Showing papers by "Dean Keith Simonton published in 1999"

Origins of genius : Darwinian perspectives on creativity

Abstract: Preface 1. Genius and Darwin 2. Cognition: What is the Creative Process? 3. Variation: How do Creators Differ from the Rest of Us? 4. Development: Is the Genius Born or Made? 5. Products: By What Works Shall We Know Them? 6. Groups: Creative Times, Places and Peoples? 7. Darwinian Genius Notes References Index

Creativity as Blind Variation and Selective Retention: Is the Creative Process Darwinian?

Abstract: Darwinism provides not only a theory of biological evolution but also supplies a more generic process applicable to many phenomena in the behavioral sciences. Among these applications is the blind-variation and selective-retention model of creativity proposed by Campbell (1960). Research over the past 4 decades lends even more support to Campbell's model. This support is indicated by reviewing the experimental, psychometric, and historiometric literature on creativity. Then 4 major objections to the Darwinian model are examined (sociocultural determinism, individual volition, human rationality, and domain expertise). The article concludes by speculating whether the Darwinian model may actually subsume all alternative theories of creativity as special cases of the largerframework.

Significant samples: The psychological study of eminent individuals.

Abstract: Psychologists occasionally study eminent individuals, such as Nobel laureates, U.S. presidents, Olympic athletes, chess grandmasters, movie stars, and even distinguished psychologists. Studies using such significant samples may be differentiated along 7 distinct dimensions: qualitative versus quantitative, single versus multiple case, nomothetic versus idiographic, confirmatory versus exploratory, crosssectional versus longitudinal, micro versus macro analytical units, and direct versus indirect assessments. However, the vast majority of psychological inquiries may be clustered into just 4 types: historiometric, psychometric, psychobiographical, and comparative. After presenting the intrinsic and extrinsic justifications for studying famous persons, the main methodological issues concerning sampling, measurement, and analysis are discussed. The future prospects of significant samples in psychological research are then briefly examined.

Creativity and genius.

Abstract: Amid the pageantry of the recent turn-of-the-millennium celebrations were numerous newspaper articles and television reports ranking the most influential people of the century, if not the past 2000 years. Each of these lists, whether specific to science, leadership, or athletics, comprised individuals known for their remarkable impact on society, human behavior, and thought. The creative geniuses that top such lists exemplify the heights of human achievement, possibility, adaptability, and even destructive capacity—individuals as diverse as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., Napoleon Bonaparte, Pablo Picasso, and Eleanor Roosevelt. It is apparent from our fascination with such lists that our society holds the creative individual and the creative genius as a measure of its own value and well-being. In this chapter we describe the nature of both creativity and the creative genius, their relationship to the positive psychology movement, as well as the strategies that have been developed to measure these phenomena at the individual and sociocultural levels.

The Continued Evolution of Creative Darwinism

Abstract: The commentators represent pretty much the gamut of viewpoints about my basic thesis. Their remarks range from the sympathetic to the dismissive, with a few occupying more conciliatory but still critical positions. After reading them all, I came to realize how much I placed myself in an uncomfortably untenable position in writing the target article. The article had been written simultaneously with a book-length treatment of the same subject (Simonton, 1999). In some respects, the article may be seen as an abstract of that larger monograph. Obviously, the book could go into much greater detail with respect to both theory and research. To offer a dramatic illustration, the text of the target article has half as many words as found in the book's second chapter, which is exclusively devoted to the creative process. There then follows a succession of sizable chapters devoted to individual differences in intellect and personality, creative development, creative products and career trajectories, and the sociocultural context. Hence, perhaps the best response to some of the commentaries would be simply: Read the book, revise your comments accordingly, and then I will compose my reply. But that option is not open to me. So I must respond to the diverse reactions as if the book were still in the future. Hence, making the best out of a bad situation, I respond to those issues that can be addressed in the limited space allotted to a reply. These issues concern expertise, randomness, religion, and evolution.