Ch 2 a Creative Personality

7/27/2019 Ch 2 a Creative Personality

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CREATIVE PERSONALITY

PERSONALITY is the set of distinctive characteristics of the individual that manifests in avariety of situations.

FOUR aspects of human personality:(i) PUBLIC PERSONALITY: Personality known to acquaintances and also to self.

- The individual may go to great lengths to maintain his public image and it may exerta cramping effect on his freedom of choice

(i) BLIND SPOTS: Personality known to acquaintances, but not known to self.

- Consists of those traits that the individual represses their knowledge from himself.

(iii) PRIVATE PERSONALITY: Personality not known to acquaintances, but known toself

- It is kept private by the individual as a defensive action

- This is true for the traits that are socially not acceptable, revealing them could lead toloss of status

- He will have the fear of revealing hisweaknessesto others.

(iv) DARK AREA: Personality not known to acquaintances and to self (unknownpersonality)


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- It may be the repository of unsuspected strengths. Actualizing the potential of thispart of personality is a great human adventure.

- Smaller the area of blind spots and unknown personality, the more aware theindividual is of his deeper impulses and potential, the person can marshal hisinner resources to achieve his goals.

Known to self Not known to self

Known to

acquaintance

Not known to

acquaintances

Public personality

Blind spots

Private personality Dark area


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TRAITS CONGENIAL TO CREATIVITY:

The psychologists have attempted to identify those psychological traits that distinguishcreative person from relatively less creative individuals. The traits are as follows

A) Hunger for knowing

i) Curiosity, asking questions

ii) Intellectual interests

iii) Interests in causes of things

iv) Psychological orientation (Interest in behavior)

B) Sensitivity

i) Responsiveness to fine and delicate things

ii) Enjoyment of interesting people

iii) Emotional sensitivity iv) Aesthetic sensitivity

C) Complexity

i) Intuitive ability ii) Visionary iii) Unusual ideas


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iv) Feelings of depression, guilt, conflict etc., v) Contrary traits

D) Entrepreneurship

i) Calculated risk ii) Starting ventures on own iii) Attempting

difficult tasks

iv) Striking out on own

E) Independence and courage

i) Questions established order (ii) Courage of convictions (iii)Independence of judgment and ideas (iv) Open expression offeelings (v)Assertiveness

F) Reality contact

i) Search for constraints (ii) Crisis management (iii) Flexibility,adjustability (iv) Fantasizing without reality loss
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G. Self Sufficiency:

i) Preoccupation with tasks

ii) Confidence in ones abilities

iii) Striving for distant goals

iv) Persistence

MOTIVATION and CREATIVITY

Different types of Motivation:1) HEDONISM:

- It is the desire for the pleasant things of life, money, car, apparel, food etc

- It is the need to gratify ones sensibilities and enjoy good things of life

- A certain amount of hedonism complement growth and creativity motivation, butbeyond a point, quest for hedonism distracts one from the serious efforts ofcreativity demands.

2) CAREER SUCCESS MOTIVATION:

- It is the need to be successful in ones career, certain amount of career success

motivation complement growth motivation


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- Too high concern for career success can lead to neglect of potentialities other thanthose directly useful in ones work

3) POWER & AUTHORITY MOTIVATION:

- The quest for power and authority is an energy absorbing quest

- If too much time is spent on foiling others or in plotting to dominate others, then verylittle energy will be left to develop ones potential or to do something creative

4) SELF ACTUALIZATION MOTIVATION:

- It is the desire to grow and realize ones potential

- Relatively high levels of self actualization motivation helps personal growth andcreativity

5) AFFILIATION MOTIVATION:

- It is the need for friendship, companionship and cordial relations.

- Too high levels can reduce the growth potential6) ALTRUISM MOTIVATION:

- It is the need to contribute to others growth

- Too high altruism motivation can hamper ones own growth

7) SECURITY MOTIVATION: - To be creative, it is necessary to have a relatively weakneed for security


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8) CREATIVITY MOTIVATION:

- It is the need to create, to discover, to pioneer, to do something original anddistinctive

- A strong desire to pioneer and create will sustain in such activities as

entrepreneurship, art, literature, scientific and technological invention andtheoretical work

STRATEGIES FOR CHANGING MOTIVATION:

1) AWARENESS:

- Awareness of the forces shaping ones motives can help one strengthen desiredmotives and weaken undesired motives, over a period of time.

- One needs to identify the forces in ones job, home and social situations thatstrengthen or weaken ones security and creativity motivations.

