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15 - Creativity in the Engineering Domain

from Part III - Creativity in the Sciences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2017

By
David H. Cropley ,
Arthur J. Cropley  and
Bree L. Sandwith
Edited by
James C. Kaufman ,
Vlad P. Glăveanu  and
John Baer
James C. Kaufman
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Vlad P. Glăveanu
Affiliation:
Universitetet i Bergen, Norway
John Baer
Affiliation:
Rider University, New Jersey
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Summary

Abstract

Engineering can claim an important association with the birth of the modern creativity era. The Sputnik Shock of 1957 led to the identification of creativity not only as a valuable quality in general, but also as a vital element of practical, successful problem solving. The engineering domain epitomizes the interdependence of the Four Ps of creativity – Person, Product, Process, and Press – highlighting the necessity of each as a component of generating effective and novel solutions to problems.

In this chapter, we discuss both what makes engineering unique as a domain of creativity, and also how important the core, psychological constructs of creativity are to this domain. We discuss, in particular, two facets of creativity – the characteristics of creative products, and the measurement of divergent thinking – where insights from the domain of engineering add value to the understanding of creativity as a systems phenomenon.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity across Domains , pp. 261 - 275
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

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