Creativity Research Paper

David Andrade 10/29/10 Enc1101 Creativity Paper David Andrade 10/29/10 Enc1101 Creativity Outline Thesis: The purpose of this paper is to define the research and the positive and negative effects on creative persons.

I. Research A. Military

1. Military research was one of the earlier researches it was financed by the U. S department of defense, seeking new technology and more creative leaders in the wake of World War II (Roark).
2. Since the time of the ancient Greeks there has been many suppositions as to why some individuals are remarkably creative, one of these speculations were that it was a gift from the gods.

II.Positive Aspects of Creative People

• A. Working till the end.

1. Creative persons are usually totally into their work until the end.
2. A creative person can usually see a project until the end. (Glover)
3. Creative people can usually dismiss any other stuff until their work is complete. (Glover)

• B. Taking Control

1. Creative people tend to be more comfortable with taking care of tasks when there are no clear explanations for instructions. (Glover)
2. Creative persons tend to feel that they can control what happens to them in life. (Glover)
3. Creative people in general, like to take risks. (Glover)

III. Negative Aspects of Creative People

• A. Mental disorders

1. Psychiatrists have noticed that among distinguished artists, manic and major depression is ten to thirty percent as common. (“Mad Genius”)
2. Many artists have been diagnosed with different types of depression.
3. According to Arnold Ludwig from the University of Kentucky Medical center, fifty nine to seventy percent of the 1004 artists, writers, and musicians suffered from mental illness. (Scholten)
4. Many creative people suffer from Bipolar as well. (Scholten)

• B. Moods

1. Psychiatrists have noticed that among distinguished artists, manic and major depression is ten to thirty percent as common. “Mad Genius”)
2. More people with mood swings and mental disabilities have been found in the arts. (Roarke)
3. Dr. Andreason found that eighty percent of writers were depressed at some point in their lives. (Roarke) There are many different types of people in this world, one of them are creative people. Creative people have been around forever and are the people that have made this world evolve. The purpose of this paper is to define the research and the positive and negative effects on creative persons. Many Researches have been conducted on creativity.

Military research was one of the earlier researches it was financed by the U. S department of defense, seeking new technology and more creative leaders in the wake of World War II (Roark). Over year’s scientist have conducted many tests to evaluate the level of creativity. The level of creativity on certain individuals has been a mystery to many scientists, for example why was it that while Leonardo Da Vinci could paint the Mona Lisa other normal individuals were barely able to draw stick figures, or why was it that Albert Einstein revolutionized the world of physics while other didn’t even know how to use car radios.

There have been many speculations made of why some human beings are remarkably creative. Since the time of the ancient Greeks there has been many suppositions as to why some individuals are remarkably creative, one of these speculations were that it was a gift from the gods. Some modern thinkers believe that it was just a combination of lucky genes, coincidence. Creative people may have certain inherited talents or biologically controlled predilections a painter, for example, might have peculiar sensitivity to the light; a musician, an unusual awareness of sound; a dancer, a certain physical size or muscle mass (Roark).

Creative people have always needed to be an essential part in our society back in the day and even today. We can always improve and come out with new technologies and ideas and the people that come out with these products are the entrepreneurs who are generally for the most part creative thinking people. Now that we have seen how creative studies in the past were made and how creative people have been linked back for millions of years I will talk about the positive aspect of creative people.

Creative people for the most part, are very concentrated thinking people. They set their mind to something and they do not stop until it is complete. In the book “A Creative Person Tends to Be This Way” John Glover states that creative people can usually see a project through the end and can put aside anything that will distract them from getting their goal done. Another very good aspect of the creative thinker is that they can very easily take control of situations.

In his book, John Glover states that creative thinker tends to be more comfortable in an environment where the directions are not clear. He can think for himself and come up with an alternative even though the steps on how to get those alternatives or solutions may not be clear. As well, Glover states that the creative thinker can usually feel that they are in control of their lives. They feel as if they can control what will happen in their lives in the future. The last very good aspect of the creative thinker is that he is a risk taker.

