Kūrybiškumo sampratų klasifikacija ir kūrybiškumo sąvokos apibrėžtis

Gediminas Beresnevičius 76 Classification of Concepts of ir kūrybiškumo sąvokos apibrėžtis Creativity doi.org/10.35321/term29-05 Classification of concepts of creativity ir kūrybiškumo sąvokos apibrėžtis GEDIMINAS BERESNEVIČIUS Vilniaus universiteto Komunikacijos fakultetas ORCID id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5357-0697 ANNOTATION The article classifies the most common concepts of creativity in the scientific literature. Five types of creativity are distinguished: creativity as an inner characteristic of the creator, as a creative process, as a result of creation, as a component product and as a factor that promotes progress in all areas. Each type of concept has several subspecies. The analysis of the concepts shows that the only semantically and logically correct is the concept of creativity as the peculiarity of the inner creator, and the only usable is the concept of creativity as a subspecies of creative abilities. The concept of creativity as a process, product or environment is also acceptable. Based on the analysis of scientific literature, the following definition of creativity has been formulated: creativity is the ability of the creator to create something qualitatively new, the novelty of the creative process, the created product and the environment. KEY WORDS: creativity, classification of concepts of creativity, definition of the concept of creativity. ABSTRACT The article classifies the conceptions of concept of creativity that are most often found in scientific literature. Five types of them are described: creativity as an internal singularity of the creator, creativity as a creative process, creativity as a product, creativity as a formation of different components, and creativity as a driving factor of multi-sided progress. Each type of the conception has several subtypes. The analysis of the conceptions shows that the only semantically and logically correct conception is that of creativity as an internal singularity of the creator, and the definition of creativity as a subtype of creative abilities should be used. The conception of creativity as a process, product, or an environmental feature is also acceptable. Based on the analysis of scientific literature, the following definition of creativity was formulated: creativity is the creator’s ability to create something qualitatively new; the novelty of the creative process, the product or environment created. KEYWORDS: creativity, classification of the conceptions of creativity, definition of creativity. 77Terminology | 2022 | 29 INTRODUCTION Kūrybiškumo1 sąvoka vis dar kelia nemažai klausimų. Psichologai ir kiti researchers disagree on how to define this concept. In the scientific literature we are confronted with a wealth of often contradictory definitions of creativity. Even dictionaries and encyclopedias give different definitions of creativity2. This not only creates theoretical dissonance, but also complicates empirical research on creativity. Thus, the definition of the term and concept of creativity is extremely relevant in psychology, education, sociology and other sciences. Understandably, specialists in different fields perceive creativity differently and define this concept in the most appropriate way for them and give this term a specific content. We believe that any concept of creativity should be true, not false (as is often the case in scientific literature), regardless of context or field of research. Psychologists, sociologists, and scientists from other fields can identify specific, specific terms. The most important thing is that the essence of the concept of creativity is correctly understood in terminology. The classification of concepts of creativity could provide greater clarity. However, the scientific classification of creativity does not eliminate this confusion. For example, the division of creativity into “small c” and “major C” (Sawyer 2012) is more a classification of creation than of creativity. The division of creativity into “heroic”, “historical” (Černevičiūtė, Strazdas 2014) or other “creativity” does not cover the entire field of concepts of the concept under discussion, and the characteristics according to which it is grouped are highly questionable. The confusion of concepts of creativity and the high theoretical uncertainty presuppose the aim of this study – to create a scientifically based classification of existing concepts of creativity, which will allow to formulate an appropriate and usable definition of creativity. The object of the study is the concept of creativity. 1) to review and classify the most important concepts of creativity published in the scientific literature; 2) analyze concepts of creativity and evaluate their correctness and usability; 1 In this article we will talk about creativity, although there is also a concept of creativity in Lithuanian. Such a choice is determined by the analysis of the concepts, which shows that the field of meanings of the concept of creativity is wider than the field of meanings of creativity (see Beresnevičius 2022). In the quotes we leave the authors' original use of these words. 