Creative thinking: features and development

Looking at the paintings of famous artists, reading literary works, admiring innovative developments in any field, we sometimes wonder - how do people come up with such ideas? Where do they get inspiration? Why are only a few able to think outside the box and make a revolution in one area or another? The answer is simple: they have great creative thinking. What is it and is it possible to develop it on your own - read on.

In fact, everyone has the potential to be creative. Sometimes it is equated directly with creativity, but in reality this concept covers a broader area of ​​thinking, namely the ability to find alternative ways to solve any given problem. In psychology, this thinking is called divergent (from Latin divergere - to diverge), implying the removal of any restrictions and narrow-mindedness, rejection of templates and any usual moves, going beyond the routine.

Let's consider the main features of such thinking:

• any idea that has arisen in an individual with developed creative thinking is non-trivial and original, in any case he strives for it;
• a creative person is able to consider an object from a different angle, use it in a new way, find other functions and apply them in practice;
• the creative nature of thinking means that the individual has the ability to produce ideas even when nothing in the external environment is conducive to this and is not a guideline.

Factors that influence creativity:

• visualization;
• metaphor;
• analogy;
• humor;
• emotionality.

From people whose profession is in one way or another connected with creativity, you can often hear that the most important and interesting ideas come to them suddenly, and not after much thought and reasoning. Thus the mechanism of superconsciousness works, which is responsible for the sphere of emotions, feelings, intuition.

Stages of the creative process:

• the emergence of an idea, an interesting idea;
• the use of various inferences, even the most incredible, to explain this phenomenon;
• analysis and selection of the best solutions.

There are many ways to enhance creative thinking nowadays. We will focus on some of them.

Choose 2 words using the available tools: the book you are reading, the received SMS, an advertisement on a post, or whatever. Now connect them in the same context, find something in common between them, write a short story using them. Take, for example, the words "mouse" and "wire". What do they have in common?

Well, first of all, we can talk about a computer mouse. Secondly, the mouse may well gnaw through the wiring in the house and arrange a circuit. Or run across the wires from one roof to another and change your place of residence.

This is examining an object from all sorts of angles and finding an unusual way to use it.... Example: everyone knows what an umbrella is and what it is for - to protect it from getting wet in the rain. But if you take a large umbrella and a blanket, then you can design a children's tent for playing at home. A Broken Black Umbrella will produce Bat Wings for a Carnival Costume.

Quite an interesting technique that requires the presence of at least six people. During the discussion about the solution of the problem, each of these people chooses a certain color of the "hat" and acts according to it:

• the white "hat" is responsible for the logic - "trying on" it will "lay out on the shelves";
• yellow - optimistic, the one who gets it will look at the task only from a positive point of view and highlight the advantages;
• black - critical, the person in this "hat" will carry sentences "to smithereens", looking for disadvantages and weaknesses;
• green - creative, an individual who "tried on" it will be a generator of ideas;
• red - emotional, the task of its owner will be to describe the emotions that arose in him in the process of completing the task;
• blue - philosophical, as a rule, goes to the most experienced specialist, who summarizes the proposals and thoughts of everyone else.

To begin with, let us recall what a "brainstorming" is. So called the process of expressing any ideas when solving a task, even the most incredible. By the end of the discussion, the most suitable ones remain.

“Storming the other way around” is bringing up openly wrong ideas for discussion, that is, in essence, reflections on how to worsen the current situation. For all the seeming absurdity this technique is quite effective, and sometimes very interesting ideas arise in the process of “storming the other way around”.

You can do this alone, for example, while traveling by bus or walking around the city: to read words on billboards, signs not from the beginning, but from the end. You can play with a friend: one calls an “upside-down” word, the other tries to translate it as quickly as possible.

In the middle of a piece of paper, you write down the question that needs to be resolved. Associations associated with its resolution diverge from it by arrows-"twigs".Each of these branches is also subdivided into several possible associations. In this way, in a fairly short period, you can find an excellent solution to the problem.

The ability of an individual to convey his feelings and emotions through the fine arts, to give them shape. Sometimes such creativity reveals real talent in a person.

Its essence is the search for an anti-solution to the problem, necessary to understand what will definitely not work, will not be useful. Reasoning on the topic “how not to do it” often leads to the fact that a person sees what was just not enough to implement his idea.

Now let's talk a little about what technologies exist for developing creative thinking.

It can be done in two ways:

• pick up as many nouns as possible that reflect the essence of the concept, for example, a flower - a plant, greenery, bud, grass, etc.;
• create associative chains: it is proposed to supplement a set of 3-5 words with your own association, for example, roof, door, porch (window) - the elements of the house.

Finding the largest number of similar features for completely different concepts:

• ball-car;
• tree dog;
• sea ​​train;
• sand-water.

