thinking embedded in related cognitive processes, such as sustained attention, working memory, planning and temporal ordering, and decision making (Dietrich, 2004; Simonton, 2000). Recent creativity research has focused on the functional combination of convergent and divergent thinking such that during creative thought, theories are broadened and even overturned using divergent thinking, at the same time that innovative similarities are noted and capitalized upon through convergent thought (Heilman, 2005).