- One needs to examine ones choices of career, spouse, job, friends, life styles, hobbies

etc to see what these reveal about ones motivation

2) DESIRED CHANGE:

- One needs to think of specific aspects of life where change is needed to reducesecurity motivation, fearfulness and the defensiveness that go with it and increaseoriginality motivation, risk taking and experimental attitudes


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- One has to think of how one will become more venturesome in food habits,dress, the kinds of friends one invites home, the kind of signals one givesto ones spouse, children, subordinate, the way one functions in onesjob etc

3) ROLE MODEL:- Many personalities can be drawn upon for inspiration. They are Gandhiji,Tagore, Vivekananda, Mother Teresa

- The expectations of somebody one has trust and faith in about onesperformance can powerfully motivate ones behaviour in the direction ofhis expectations.

4) ACTION:

- If one acts creative, he might develop an interest in creativity

- Our self confidence is a positive assessment of our abilities following thedoing of something in which we earlier feared failure.

- One should start with doing small acting's like

- Tasting five new dishes in the next week

- Rearranging ones room in a new way


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5) REINFORCEMENT: - The rewards strongly

reinforce the behaviour towards creativeness

Extrinsic rewards: encouragement by spouse,friend, colleague

Intrinsic rewards: sense of delight in doing a job


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COMMON BLOCKS TO CREATIVITY:

1) FEAR OF FAILURE:

- From our childhood, success is rewarded and failure is punished.

- The fear of failure makes us avoid risk.

- The acceptance of failure as a necessary part of life is the best way to get rid of theblock

- Failure can be a tremendous source of information and a powerful spur to growth andimprovement.

2) ALLERGY TO AMBIGUITY:

- Ambiguity, uncertainty, complexity is discomforting to most of us.

- We have an excessive need for order, structure, routines to simplify the job of livingin a complex and dynamic world.

- We like to move in the beaten path and in the process miss the opportunities that lifepresents for growth and creation.

- To overcome ambiguity, one should try to work with stress and see that the ambiguityis not terrible.

3) TOUCHINESS:

- Touchiness is the fear of humiliation and rejection.
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- People who are very touchy tend to have difficulty in approaching others forassistance or guidance and in turn are likely to look with suspicion at attemptsby others to be friends.

- One should appreciate the fact that criticism is necessary for growth and maturity.

- If a task is going to enrich an individual by working with another, he should notexpect love from the other, he should be ready to face hostility to certainextent.

4) CONFORMITY:

- Conformity is the fear of flouting social norms, the fear of social dis-approval.

- Fear of failure, touchiness, allergy to ambiguity make one escape into a conformiststage.

- It permits a relatively risk free existence through the acceptance of the status quo.

- It is due to excessive allegiance to customs, traditions, rituals and procedures.

- The roots of conformity go deep into child rearing practices, into what is consideredright and wrong behaviour and severity with which deviation from sociallyprescribed behavior is punished.

5) RESOURCE MYOPIA:

- Inability to see the resources at our disposal is a common block to creativity.

- The resources at our disposal are much larger.


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Example:

- Gandhi had no formal authority and no exceptional gifts. By his ability to bringtogether exceptionally able men and women, he was able to move people.

- Curiosity, the habit of asking around who or where is what and the managerial trait of

being able to draw readily on the resources of others help get rid of suchblocks.

- Resource myopia give rise to other disabilities like fatalism, excessive dependence andinferiority complex. They make us poor problem solvers.

6) STARVED SENSIBILITY:

- Our ability to imagine and fantasize is abundant in our childhood. It is however starvedin later ages due to constant admonition to stop daydreaming, stick tofactsand beprecise. The constant pressure to keepcontroland not beemotional,berationalalso affects our sensibility.

- Our sense of smell, taste, sight are atrophied by over specialized uses.

- Fantasy can enhance our pleasure and spur us further to creative ways of enhancingit.

- A cultivated palate helps one become a better chef.

- A cultivated sight is necessary to be a good painter or atl east to make us enjoy good

painting.


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7) Rigidity: - It is the failure to adapt the need for modifying the behaviour.

- Example:

- 3 jars A, B, C of capacities 21 litres, 127 litres and 3 litres respectively.

- You are required to produce 100 litres.

- The solution is B A -2C ((127-21-(2x3)) = 100 litres

- Again you are given carrying capacities 23, 49 and 3 litre capacities and asked toproduce 20 litres of water.

- A large percentage of the people solved the problem by B-A-2C approach

(49 23 (2x3))

- But (A C) i.e. 23-3 = 20 can also solve the problem.

- The rigidity due to over learning i.e. rigidity from persisting in applying ageneralization valid in one set of circumstances to circumstances is not valid.

Three types of rigidity exist:

(i) STEREOTYPING: It involves generalization without sufficient evidence of a quality orattribute of one to all members of a class of people.

