Have you ever met someone who was remarkably smart but lacked creativity? Just because someone is highly intelligent doesn't mean one is creative. True creativity doesn't come in flashes of beaming light. Creative ideas come from the conscious awareness that has been developing over a long period of time.
Creativity: The ability to produce original, appropriate, and valuable ideas and/ or solutions to problems. - The World Of Psychology
The New York State Regents and the SAT's measures convergent thinking. According to psychologist J.P. Guilford, the definition of convergent thinking is:
The type of mental activity measured by IQ and achievement tests; it consists of solving precisely defined, logical problems for which there is a known correct answer. - The World Of Psychology
According to Guilford, creative thinkers are masters of divergent thinking. The definition of divergent thinking is the:
Ability to produce multiple ideas, answers, or solutions to a problem for which there is no agreed-on solution. More broadly, divergent thinking is novel, or original, and involves the synthesis of an unusual association of ideas; it is flexible, switching quickly and smoothly from one stream of thought or set of ideas to another and it requires fluency, or the ability to formulate an abundance of ideas. - The World Of Psychology
But how do you measure creativity? A test called the Unusual Uses Test questions people how an ordinary object, like a brick, can be used in the most amount of ways they can think of.
Another test that can measure creativity is called the Consequence Test. In this test, people list as many consequences as possible for a hypothetical event that would create some change to the world such as: "What would be the consequences if suddenly everyone wasn't able to write?"
What do creative people have that less creative people don't? Psychologists discovered that creative individuals have these six qualities over less creative people:
1) Curiosity and Inquisitiveness
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. - Albert Einstein
2) Openness to new experiences
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time. - T.S. Eliot
3) Expertise in a specific area that has been built up over years of study and practice
I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired. ― Martha Graham
4) Tendency to be an independent thinker
Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too. — Voltaire
5) Self - Motivation
Do not depend on good motivator! Find your words of self-motivation! ― Toba Beta
6) Intrinsic Motivation
One characteristic of creative people is intrinsic motivation. They enjoy the process of creation for its own sake - the end result may be a whimsical toy rather than a practical tool. - The World Of Psychology