2 The definition of creativity in dictionaries published in Lithuania is discussed Aurelija Ganusauskaitė, Agnė Blažienė and Jolita Vveinhardt (2020). Gediminas Beresnevičius 78 Classification of Concepts of Creativity ir kūrybiškumo sąvokos apibrėžtis 3) to define the concept of creativity based on the analysis of scientific literature. The research method is a comparative and summarizing qualitative analysis of scientific literature. The study was conducted from 2007 to 2022. The concepts of creativity presented in the publications of foreign and Lithuanian scientists were examined, whose titles contain the word creativity or creativity in any verb or the word creativity, if it is a publication in English3. The absolute majority of the researched publications are from the field of psychology and education. In other fields – sociology, economics, philosophy – there are very few works in which the concept of creativity is mentioned. The study examines not only the definitions of creativity presented in scientific texts, but also concepts, i.e. how the text author (s) understand creativity: as an inner characteristic of the creator, as a process, as a product or in any other way. The concept of a concept is understood as a statement or a thought arising from the context that defines the meaningful field (content) of the concept. In this thesis, only the essential features of the concept of creativity are examined, which form the basis of the presented classification. We consider correct such a definition (comprehension) that satisfies the following requirements: 1) apibrėžčiai galioja jos sudarymo taisyklės; 2) apibrėžtis nepažeidžia esminių logikos principų; 3) the term defining the concept to be defined (in our case – creativity) is unambiguous4 (its meaning is fixed and does not depend on the context); 4) the concept is scientific, i.e. suitable for describing theoretical models of creativity and empirical research. 1. CLASSIFICATION OF THE CONCEPT OF CREATIVITY As is known, the definition consists of three parts: the defining expression, the defining expression and the connecting expression (expressed in words is, is called, means). Definition is the equality of the defining and defining parts (Plečkaitis 2001). Terms are usually defined in accordance with the definition rules. Unfortunately, not all statements defining creativity can be considered as definitions due to various 3 More about the study, covering Lithuanian scientists’ publications from 1979 to 2019, see Bernstein 2020. 4 This article is based on the rule of logical unambiguity. 79Terminology | 2022 | 29 violations of the rules applicable to definitions or obvious logical errors. The definition (a logical action) determines the Tokius teiginius vadintume netinkamomis apibrėžtimis. specificity of the investigated object and the meaning of the used linguistic expression. The narrower the defining expression, the broader the definition, and vice versa. If, for example, the defining expression is limited to one word, then the object will belong to a very broad class of objects or even to several classes. By indicating the characteristics, features, properties, concept of the object, we refine and narrow the definition. The definition with the minimum defining expression will be called the concept of the concept for the sake of conciseness. The most basic definition, the most important characteristic of the object to be defined, is constructed by removing the insignificant words describing the object and leaving the essential construct "X = A", where "A" is one or more essential words describing the concept "X". For example, Ala Petrulytė writes: “Creativity is one of the essential traits of a psychologically healthy personality” (Petrulytė 1995: 3).Rejecting the words that specify the essential statement, we get the concept of creativity: “<...> creativity is a trait.” When there is a great variety of definitions, the only way to greater clarity is to classify and analyze them. The basis of classification is the grouping of objects according to their essential characteristics. We will group the concepts of creativity into species and subspecies. Each concept has a very large number of specific definitions. For example, in A. Petrulytė’s (1995) definition of creativity, the personality feature is the inner peculiarity of the creator. There are many peculiarities and a trait is one of them, so the inner peculiarity of the creator is a kind of concept of creativity, and a trait is its subspecies. Below we will briefly review the types of concepts most commonly used in scientific works. We will not examine very rare definitions due to the limited scope of the article. 1.1. Creativity as an inner characteristic of the creator The concept of creativity as the inner peculiarity of the creator is the most common in scientific literature. This type of concepts of creativity includes definitions that define creativity as a human creative ability, personality characteristic, trait, power to create, quality or qualification. Some examples of this kind of concept: “[Creativity] can be defined as the ability to create works that are new and relevant” (Lubart Gediminas Beresnevičius 80 Classification of Concepts of Creativity 2009: 339); “In both popular media and political documents, creativity represents a ir kūrybiškumo sąvokos apibrėžtis difficult to rationalize, but positive power <...