Dr. Engr. Md. Sakawat Ali

E-mail: sakawat_ali@yahoo.com

Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. Creativity is ability to imagine or invest something new. It is an attitude to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying the good, while looking for ways to improve it. A process of continually improve ideas and solutions by making gradual alterations and refinements to their works. 

Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity is characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. Creative thinking skills include: problem solving, writing, visual art, communication skills, and open-mindedness.

The creative process allows a child to gain cognitive skills, scientific method, dexterity and exertion, problem solving and the ability to identify symbols, patterns and shapes. The most important aspect of creativity is the process of self-expression.

In order to be creative, we need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective. Among other things, we need to be able to generate new possibilities or new alternatives. Tests of creativity measure not only the number of alternatives that people can generate but the uniqueness of those alternatives. The ability to generate alternatives or to see things uniquely does not occur by change; it is linked to other, more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability, and the enjoyment of things heretofore unknown.

Three reasons why people are motivated to be creative:

1. Need for new, varied, and complex stimulation.
2. Need to communicate ideas and values.
3. Need to solve problems.

Characteristics of the creative personality:

1. Creative individuals have a great deal of energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest.
2. Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time.
3. Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
4. Creative individuals alternate between imagination and fantasy ant one end, and rooted sense of reality at the other.
5. Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies on the continuum between extroversion and introversion.
6. Creative individuals are also remarkable humble and proud at the same time.
7. Creative individuals to a certain extent escape rigid gender role stereotyping and have a tendency toward androgyny.
8. Generally, creative people are thought to be rebellious and independent.
9. Most creative persons are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.
10. The openness and sensitivity of creative individuals often exposes them to suffering pain yet also a great deal of enjoyment.

Key Words: Creativity & Thinking New