Contemporary Approaches to Creative Thinking.

Abstract

In the spring of 1958 six scientists gathered at the University of Colorado to consider the problem of creative thinking, its conditions, and how it can be fostered. The participants of this symposium were Jerome Bruner of Harvard, Richard Crutchfield of the University of California, Mary Henle of the New School for Social Research, Robert MacLeod of Cornell, David McClelland of Harvard, and Herbert Simon of the Carnegie Institute. This symposium was a sequel to an earlier one, published as<i>Contemporary Approaches to Cognition</i>in 1957. This group of distinguished behavioral scientists presented a provocative, objective, penetrating analysis of one of today's most pressing problems: human creativity. Creativity varies in degree and kind. It is apparent that there is a kinship between creativity of everyday life and that of a great scientist. That which is unique in this continuum is not the product but the creative process. The process and