Different Models in Describing, Exploring, Explaining and Nurturing Creativity in Society

Theoretical descriptions and explanations of creativity are limited in their scope if they do not reflect the interaction of the (creative) person, the problem, the process, and the product within the environmental and ecological framework. This interaction is represented by a socalled “4P‐E‐model”. A complex componential model of creativity includes three components related to cognition, and three components representing the personality of the creator. The components, with various subcomponents, interact as a functional system in the creative process, which on the one hand may be described as a partially chaotic bottom up process, and on the other as a voluntarily and consciously steered top down process. This balancing and integrating of opposites is essential for and in creative thinking and doing.