Introduction to Creativity: Creative Thought through Conceptual Expansion

Creativity is described as comprising of two properties, 1) a novel or original creative product, 2) that is useful or practical. [1] Since creativity, or the generation of new ideas, is at the heart of the entrepreneurial spirit the attention that is paid to this domain cannot be understated.[2] Researcher Thomas Ward has developed a creative cognition approach which seeks to delineate the conceptual properties and structures that underlie the creative process. [3]

Conceptual Expansion

Conceptual Expansion is a common form of creative behavior. [4] Conceptual expansion is “the generation of novel instances of familiar conceptual domains.” [5] When one uses conceptual expansion for creative accomplishments they access “highly specific examples of solutions to earlier problems and pattern new solutions directly after them.”[6] Therefore this form of creative behavior is not the dramatic leaps of insights we normally think of. Instead, conceptual expansion indicates more ordinary (as opposed to revolutionary) creative accomplishments.[7] Nevertheless, they represent creative behavior in the most basic of forms by creating a novel (though derivative) product that is useful or practical.[8]

Role of Specific Exemplars

As mentioned above, a typical form of creative behavior occurs by accessing common exemplars of earlier knowledge and then expanding on that to create a new and useful product. As Ward, Patterson, Sifonis put it,

When people develop new ideas for a particular domain, the predominant tendency is to retrieve fairly specific, basic level exemplars from that domain, select one or more of those retrieved instances as a starting point, and project many of the stored properties of the instances onto the novel ideas being developed.[9]

Using highly specific exemplars as a starting point for creative products has the strength of providing rapid solutions.[10] However, a common weakness of this strategy is that the new product may be constrained by unnecessary properties of the specific exemplars that dampen the creation’s originality or usefulness. [11]

Real Life Examples of Conceptual Expansion
Two infamous examples of this downside to conceptual expansion are illustrated by the invention of passenger railcars and the audio C.D.[12] First, when the passenger railcar was conceived they were modeled after the horse-drawn carriage. Horse-drawn carriages necessitated the conductor to be on the outside of the stagecoach. However, there was no such functional requirement for trains. Nevertheless, the new creative product ended up being constrained by the unnecessary property (conductor being outside the stagecoach) of the specific exemplar (here horse-drawn carriage). As a result many needless deaths occurs by conductors falling off until eventually they were modeled to situate the conductor’s position inside the train as we are now accustomed to.

Lastly, Sony initially delayed research into the audio C.D. because they thought 18 hours of music was commercial nonviable. This is because they used the LP record as a starting point for modeling the audio C.D. and thus were fixated on only a 12-inch diameter device. They did not yet conceive that they may merely produce a product smaller in diameter with a shorter, more commercially viable audio capacity.

For my next blog post on Creativity, we can discuss how framing solutions through greater levels of abstraction instead of specific exemplars may provide for more original and useful creations.

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[1] Thomas B. Ward, Creative Cognition as a Window on Creativity, Methods (2007), 28.

[2] Thmoas B. Ward, Cognition, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship, Journal of Business Venturing 19.2 (2004), 173.

[3] See Ward, supra note 1.

[4] Thomas B. Ward, Merryl Patterson, Cynthia Sifonis, The Role of Specificity and Abstraction in Creative Idea Generation, Creativity Research Journal (2004), 1.

[5] Id.

[6] See Ward, supra note 1, at 30.

[7] Id.

[8] See Ward, supra note 4.

[9] Id. at 2.

[10]See Ward, supra note 1

[11]Id.

[12] Id.

Resist Temptations and Perform in the Clutch with Implementation Intentions

We have learned that planning implementation intentions can help you achieve goals in many ways. This is because planning helps us consciously envision a future specific cue and the behavior to enact in response to it.[1]. The basic premise of using implementation intentions is to 1) specify a situation suited for goal-directed behavior, and then 2) formulate the behavior that you will perform in that situation.

