The Components and Psychological Study of Creativity

Two of the primary components of creativity include:

1. Originality: The idea should be something new that is not simply an extension of something else that already exists.
2. Functionality: The idea needs to actually work or possess some degree of usefulness.

Creativity can often be seen in a few different situations:

• People who seem stimulating, interesting, and have a variety of unusual thoughts.
• People who perceive the world with a fresh perspective, have insightful ideas and make important personal discoveries. These individuals make creative discoveries that are generally known only to them.
• People who make great creative achievements that become known to the entire world. Inventors and artists such as Thomas Edison and Pablo Picasso would fall into this category.

1. “Mini-c”: involves personally meaningful ideas and insights that are known only to the self.
2. “Little-c”: Involves mostly everyday thinking and problem-solving. This type of creativity helps people solve everyday problems.
3. “Pro-C”: takes place among professionals who are skilled and creative in their respective fields. These individuals are creative in their vocation or profession.
4. “Big-C”: involves creating works and ideas that are considered great in a particular field. often leads to world-changing creations such as medical innovations, technological advances ect.

Some of the key traits include:

• Energy: Creative people tend to possess a great deal of both physical and mental energy. However, they also tend to spend a great deal of time quietly thinking and reflecting.
• Intelligence: Psychologists have long believed that intelligence plays a critical role in creativity. Researchers found that while high IQ was necessary for great creativity, not all people with high IQs are creative. Creative people must be smart, capable of looking at things in fresh, even naïve, ways.
• Discipline: Creative people do not just sit around waiting for inspiration to strike.

Studying creativity can be a tricky process. Not only is creativity a complex topic in and of itself, but there is also no clear consensus on how exactly to define creativity. 

Many of the most common definitions suggest that creativity is the tendency to solve problems or create new things in novel ways.