Solving Everyday Problems Creatively: The Role of Problem Construction and Personality Type

Thinking hats and good men: Structured techniques in a problem construction task

“…It is worth noting that whilst others have found positive changes in the 'quality' of problem restatements (see, Reiter-Palmon et al, 1998), this study failed to elicit any clear changes in this measure. This should not be taken to indicate that such techniques cannot influence the quality of potential problem restatements, simply that, in this instance, no clear effect emerged.…”

“…The third measure was originality and assessed the degree to which the problem restatements were free from the problem situation or were novel/unique, and was also scored on a five point Likert scale from very low originality to very high originality. These last two measures are standard ones that have been used by others when assessing problem finding skills (see, Reiter-Palmon, Mumford, & Threlfall, 1998).…”

Why Creativity Isn’t in IQ Tests, Why it Matters, and Why it Won’t Change Anytime Soon Probably

“…However, the Consensual Assessment Technique has been used in many others domains, from taking photographs [88] to music compositions [89] to deriving mathematical equations [90] to dramatic performance [91] to answering science questions [92] to cooking [93] to everyday problem-solving [94]. In addition, ratings of different creative products within the same domain tend to be consistent by person [80,95].…”

Can we Really Have an Integrative Theory of Creativity? The Case of Creative Cognition

“…As a result, what we know about these two important processes is limited. In the case of problem identification and construction, we know that creative individuals tend to engage in the process and be better at it, than less creative individuals (Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi, 1975;Okuda, Runco, & Berger, 1991;Reiter-Palmon, Mumford, & Threlfall, 1998), that experts spend more time in problem construction than novices (Kay, 1991;Rostan, 1994;Voss, Wolfe, Lawrence, & Engle, 1991) and that when individuals are asked to actively engage in the process, they are more likely to come up with creative ideas (Redmond, Mumford, & Teach, 1993;Reiter-Palmon, Mumford, O'Connor Boes, & Runco, 1997). With regard to idea evaluation and choice, we know that individuals can accurately evaluate ideas for originality (Runco & Basadur, 1993;Runco & Chand, 1995).…”

“…For example, research suggests that problem construction effectiveness is related to personality (Reiter-Palmon, Mumford, & Threlfall, 1998) and that promotion and prevention foci, a motivational characteristic, have different and opposite relationships with idea generation and idea evaluation (Herman & Reiter-Palmon, 2011). The role of additional personality and motivational characteristics such as goal orientation, emotional stability, creative self-efficacy, task interest and intrinsic motivation should be further investigated.…”