- Stereotyping can blind us to diversity.

- A tortured daughter-in-law tortures her daughter-in-law again.


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ii) DOGMATISM: - It is close mindedness.

- Dogmatists accept information that is consistent with their preconceived beliefs.

- Inconsistent or contradictory information is dismissed, suppressed, denied or twistedaround.

iii) FUNCTIONAL FIXEDNESS: - It is a perceptual rigidity.

- People with this type of rigidity are fixated on to someone specific functionperformed by a tool or an object and are unable to see other possible uses.

- Techniques of creativity like attribute listing and brainstorming can be helpful forgetting rid of functional fixedness.

USES OF MENTAL BLOCK: Some of the mental blocks, in mild form are useful.

1) Fear of failure: In a mild form fear of failure galvanizes a person to a better, morefocused effort at a task.

2) Allergy to ambiguity: In a mild form it helps a person to clear up confusion and

thereby enables him to take clear and effective action.

3) Touchiness: For a certain kinds of artistic and scientific work, touchiness provides ashield from intruding outsiders.

4) Conformity: Some confirmity is required for collective existence. Confirmity to normsof society of collectivity helps one get acceptance and thus paradoxically facilitates a

subsequent change agent role

) S d b l ff d l d d


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5) Starved sensibilities: In efforts requiring great concentration and single mindedness,some neglect of senses can release energy for the task at hand.

6) Rigidity: Provides some protection in a highly turbulent or hostile situation. Thereforeit has some survival value. It simplifies life to an extent.

STRATEGIES FOR UNBLOCKING:1) AWARENESS: - Most people are aware of their blocks to certain extent. Some blocks

are very deep in the defense of the personality.

- A better method to know ones blocks is to ask someone who knows you intimately tocompleteyourtemperamentwith respect to you. One can then jointly look at the

data.

2) ANALYSIS & DIAGNOSIS: - One could recall the feelings that are aroused when theblock is operating, think back to those experiences that could have caused the blockto those experiences that could have caused the block, analyze those habits thatstrengthen the block etc.

3) DESIRE TO UNBLOCK: - People retain blocks because they provide some securityfrom the real or imaginary onslaughts of the world.

- We need to develop a strong desire to unblock to be able to cope with thewithdrawalsymptomswhile attempting to give up a block.

4) HELP FROM CREDIBLE SOURCE: - It is necessary to confide in the person, and to

turn to him in moments of stress.


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- Some ventilation of fears and feelings and a little guidance andencouragement from such a person can go a long way.

INOCULATION: - One should seek at first those situations that

are only mildly uncomfortable or painful, succeed inrestraining the block, and then take on more risky situations.

REWARD: - One can join institutions where unblocking isrewarded such as public speaking class in which even modest

success in overcoming fear in giving speeches is applauded.

GOAL SETTING: - After some success at unblocking, it may beuseful to set some goals that assume the absence of the block.

- One may ask If I had no fear of failure, what should I bestriving for? What should I be doing?

- The target need not be grand. It helps in uncovering hiddenstrengths within one and give a lot of confidence, besides wearing

out the block. Ch 3
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You have three jars that hold max 19, 13 and 7 litres ofwater respectively and 20 litres of water in them (notunlimited). I want two jars with 10 litres of water

Solution ?

Label the 3 jars j1, j2 and j3.j1 holds 19 litres

j2 holds 13 litresj3 holds 7 litres

Start off by filling j1 full (19 litres) andputting the remaining litre in j2, so you

have this makeup

j1 = 19; j2 = 1 j3 = 0

Step 1 Fill j3

j1 = 12; j2 = 1; j3 = 7

Step 2 put j3 in j2j1 = 12; j2 = 8; j3 = 0

Step 3 fill j3j1 = 5; j2 = 8; j3 = 7

Step 4 fill j2 with j3j1 = 5; j2 = 13; j3 = 2

S 5 j2 i j1


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Step 5 put j2 into j1j1 = 18; j2 = 0; j3 = 2

Step 6 put j3 into j2

j1 = 18; j2 = 2; j3 = 0

Step 7 fill j3j1 = 11; j2 = 2; j3 = 7


Step 9 fill j3j1 = 4; j2 = 9; j3 = 7

Step 10 fill j2 with j3j1 = 4; j2 = 13; j3 = 3

Step 11 put j2 in j1j1 = 17; j2 = 0; j3 = 3

Step 12 put j3 into j2

j1 = 17; j2 = 3; j3 = 0

Step 13 fill j3j1 = 10; j2 = 3; j3 = 7


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Ch 2 a Creative Personality