Creativity: A Bundle of Paradoxes

Creativity can be understood in terms of products, psychological processes, personality characteristics, and social conditions. However, statements in the relevant literature frequently contain apparent contradictions, such as the necessity for both divergent and convergent thinking. These lead to the “paradoxes” of creativity: in cognition, in the role of luck and chance, paradoxical aspects of “creative” products, in the role of society, in personality, and in motivation. An extended stage model offers insights into the way in which such contradictions can logically exist side by side, and implies that research on creativity and programs for fostering it need to define more precisely the phases on which they are focusing.