An Interactional Approach to Creativity

Abstract

Traditionally creativity is viewed in an intrapsychic framework: creative persons are seen in isolation and creativity is considered to consist primarily of subjective processes occurring within such people. Creativity is usually explained in linear terms of cause and effect, ignoring the social space which implies other people, relationships and interactions. This traditional approach has resulted in a largely fragmented, diversified, contentious and idiosyncratic field of research. The author, by contrast, works in an interpsychic framework, in terms of which people are continually engaged in relationships and interaction, and creativity as a form of behaviour is motivated interpersonally. Creativity is explained in terms of the circular processes occurring among people through interaction and mutual influencing of behaviour. An interactional definition and a theoretical model of creativity are postulated, offering a more holistic perspective on the phenomenon as a continuous quality involving person, process, product and environment. Such an interactional conception of creativity transcends scientific and professional boundaries as well as the diversity of human activities, actions, responses and products; it also allows for the spirit of the times and cultural and other social variations. Thus there is a shift from an intrapsychic explanatory model to a more pragmatic interpsychic observational model of creativity.