How to promote divergent thinking?

Divergent thinking is mostly found among people who are curious, willing to take risks and persistent.

Divergent thinking can be cultivated through training alone and these attitudes linger for several weeks after the training is completed.

The most used divergent thinking norms are those of brainstorming: quantity of ideas is wanted, defer evaluation or judgment of ideas till after the session, wild ideas are welcome, combination and improvement of ideas is sought.

Scenario writing also can promote divergent thinking: it can be taught to use the person imaginations to picture some other person going about achieving the chosen goal.

Other values that promote divergent thinking are those that are frequently quoted as values that promote creativity.

With regard to creativity training, two types of materials stood out: lecture and case-based materials. Both of these techniques were effective for promoting general creativity but also for divergent thinking, problem-solving, performance and attitudes towards creativity.
How to promote divergent thinking?

Convergent thinking

Convergent thinking a term coined by J. P Guilford in the 1950s in the context of his research on creativity.

While divergent thinking allows the individuals to find numerous and original ideas, convergent thinking encompasses thought processes which aim at finding the one right, best or conventional answer to a problem.

The objective of convergent thinking is to generate a conventional, consensually agreed-upon solution to a problem.

The problem presents as an initial triggering mechanism or process input – be it a test prompt, and assignment question or an event – that generates the production of a correct or an incorrect cognitions.

The idea of convergent thinking is based on the assumption that there is only one correct answer to a problem and that it must be found through reference to declarative knowledge.

Convergent processes move from data, clues, or parts of the problem to a specific idea. They are distinct from divergent processes in that usually convergent processes lead to one idea, rather than a large number, and in that they focus on correct or conventional rather than original ideas.
Convergent thinking

Divergent thinking

Divergent thinking is a process of thinking in which many different ideas or solution are generated from a single idea or problem. This may take a number of directions and also it consists of generation of multiple responses.

It is involves thinking widely; like the light bouncing off a convex mirror bulging outwards, the person thinking spreads out into the universe in all directions.

In divergent thinking there is no single correct response, the value of responses depends upon it suitability, usefulness and meaningfulness.

The search to uncover the root cause problem is considered a divergent thinking process because it requires the application of creativity first to separate symptoms from root problems and then to adequately define the problem in a way that leads to a resolution.

One important characteristics of divergent thinking is that it is closely related to creative behavior and some authors use it in place of creative thinking. Divergent thinking is the central unit in the creative process. Divergent thinking test are often used, though of course they really just estimate the potential for creative thought.
Divergent thinking

Creativity and divergent thinking

Creativity is a distinct aspect of intellectual functioning which is for all practical purpose independent of conventional intelligence, was subscribe by Guilford (1950), Torrance (1962), Taylor (1964), Wallach and Kogan (1965). They have claimed that creativity and intelligence are two distinct mental abilities each involving a special cluster of skills.

The quest to quantify the creative process, primarily through the use of divergent thinking batteries, has been a lightning rod for the psychometric study of creativity.

Divergent thinking tests require individuals to produce several response to a specific prompt, in sharp contrast to most standardized tests of achievement or ability that require one correct answer.

Getzels and Jackson (1962) gave more than 500 students, in grades 6 to 12, intelligence tests and five creativity tests:
*A word-association test in which students were asked to give as many definitions as possible for fairly common words.
 
*A test of alternate uses, in which students were asked to think of as many uses as they could for familiar object.

*A hidden-shapes test that required them to find geometric figures hidden in more complex figures.

*A fable test in which they furnished the last line for an unfinished fable.

*A make-up problems test in which they were to make up a variety of mathematical problems from large amount of numerical information.

Scores in these creativity measures and scores in IQ tests correlated very little. Thus creativity seems to be largely independent of general intelligence as defined by IQ tests.

At the same time, highly creative people rarely have below-average required for creativity. Among people with above-average IQ, an individual’s IQ scores cannot predict his or her level of creativity.

Getzels and Jackson changes the dominant views of the relationship between IQ and creativity by postulating, based on their extensive study that creativity was far more independent of IQ than previously believed especially at the upper-IQ levels. This work paved way for the development of modern creativity.
Creativity and divergent thinking

Creativity

Creativity
Creativity may be more important than IQ in allowing a Michelangelo or a Mozart to break new ground.

But what is creativity and what do we know about creativity over the life span?

Defining creativity had provoked as much contr0versy as defining intelligence.

However, creativity is often defined as the ability to produce more responses or works.

Moreover, it is enough for these products to be outlandish; they must in some way be appropriate in context or valued by others.

In structure of intellect-model, the expert captured the idea of creativity by proposing that it involves divergent thinking.

Divergent thinking requires coming up with variety of ideas or solutions to a problem when there is no one right answer.

Indeed, the most common measure of creativity, at least in children, is what is called ideational fluency – the sheer number of different, including novel, ideas that one can generate when asked.
Creativity