  

Today we conclude the theme of Goals by learning two specific ways in which we can use implementation intentions to increase goal achievement; 1) resisting temptations, and 2) regulating negative inner states that can harm performance (e.g. anxiety, nervousness, lack of concentration).[2]

We can employ these strategies by forming an “If/Then” implementation intention which links a situation cue (the “if”), such as a negative external event (i.e. temptations) or a negative inner state (i.e. anxiety, or nervousness), to a coping responses (the “then”.)[3]

 

Resisting Temptations

In 1998 Gollitzer et al found that implementation intentions can help us resist temptations, or “disruptive external events” that may hamper our goal pursuit. Specifically they found that

…[p]articipants who had to perform arithmetic problems for a period of 15 minutes were more successful in doing so despite the presentation of various interspersed attractive video clips, when participants had formed implementation intentions that specified “attractive video clips” in the if-component and an “ignore” response in the then-component.[4]

Performing in the Clutch – Regulating Inner States

Often-times performance in competitive situations is hampered by negative inner states.[5] These inner states can be categorized into negative cognitive (i.e. “not concentrating enough”), motivational (i.e., “feeling exhausted”), and emotional (i.e. feeling nervous or angry). Setting “If/Then” implementations strategies can guard against these negative inner states.[6] This is done by setting an “if” corresponding to these negative inner states (i.e. “If I am feeling discouraged”) with a suitable coping response proven to control the inner state (i.e. “Then I will calm myself and tell myself “I will win!”).[7] Gollitwer et al’s research has shown that these goal-shielding responses “can be triggered by internal cues and thereby increase performance in competition situations.[8]”

Which Strategy Should We Use?

Now that we have learned about two goal-shielding strategies (resisting external temptations and resisting disruptive inner-states), there remains the question of which one we should specify for our implementation intentions. The answer to this depends on factors such as personality and the type of goal you are pursuing. For instance, in regards to personality, those who have a high capability for self-reflection might be better served by setting implementation intentions that regulate disruptive inner-states[9]. Whereas those with a low capability for self-reflection should likely set implantation intentions that regulate disruptive external events.[10] And in regards to the type of goal, goals that involve abstinence (quitting tobacco or alcohol) are best suited for forming situational cues based on inner-states.[11] On the other hand goals that are prone to disruptions (i.e. finishing a blog post over the temptation of social disruptions) might be better suited for situational cues based on external events.[12]

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[1] Ester K. Papies, Henk Aarts, Nanne K. de Vries, Planningis for doing: Implementation Intentions Go Beyond the Mere Creation of Goal-Directed Associations, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (2009), 1149.

[2] Anja Achtziger, Peter M. Gollwitzer, Paschal Sheeran, Implementation Intentions and Shielding Goal Striving From Unwanted Thoughts and Feelings, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (2008), 288.

[3] Id.

[4] Id. at 390.

[5] Id. at 387.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Id. at 389.

[9] Id. at 390.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

Music Mondays: Şirin Soysal - Bir Şeyler Var

Turkish singer Şirin Sosyal, this week's featured Music Monday's artist, was kind enough to allow me to interview her for Nonny's List. A teaser of the interview is included below. The full interview can be found here.

NL: What are your thoughts on the current political atmosphere in Turkey?

SS: It is quite difficult to keep up the morale. The recent mass protests have unified us, the people, in a way that we’d never imagined. We saw the fear and panic that our simple and peaceful unity caused within the authorities, the weapon-holders. And the sense of our own power, the power of love, was amazing.  But now we have to keep that spirit alive, despite the horrific suppression. We have to keep alive our vision of a land of peace, of freedom, of love. This is a call to the people of the whole world. It’s time for us all to unite in spirit.

Implementation Intentions Pt. III - Mental Imagery Increases Goal Achievement

The previous posts on our theme of Goals have taught us that even with the proper motivation our intentions are often poor indicators of our actual behavior. In otherwords, there is little correlation between our intentions and our behavior. [1] We have learned that forming implementation intentions are a superior strategy for reducing our intention-behavior gap than “relying solely on motivation and willpower expressed in mere goal intentions.”[2] Today we embark on yet another strategy that is empirically shown to enhance goal achievement, mental imagery.

What is Mental Imagery?

In mental imagery, “individuals mentally mimic perceptual, motor, and emotional experiences, resulting in mental representations of the imagined objects, situations, emotions, and actions….[3]” Mental imagery enhances goal achievement because imagining an action activates the same areas in the brain as actually carrying out the same action[4]. To summarize, mental rehearsal of an action makes an individual more “behaviorally ready” to act[6].

