Psychoticism And Creativity Theory - An Evaluation

Thesis statement

Discuss about the Psychoticism and Creativity Theory.

The chief aim of the essay is to evaluate and understand multiple roles of creativity in bringing evolutionary impact on the education system. To perceive an in-depth knowledge about the function of creativity in term of education, the essay has considered evaluating some relevant theoretical concepts of creativity.

The word Creativity is the definition of that particular ability through which a new and original idea can be constructed. In other words, creativity is probably the function of turning inventive, original and new concepts into reality. It is, therefore, the capability of finding patterns and ideas which are hidden and make use of them to procure new solutions. In the words of Craft et al., (2013), through creativity the world can perceive new ways to generate solutions. An important point to consider in this matter is the fruitfulness of creativity can be acquired when there will be a creative person, an original product along with a creative process.

Creativity and education is interconnected and theories of psychoanalytical, humanistic and system jointly prepares a strong ground to support that.

Creaytivity as opined by Wachanga, Kamonjo & Okere, (2015), is a positive effort results from an inconvenient situation. Based on the concepts of Kumpulainen, Mikkola & Jaatinen, (2014), the psychoanalytical theory is probably the oldest theoretical concept that argues that creativity is the preliminary act of reverting from a harsh situation. The conceptual approach of Psychoanalytical theory for creativity is that a creative person is the result of difficult and complicated circumstances. It is hence understandable that creativity is like a side of relief for a person to find the solution in a hostile universe, that effort through which innovative ideas step up.

This theoretical concept has been propagated since Freud argued that creativity originates when conflict arises from tension and dissatisfaction. However, Sigmund Freud's words on education implicate that education is the process enabling an individual in taking active participation in culture without losing or harming the original energy of that particular.  In the historical context, psychoanalytical tendencies in education have been related to the instinctual tendencies of the students. Following the Orthodox concept of Psychoanalytical theory, creativity among school going children evolves from the inner conflicts. In the context to first learning and child development, creative education is required as creativity is considered to be a responsible component for optimizing children’s psychological growth. On the other side, as argued by Davies et al., (2013), creativity regarding child education is necessary for enhancing personal, psychological growth and well being. . 

Psychoanalytical Theory of Creativity

Creativity in eduction is advanced through the relation between a teacher and a student and their individual role regarding education. In the argumentative words of Sawyer, (2015), creativity through learning is dependable on children's emotion. The question may arise about the relation between a school teacher and a school child and the role of the teacher in bringing out the creative aspect of the child. The psychoanalytical theory argues that transference is the linking term between a teacher and a student’s creative approach. The concept elaborates that a teacher is a responsible factor for a child’s social and psychological growth that further enhances the creative power of mind (Amabile, 2012). Consequently, it can be understood that craetivity among children relies upon emotion which is developed by an efficient teacher.  

The most significant idea of Freud that is relevant to a student's psychological maturity to procure creative thought into education is his comparison between creative process and alternative options for neurosis (Ramos & Puccio, 2014). Sigmund Freud argued that creativity acts as a defense mechanism which gives protection against neurosis. It further leads to make a well accepted creation that turns out to be a piece of public pleasure. Therefore, the notion of creativity in education is subjected to the concepts fundamental attribute to perform as a defense. In words of Boothby (2014), this particular concept of creativity is relevant for education as creative education is an art and an art is considered to be best defense in terms of condensation or displacement. Therefore, it can be pointed out that creative education is a defense mechanism for students that ultimately turn into a work of appraisal.

In countries like Canada and USA, creative thinking has been labeled as a primary essential component of learning. The National curricular center of Korea believes that an educated person is a creative person. Most importantly, in Sweden national plan of national development for overall educational center identifies education as the process of developing creative skills (Elliott, 2015). The fundamental problem with the psychoanalytic approach of creativity about education is that there is less discussion on the medium of unconscious transcends through which creativity releases. It is because unconscious transcends play a major role in engaging the energy to create something innovative. Hence, it performs as a beneficial sublimity which should have been discussed briefly in the psychoanalytic approach.

