NII Technical Report (NII-2002-001J)

Title Concepts and Theories of Creativity
Authors Masaharu YANO, Morio SHIBAYAMA, Yuan SUN, Masaki NISHIZAWA and Mitsuhiro FUKUDA
Abstract     At present, through the discussion of Japan Science Council and others, it is pointed out that Japanese researchers are necessary to have much more creative abilities under the hard conditions of international competition. Though the importance of creative ability in research is obvious, it is a difficult problem to identify and evaluate such the ability. So there are many viewpoints and interpretations to creativity among various disciplines.
    Recently development of psychology has produced successful results in US, and many book about creativity have published in the 1990s, as "Encyclopedia of Creativity" and "Handbook of Creativity". Based on the information from these books, authors have planed to study the concepts and theories of creativity. This time authors have integrated parts of information on the subject and made a volume as a study report.
    The goal of this technical report is to arrange diversified concepts of creativity and their theories, and to introduce them to domestic university & college students and academic community.

    This volume is divided into ten chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of creativity and its investigations. Chapter 1, introduction, sets out the background of research and the volume's contents.
    In first main part, there are reviews of the history of creativity in general and the field of creativity in particular. Chapter 2 reviews the history of Japanese creativity research in general throughout the twentieth century and some selected topics in current. Chapter 3 surveys the modern history of US and European Countries creativity research in fields of psychology, industrial management, philosophy of science and creativity techniques. Chapter 4 investigates current trends of psychology in US.
    Second main part of the volume deals with meanings and contexts of creativity in some fields. These are basic concepts of creativity in chapter 5, contexts of creativity in field of industrial management and organization in chapter 6, contexts of creativity in field of society and culture in chapter 7, and contexts of in field of science and technology in chapter 8.
    Finally, chapter 9 summarizes the chapters that precede it, reports comments of contributors of the "Encyclopedia" and Japanese researchers on creativity, and prospects system of creativity research. Chronology of references and events on creativity research are listed up in chapter 10.
Language Japanese
Published Jun 30, 2002
Pages 60p
PDF File 02-001J.pdf


ISSN:1346-5597
NII Technical Reports
National Institute of Informatics