Glover states that most creative thinkers have a risk taking attitude. In life to get to a great goal, we must take risks. If there is no risk there is no reward. That is why we see all these entrepreneurs like Bill Gates the developer of Microsoft and Steve Jobs the developer of Apple for example. They had to take a huge risk in putting their time and money into a project as big as the ones they have. So the creative person is generally more of a risk taker that the average person.

Now that we have spoken about the positive aspects of creativity, let’s talk about the negative aspects of creativity and how having a creative mind has affected many people around the world and can be affecting you even. When we usually think of the word “creative” we usually think of it as a positive word, a good thing for society. But what people don’t know is that behind many creative thinking people a lot of problems occur. Such problems include mood swings, bipolar problems and several types of depression such as major and manic depression.

Let’s talk about the depression and how it affects the creative person. In the article “Mad Genius’ is no myth, scientists now agree” it states that psychiatrists have noticed that among distinguished artists, manic and major depressions are ten to thirty percent as common. Many artists have been diagnosed with several different types of depressions. According to Arnold Ludwig from the University of Kentucky Medical Center, fifty nine to seventy percent of the 1004 artists, writers and musicians suffered from some type of a mental illness as well as bipolarity (Scholten).

Also very common among creative persons are mood swings. Mood swings are when you are acting one way and then start acting in another way the next. This is very common in most creative thinker’s minds. In the Article “Mad Genius’ is no myth, scientists now agree” is stated that more people with mood swings and mental disabilities have been noticed and reported in the arts. Dr Andreason found that eight percent of writers were depressed at some time in their lives. Psychiatrists have noticed that among certain artists, mood swings and mental disorders are very common.

Now that I have discussed the negative effects of the creative thinker in general, I would like to explain further the different types of depressions that I mentioned so that people may have a better understanding of what these depression and mood swings they get are. First let’s talk about manic depression and what it is. Manic depression varies when people are at the very peak of a mood which would be the manic stage and the very low point of a mood which would be the depression. This is one of the most common types of depressions in the creative persons.

This type of depression is also known as bipolarity. This disorder may be linked genetically which back to what I discussed in how the creative mind came about saying that creative thinkers usually have had someone in their bloodline that also was a creative thinker may have also had manic depression or bipolarity. Major depression is very different than manic depression. Major depression is also much known as clinical depression and requires monitoring and medication. This type of depression is basically a more up scaled more dangerous type of depression compared to the manic depression.

Many artists, writers, poets, and creative people in general have had to go through this type of depression. Most people that get this type of depression just feel very sad all the time and cannot really enjoy life nor can enjoy the things that perhaps at one point in their lives made them feel very happy.

So now to conclude, I hope that I have explained well how the roots of creativity was formed and how the early uses of creativity was formed and how the early uses of creative minds were put into play in the world. I also hope you understand the positive and negative effects that creativity has on the creative mind.

Also, to further understand, I explained the different types of depression that many creative thinkers have experienced at some point in their lives. Being a creative person has benefited very much to society and will continue to benefit society to come up and develop new technologies and products. But although the creative thinker has been traced back to the beginning of time we must also remember the negative effects that has come over the years with the creative thinker. Work Cited Glover, John A. A Creative Person Tends To Be This Way, Florida, 1969.

Print “Mad Genius’ is no myth, scientists now agree. ” Business week 4. May 1922: Pages 20-22 Print. Roarke, Anne. “Creative people suffer higher rates of mental illness, studies confirm. ” New York Times July, 2004: pages 20-26 Print. Roarke, Anne. “Scientists Search For The Roots of Creativity. ” Lose Angeles Times 20. 6(2 July 1984). Web 16 Oct. 2004. http. //www. Losangelestimes. com/456j24z Scholten, Amy. “Creative and Depression: Is There a Link? | ThirdAge Articles. ” Baby Boomer Health, Aging & Retirement| Midlife Caregiving & Relationships| ThirdAge. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. .