The Humanistic theory, on the other hand, illustrates that human desires and demands rely upon basic needs which are water, food and comfort, safety needs that is security, and needs of love that is intimacy. The most important one prior to obtain self-actualisation is the need to have prestige and accomplishment. Once all of the needs are fulfilled, a person reaches the stage of self-actualization. As opined by Schneider, Pierson & Bugental, (2014), a person can act in a meaningful manner when the person passes the level of self-actualization. The reason behind being able to become creative is the ability to meet all the needs. As per the argument of the theory, creativity is not subjected to any particular environment. The theory regarding learning provides a conceptual aspect that discerns that creativity is the chief factor in the case of advancing mental and physical growth in term of society that finally supports to become progressive towards learning. More briefly, based on the words of Laurens et al., (2012), self-actualization is the key through which a person can acquire freedom from all social controls and grabs the ability to become an innovative individual.

Humanistic Theory of Creativity

However, the disadvantages of this method are that self-actualization is probably too hard for a pre-school or school going child and can only be applicable upon adult in education. It is because for a child, the prime need is limited within the basic ones and does not generally recah to the needs of safety, love and esteem. It should not be disregarded that the humanist concept of creativity is the development technique that helps to become less defensive, less judgmental (Amabile, 2012). Qualities like such provide the allowance to express any new idea with complete freedom. In education, there is always a place for new ideas and innovative thinking. The way to become a creative learner is the way of developing trust and conveying any new thought without any hesitance.

For instance, in countries like the US, UK, and Australia, special scholarships are given to those students who are capable of showing exclusive learning performance by bringing or innovating any new idea or concept in their respective studies. In China, the role of creativity in education is to promote and motivate learners to develop creative learning in the discourses of education. For the school system of China, creative learning or giving opportunities to the students to become creative is the method of establishing the entire education system original (Ramos & Puccio, 2014). However, since the propagation of network theory in the year 1980, the environment became a vital aspect of creativity. Creativity in learning became comprehensive when the role of the environment is being given excessive priority. 

By the words of Baer, (2012), in this particular field, the Humanistic theory seems less worthy. The Humanistic approach ultimately dishonors the role of environment. As per the system theory which is originated and influenced from Bertalanffy's general theory of system, the environment determines whether a person could reach the level of self-actualization to become innovative or not further. Humanistic theory, on the contrary, gives credit to the fundamental needs of human nature to curve the facet of creativity rather than environment. Nevertheless, in education, the environment does matter as it is a noteworthy fact that a trainee or student can develop quality growth in the socio-cultural and psychological side in an apt atmosphere. The psychoanalytic theory in this context matches with the concept of honoring the aspect of the environment to be a prime factor for creativity. It is because; the theory believes that difficult circumstance makes a person compelled enough to find a solution by creativity (Ramos & Puccio, 2014). However, for pre-school and school going children both the theories of psychoanalytic and humanistic sound less upstanding.

Psychoticism Theory of Creativity

The relation between creativity and education is dominated by another bizarre aspect which is defined by the theory of Psychoticism, though psychotic traits are rare to construct creativity. According to Cassetta & Goghari, (2014), the theory of Psychoticism is probably the most bizarre one among the other theoretical concepts of creativity. The Psychoticism theory of innovation or creativity denotes that the creativity is subjected to the psychotic tendencies those compel an individual to earn a creative personality. An argument can be escalated about the matter that the psychotic tendencies are more related to mental diseases like schizophrenia. Therefore, it cannot be expected that a patient suffering from schizophrenia can become a creative person. As argued by Laurens et al., (2012), the point that makes the ground strong for this theory is that a creative person needs to avoid the external controlling element of society or environment. Addition to that an original personality always perceives the world in a different way. People with psychotic tendencies are considered to have the preference in rejecting socio-cultural or absolute norm. In this ground, the attributes of a creative person match appropriately with the typical features of a schizophrenic patient.

