Testing Creative Thinking
When you were a child, did you ever lie on your back, stare at the clouds and picture them as other types of objects? Maybe you saw a rabbit, a dolphin or a dog. Whatever it is, it gave you a way to pass the time and stretch the bounds of your creativity a little.
Finding shapes in clouds was a childhood exercise in creativity.📷
That childhood exercise is very much like a formal test developed by psychologist J.P. Guilford. In the mid-20th century, Guilford studied intellect and creativity. What he found was that the two weren't necessarily related; in fact, creative thinking could stand on its own. His research led him to define two types of thinking: divergent thinking and convergent thinking.
Divergent thinking in particular is a big component of this lesson. Divergent thinking is about coming up with as many ideas as possible using a creative technique, like brainstorming. Conversely, convergent thinking is more about finding a single solution or specific idea.
The process of divergent thinking was something that Guilford wanted to test. So, that's what he created - a test to analyze divergent thinking, called Guilford's Alternative Uses Task.
Alternative Uses Task
The test behind the Alternative Uses Task, sometimes called Guilford's Test of Divergent Thinking, is pretty simple.
An everyday object is presented to the test taker. It could be a paperclip, a coffee mug or a spoon. Then the test taker is given a time limit and asked to brainstorm as many uses for that object as possible, no matter how basic or grand. For a coffee mug, some answers might be a planter, a candle holder, a pencil holder or a pet bowl.
Pretty simple, right? But, Guilford was convinced this process - thinking of random uses for everyday items - was an effective ways to test a person's creativity.
Test Scoring
To analyze a person's creativity, Guilford scored the results of their test in four areas:
you may look in the following links;
Article How Divergent Thinking Tests Mislead Us: Are the Torrance Te...
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