Great exercise for developing your imagination. There are many variations of it.

Think about what might happen if ...

• dinosaurs will suddenly appear on the streets of the city;
• people will learn to fly;
• pets will speak humanly.

Imagine that the last "five hundred" is left in your wallet, and there is still a week before your paycheck. Write a list (or imagine it in your mind) of 10 foods that you can buy with this money and live 7 days without starving.

Take any letter of the alphabet and for a set period of time (usually 3 minutes are given, maximum 5) write as many words as possible starting with it.

Anywhere hold your gaze on the selected object. Write down (or formulate in your mind) 5 adjectives that correspond to it as much as possible, for example, a vase - porcelain, white, glossy, blown, mother-of-pearl. Now write down 5 adjectives that are absolutely inappropriate for the chosen thing: vase - fluffy, soft, paper, rubber, brick.

The foundations of the formation of creative thinking in children are best laid in preschool age by solving problems related to the search for objects according to their characteristics. If the child copes, he thereby forms his intellect, expands the range of mental abilities. Further, the kid learns more and more new and upon reaching the age of 6 he can compose a description of many objects, come up with a story, a riddle, a fable. The more often he does this, the better his imagination works.

Make sure your child's thinking is:

• flexible - he must be able to consider the problem from different angles;
• runaway - able to generate ideas quickly;
• original - so that it does not become a problem for him to come up with an unusual fascinating story.

How can parents help their child develop creative thinking?

• Do not scold the kid for inventions. Understand that he does not want to deceive you - he himself believes in his fantasies, and this is important for him. If he describes what a beautiful fairy he saw on the lawn, do not interrupt him, but rather play along: ask for details of this magical meeting.
• Create with your child... Create outfits for dolls, build a garage for cars, compose and act out a fairy tale using toys.
• Make sure that the baby always has paints, pencils, crayons, felt-tip pens, albums; buy plasticine, kinetic sand, do not skimp on constructors - all this contributes to the development of creative abilities.

You can do some exercises as well.

• Draw some arbitrary geometric shapes and ask your child to complete the drawing.
• Invite your child to describe the chosen toy with the five most appropriate adjectives, and then choose the five most inappropriate.
• Show your child a cloud in the sky, ask what or whom it reminds him of.
• Play construction. Write down the words on paper: cat, tomato, brick, chest of drawers, water. Now the kid must use them when building a house. For example, bricks are useful for laying walls, a tomato is red, you can paint a facade with paint of this color. He will put a dresser in the living room, take the cat and fill the bathtub with water to bathe it. You can use a variety of words.

Classes with a preschooler should be carried out regularly and it is better to do it in a playful way so that he does not get bored... Teachers are also engaged in the development of creative thinking in younger schoolchildren, conducting various extracurricular activities, as well as in drawing, music, labor, literature and Russian language lessons. It is important to remember here that the correct answer "by the template" is not always good, as it is associated with memorization, and not with creativity. Therefore, teachers should give students the opportunity to express their point of view and correct them only in case of gross mistakes, but certainly not ridiculing "stupidity" in front of the whole class.

The development of creative thinking in children and adolescents is facilitated by going to additional circles and sections: to the robotics club, art and music schools, to dances.

How important is it for adults to have creative thinking? We can say that it is very important, especially for those who want to become:

• a designer;
• a psychologist;
• advertising manager;
• a writer;
• artist;
• an architect;
• sculptor, etc.

An adult is often hindered by the narrow-mindedness of his views to think creatively. It is quite difficult for him to see something unusual in the ordinary, to move away from the usual methods of solving any problems. However, this is quite possible, and there are certain recommendations for the development of creative abilities in adults.

Do the following exercises.

• Imagine the most common item in your home, for example, a stool. Think of how you can use it besides sitting on it.
• Compose a limited word story... It doesn't have to be realistic - the more fantasy you put into it, the better.
• Come up with oxymorony phrases, that is, combine incongruous, contradictory words: a living corpse, hot snow, an endless dead end.
• Read words on billboards backwards, signboards, advertising posters, business cards.
• Try to start reading the book not from the beginning, but from the middle or even the end. So you will first find out the denouement, and only then - the prologue.
• Learn foreign languages... This will come in handy not only in your travels around the world, but also in the development of creative thinking. You can sometimes mentally translate the phrases you see from your native language into a foreign language on the way to work or on a walk.
• Use synonyms more often in your speech - they make speech richer.
• Create an "Idea Diary" and keep it always with you - then, as soon as you have an interesting idea in your head, you can immediately fix it on paper, and then think it over and, possibly, bring it to life.
• The expansion of horizons is facilitated by the constant recognition of something new. Travel, get to know the cultures of different nations, be interested in history, literature, cinema.