Using Mental Imagery to Increase Goal Achievement of Your Implementation Intentions

Mental imagery and implementation intentions, although similar, are two distinct strategies.  Implementation intentions do not require visualization of the steps to be performed. Often implementation intentions consist of only creating verbal commitments such as “If/then” or “When/Where/How.” However, adding imagery by visualizing these commitments produces greater goal achievement[7]. This is because imagery-enriched implementations make the situational cues (the If, When, or Where) more cognitively assessable[8].

In conclusion, when used in conjunction implementation intentions and mental imagery produce increased rates of goal achievement than each could individually[9]. So do not just verbally form your implementation intentions, vividly visualize them as well!

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[1]Barbel Knauper et al, Using Mental Imagery to Enhance the Effectiveness of Implementation Intentions, (2009), 181. In pertinent part. In pertinent part,

Meta-analyses of studies across a wide range of domains have shown that the average correlation between intentions and behaviour is only r=.53, that is, intentions on average account for only 28% of the variance in behavior.

[2] Id.

[3] Id. at 182.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id. at 183.

[7] Id. at 184.

[8] Id. at 182

[9] Id. at 184

Goals Theme - A Generation B.C Recap on the Theme of Goals

For the past few weeks Generation B.C has been focused on the theme of Goals.

First we learned to set high goals in the post Goals: Reach for the Stars, Land on the Clouds. If we have the requisite ability then setting "high goals lead to greater effort and/or persistence than do moderately difficult, easy, or vague goals.[1]"

Next we learned about Goal Contagion, the idea that goals are highly contagious. Even if we do not actually know an interaction partner’s goals we will infer on their traits, stereotypes, and goals and then unconsciously copy them. Furthermore, in the accompanying TAG post we learned that “merely thinking of an important other leads to activation of goals.[2]”

In the following post we learned about the differences between performance goals (ego involved) and learning goals (task-involved). Performance goals are outcome focused. An example of a performance goal is the goal to make 15/20 free-throws. On the other hand learning goals are process focused. An example of a learning goal is the goal to learn proper free-throw shooting techniques. Learning goals are better for a novel or complex task. Therefore, if a task involves learning, a specific high learning goal should be set. Performance goals are better when you already possess the requisite knowledge and skill to perform a task. Therefore, once you have mastered a task to a point where the routine has become automatic, performance goals should be set.

The lesson on performance goals and learning goals can also be extrapolated to an organizational setting. When a merger has taken place and new management and employees must learn to work with each other, it may be advisable to set learning goals until the team is used to each other[3]. Conversely, in such a situation it is not advisable to set performance goals such as a target revenue.

After that we learned about implementation intentions and how they are superior to mere goal intentions. Whereas goal intentions are merely forming an intention to do something (“I wish to achieve X”), implementation intentions are planned out concrete responses when faced with a given situation cue (“If situation Y arises, then I will initiate goal-behavior Z!”). They can be in the form of “if/then” or “when, where, how” strategies that specify the behavior a person must engage in to achieve their desired goal. The importance of implementation intentions comes from an understanding that despite good intentions, we often fail to achieve our goals. However, meta-analysis shows that forming implementation intentions significantly bridge the gap between what we intend to do and what we actually do. This is because they work like instant habits. Much like habits, situational cues (If or when & where of the plan) and automatic responses (the then or how of the plan) control the pursuit of your desired goal as opposed to relying merely on motivation and willpower.

The next two blog posts will also be on the topic of goals. The first will be about Mental Imagery and how the strategy can help increase the effectiveness of your implementation intentions. When told to vividly imagine the "when" and "where" of their implementation intentions, participants had higher goal attainment that those in the control group that were not prompted to use mental imagery[4].

The following post will focus on how to use implementation intentions to resist temptations (such as that diet crushing pastry) and to perform well in pressure situations (think clutch time ex: Robert Horry). 

 

I hope to conclude the theme on goals by the end of this week. If you have enjoyed this theme be on the lookout for the next Generation B.C theme on Creativity.

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[1] Edwin A. Locke, Gary P. Latham, New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory, Association for Psychological Science, 2006, 265.

[2] Ap Dijksterhuis & Pamela Smith,  et al., The Unconscious Consumer: Effects ofEnvironment on Consumer Behavior, 2005, 198.

[3] Gerad Seijts, Gary Latham, et al., Goal Setting and Goal Orientation: An Integration of Two Different Yet Related Literatures, The Academy of Management Journal, 238.

[4] Barbel Knauper et al, Using Mental Imagery to Enhance the Effectiveness of Implementation Intentions, (2009), 184-185.