Creativity has been traditionally studied from the point of view of the individual creator, and it has been assumed that creativity is the same across all knowledge domains. An argument is advanced for a new view of creativity—one that builds on the nature of the domains in which creative work can be carried out. Through a case analysis of Western and Chinese painting, it is argued that the two seemingly similar domains, in fact, differ greatly in the so-called parameters (e.g., pursuit, methodology, and symbol systems). Such parameters place unique constraints on the process of creativity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Amabile, T. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity. New York: Springer-Verlag.
2.
Barron, F. (1969). Creative person and creative process. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
3.
Boden, M. (1991). What is creativity? Paper presented at the Conference on Creativity sponsored by the Achievement Project, Ashford, Kent, England.
4.
Carey, S. (1985). Conceptual change in childhood. Cambridge: MIT Press.
5.
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.
6.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988). Society, culture, and person: A systems view of creativity. In R. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity (pp. 325-340). New York: Cambridge University Press.
7.
Feldman, D. H. (1980). Beyond universals in cognitive development. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
8.
Fodor, J. A. (1983). The modularity of mind. Cambridge: MIT Press.
9.
Gardner, H. (1988). Creativity lives, creative works: A synthetic scientific approach. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity (pp. 298-325). New York: Cambridge University Press.
10.
Gelman, R. , & Gallistel, C. R. (1986). The child's understanding of number. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
11.
Gruber, H. (1981). Darwin on man (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
12.
Guilford, J. P. (1959). Three faces of intellect. American Psychologist, 14, 469-479.
13.
Guilford, J. P. (1967). The nature of human intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill.
14.
Hallman, R. (1967). The necessary and sufficient conditions of creativity. In J. C. Gowan, J. Khatena, & E. P. Torrance (Eds.), Creativity: Its educational implications (pp. 19-30). New York: Wiley.
15.
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1988). Freedom and constraints in creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity (pp. 202-219). New York: Cambridge University Press.
16.
Keil, F. C. (1981). Constraints on knowledge and cognitive development. Psychological Review, 88(3), 197-227.
17.
Torrance, E. P. (1962). Guiding creative talent. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
18.
Torrance, E. P. (1965). Rewarding creative behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
19.
Wallas, G. (1926). The art of thought. New York: Franklin Watts.