It is unfortunate enough that this particular theory has been several times neglected by educated individuals and theoreticians of educations and some of them are not even ready to call it a theory. As commented by Acar & Runco, (2012), the main opposition to this theory is the concepts of this hypothesis cannot be practically applied to the real world. It is not a worth considering principle to drive a learner to acquire psychotic habits just to become a creative student. However, the evolutionary history of education indicates that there are number mathematicians, philosophers, scientists and many more academic personalities who are known for propagating innovative ideas. For instance mathematicians like John Nash would be probably an ideal example for this context that instead of having schizophrenic behavioral traits has gain immense praise globally. Most significantly, most of the first world domains like European; North American countries are taking initiatives to research the matter that whether psychotic patients possess creative potentialities or not (Acar & Runco, 2012). It is therefore an understandable fact that the theory of psychoticism is unfavorable to apply as psychotic habits which can turn into create something innovative is more genetic rather than an aspect of practice.

From the entire essay, it is understandable that creativity is the method of enriching the global education system as creativity is indicative of that individual capability through which a person produces innovative ideas. Additionally, the article has pointed out that Humanistic theory of creativity is probably the most relevant theoretical approach for creative learning. The psychoanalytical theory has dominated the ground of creative learning over years until it has been found that creativity is not always a consequential aspect of an inconvenient situation. Nevertheless, from the entire discourse, it can be deduced that creativity in education depends on students’ psychological and social growth along with the very environment in which they are engaged in.

References

Acar, S., & Runco, M. A. (2012). Psychoticism and creativity: A meta-analytic review. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 6(4), 341.

Amabile, T. (2012). Componential theory of creativity (pp. 3-4). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

Baer, J. (2012). Domain specificity and the limits of creativity theory. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 46(1), 16-29.

Boothby, R. (2014). Death and Desire (RLE: Lacan): Psychoanalytic Theory in Lacan's Return to Freud. Routledge.

Cassetta, B., & Goghari, V. (2014). Theory of mind reasoning in schizophrenia patients and non-psychotic relatives. Psychiatry research,218(1), 12-19.

Craft, A., Cremin, T., Burnard, P., Dragovic, T., & Chappell, K. (2013). Possibility thinking: culminative studies of an evidence-based concept driving creativity?. Education 3-13, 41(5), 538-556.

Davies, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Collier, C., Digby, R., Hay, P., & Howe, A. (2013). Creative learning environments in education—A systematic literature review. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8, 80-91.

Elliott, A. (2015). Psychoanalytic theory: An introduction. Palgrave MacMillan.

Kumpulainen, K., Mikkola, A., & Jaatinen, A. M. (2014). The chronotopes of technology-mediated creative learning practices in an elementary school community. Learning, Media and Technology, 39(1), 53-74.

Laurens, K. R., Hobbs, M. J., Sunderland, M., Green, M. J., & Mould, G. L. (2012). Psychotic-like experiences in a community sample of 8000 children aged 9 to 11 years: an item response theory analysis. Psychological medicine, 42(07), 1495-1506.

Ramos, S. J., & Puccio, G. J. (2014). Cross-cultural studies of implicit theories of creativity: a comparative analysis between the United States and the main ethnic groups in Singapore. Creativity Research Journal, 26(2), 223-228.

Sawyer, K. (2015). A Call to Action: The Challenges of Creative Teaching and Learning. Teachers College Record, 117(10), n10.

Schneider, K. J., Pierson, J. F., & Bugental, J. F. (Eds.). (2014). The handbook of humanistic psychology: Theory, research, and practice. Sage Publications.

Wachanga, S. W., Kamonjo, F. W., & Okere, M. (2015). Relationship between Secondary School Boys’& Girls’ Chemistry Self Concept and their Scientific Creativity in Selected Counties in Kenya. Journal of Educational Policy and Entrepreneurial Research, 2(2), 1-10.