Creativity can be broadly defined as a combination of interacting individual and environmental resources leading to the production of valuable solutions. This paper concentrates on the type of creativity that can be expressed in solving social problems. After reviewing the potentially relevant psychological and contextual variables intervening in social creativity, leading to individual differences in this capacity, we present results of a study testing the nomological validity of social creativity in a group of 70 pre-adolescents. The findings indicate that social creativity performance is linked with socially relevant variables such as social competencies, popularity, and parenting style. Finally, we discuss the relevance of a creativity approach in social domains such as violence prevention programs and education.
In the field of psychology, the creative process is often defined quite simply as the act of producing novel solutions. Yet explaining why creative expression varies from one person to another represents a highly complex task, considering the number of variables that could potentially intervene in the creative process, as well as in the availability of the resources needed for the process to occur, in addition to the consideration the creative product receives from its public. Consequently, our approach is rooted in a multivariate framework, proposing that creativity results from interactions among variables that can be organized into cognitive, personality, emotional, and environmental domains (Lubart, Mouchiroud, Tordjman, & Zenasni, 2003).
In this paper, the multivariate nature of creativity will be considered in the social domain, a form that is expressed when one or several individuals choose new strategies to solve social problems or enhance social activities, within dyads or in larger groups (Mouchiroud & Lubart, 2002). First, we will raise some issues concerning the notion of social creativity, and try to expose briefly the main psychological and environmental variables that may account for individual differences in this type of creative behaviour. Next, as part of a research program aimed at investigating the lifelong developmental process of creative social abilities, we present results of an empirical study assessing the construct validity of social creativity. As we measured different types of cognitive, socio-affective as well as environmental variables, we examine the shared variance of each measure with creative performance in social tasks. To conclude, we consider the learnability of social creativity, and discuss perspectives provided through a creativity approach to intervention programs, at the individual as well as societal levels.
The objective of this study was to present empirical data on the construct validity of social creativity assessments. We found that creative performance in a group of pre-adolescents shares common variance with variables that were all relevant to social development, such as parenting style, social abilities or popularity. At the individual level, the ability to create and maintain bonds with others has long been stressed in developmental psychology (see for example Wallon, 1934). We believe that social creativity skills are key components in this process. As a result, its nurturance deserves more than its share in current educational programs. In addition, outside the school system, more thorough knowledge should be provided to caretakers on the positive impact of specific environments, such as a flexibly structured parenting style (Lautrey, 1980). Last, at a global level, better societal creativity skills may contribute locally to design the numerous solutions the future generation will have to implement in order to preserve social harmony.
