Psychologists Can be Creative?

As a student who is a psychological sciences major with a minor in creative film and media, understanding what makes a person inspired to be creative has always been very interesting to me! Now that we have a better understanding of why people are creative, I would like to apply some psychological theories to my own creative experience.

As someone who is a huge fan of all things media, ranging from film and television to video games and music, I often find myself frustrated with my own limited imagination. This led me to do some research on whether it is possible to enhance my own creativity. Upon further research, I found a study done by Roger Beaty that used “brain imaging and behavioral experiments to examine how creative thinking works in different contexts and domains, from the arts to the sciences to everyday life” (Beaty). Creativity is often used interchangeably with the idea of being artistic, but creativity is much more than being able to paint or write a story. Being creative comes in many different forms, such as problem solving at a law firm or daydreaming in class. In the study, Roger is looking at all aspects of creativity, and one aspect of the study included looking at fMRIs of artists both generating and evaluating ideas for a book cover. The results were interesting, showing that “During idea generation, activation of the hippocampus and default network increased… During idea evaluation, where artists were asked to critique their drawings, they again activated hippocampal and default regions, and also frontal brain regions associated with cognitive control, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Most interestingly, the analysis also showed increased communication … between these regions during idea evaluation, suggesting cooperation between the spontaneous/generative aspects of the default network and the deliberate/evaluative aspects of the control network”(Beaty). Typically, these networks work opposite of each other, meaning when one is being used, the other is dormant. So it was very interesting to discover that creative thinking increases brain connectivity between networks.

All of this research led Roger Beaty to ask the question, “Can creativity be enhanced?” The answer is not as simple as yes or no; it is a bit more complicated than that. While there is still a lot more research to do on improving creativity, mainly for long-term creativity, it has been found that there are some strategies for improving short-term creativity! A few examples of how to improve short-term creativity include “when we are stuck on a problem — a phenomenon known as fixation or impasse— taking a break to let our minds wander may loosen things up and help us find a creative solution. Another potentially useful strategy involves priming the episodic system. The episodic induction process mentioned earlier—thinking about a past experience with as much detail as possible—has been shown to temporarily boost the number of ideas people generate on a creative thinking task” (Beaty). Even though there is currently no way to improve your overall, long-term creativity, there are some exercises that can improve your immediate creativity!

I often get frustrated when I am writing a paper for school or sketching in my notebook when I am at a loss and unsure of what to do next. So, I decided to find some exercises that would help improve my creativity. As Beaty wrote, using past knowledge and memories is a great way to improve short-term creativity, so that is what I have set out to do. Over the past few weeks, I have been listening to educational podcasts, such as 99% Invisible, and trying to get off my phone and live in the moment. This has come in the form of trying to improve my chess skills. I have found from this short experiment that I am much more excited and interested in not only new ideas and learning, but also sharing what I have learned with others. As for my chess skills, while I still have a lot of room to grow, I have been learning to problem-solve better in order to become a better player. These two small changes to my day-today life have left me more excited to be creative and pursue my passions and hobbies instead of being lost to the mindless scrolling on social media.

Works Cited

Beaty, Roger E. “The Creative Brain.” Cerebrum : the Dana forum on brain science vol. 2020 cer-02-20. 1 Jan. 2020