Understanding the Creative Process

This chapter focuses on the meaning of creativity and ways that “being creative” and “creative products” have been approached and valued. We begin by exploring some understandings of what it means to be creative. This includes how creativity and creative products have been evaluated and measured, specifically the degree to which they demonstrate creativity and the cultural, economic and global needs that they cater to. We then turn to the evolution of approaches to creativity that have seen creativity go from a quality and characteristic of a gifted minority to, more recently, something that can be learned, developed and harnessed. We then examine creativity through Mel Rhodes’ 4 Ps of creativity: person, product, process and press. The 4 Ps offer a way of focusing in on different aspects of creativity to reveal how creativity happens, to who, with which environmental influences and to what end. To conclude the chapter, we consider recent developments in the theory and practice of creativity, specifically in terms of dynamism, paradox and affect. As we argue in this chapter, creativity can be learned and developed; however, there are considerations and factors that can hasten the process and make creativity accessible to a broader range of people.