>” (Trilupaitytė 2015: 26); “Creativity is one of the general qualifications, assigned to formal human abilities in the cognitive field” (Laužackas 1998). Many Lithuanian authors in scientific literature identify creativity with a complex of human traits and abilities or personal qualities. We find such a concept in Leonas Jovaišas’s Encyclopedia of Education: “Creativity <...> is a complex of personality characteristics that allows productive work to achieve original, socially significant, qualitatively new results of activity” (Jovaiša 2007: 127). Ellis Paul Torrance has noted that researchers have associated creativity with a “constellation of key abilities” (Torrance 1965: 665). In Lithuanian scientific publications there are cases where creativity is defined as a human tendency to create. A. Petrulytė states that creativity is “an individual’s tendency to create, model or think something new, original or innovative” (Petrulytė 2001: 8). Definitions of creativity as a propensity can also be found in the works of foreign authors. “Creativity is defined as the propensity to create or recognize ideas, alternatives or possibilities [...]” (Franken 1993: 396). In summary, we can say that creativity as an ability, property, feature, power, quality, complex of characteristics and inclination are subspecies of the kind of concept of creativity as the inner peculiarity of the creator. 1.2. Creativity as a process In encyclopedias, books by Western scholars and many articles, it is stated that creativity is the generation of ideas, problem solving, production of products, technology development or other processes. “The most common definition of creativity is the process of creating something new and useful,” say John C. Houtz and Patricola Cathryn (Houtz, Patricola 1999: 1). They are supported by Michael D. Mumford: “Over the past decade, we seem to have reached a general agreement that creativity means the production of new, useful products” (Mumford 2003: 110). There are many definitions of creativity in the scientific literature, where creativity is described as a human activity or behavior. These concepts can also be assigned to the kind of concept of processes. Junona Almonaitienė, considering the opinions of various scientists, concludes that “creativity is 81Terminology | 2022 | 29 veikiau ne vidinė žmogaus savybė, arba potencija, bet tam tikras elgesys“ (Almonaitienė 2000: 83). In the works of humanistic psychologists we can find statements that kūrybiškumas – tai žmogaus saviraiška, asmenybės aktualizavimas, kūrybos potencialo išraiška, kūrybinių poreikių realizavimas. Išvardyti dalykai – taip pat procesai. Pavyzdžiui, Markas A. Runco’as (2007) cituoja Albert Bandura, according to whom “creativity is one of the highest forms of human expression” (Runco 2007: 385). Creativity as a process should also include the concept according to which this concept is perceived as creative or divergent thinking. ‘J. Mr. Guilford identified creativity with divergent thinking <...>“, – states Daiva Grakauskaitė-Karkockienė (2002: 10). The equation of creativity with creative thinking is also found in the works of one of the most famous researchers of creativity in the world, E. P. Torrance. According to the researcher, creative thinking is a process during which: 1) uncertainties, problems, information gaps, strange and unusual things are searched; 2) formulated hypotheses, raised questions; 3) assess and verify the hypotheses and assumptions raised; 4. where necessary, re-examination of decisions; 5) published results (Torrance 1988). There are definitions that equate creativity with problem solving, which (like thinking) is a process that takes place in the brain. Dean Keith Simonton writes: “Creativity is usually defined as the successful solution of problems that require some insight” (Simonton 2009: 116). Creativity is often defined as a phenomenon. Rūta Girdzijauskienė states: “In the works of modern scientists, creativity is examined as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon” (Girdzijauskienė 2014: 80). And according to Lukasz Swiatek, “creativity is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon that encompasses many processes and practices” (Swiatek 2014: 73). We treat the words phenomenon and phenomenon as synonyms, because phenomenon is an extraordinary phenomenon, event or fact. In this article we narrow the concept of phenomenon by realizing that there are many concepts. Thus, the concept of creativity as a process would include the following subspecies: creativity as creation, production or production, activity, behavior, self-expression or self-actualization, creative or divergent thinking, problem solution5, phenomenon or phenomenon. 5 The solution of the problem is understood here as a mental action. The result of thinking would be more appropriately called a solution. Gediminas Beresnevičius 82 Classification of Concepts of Creativity ir kūrybiškumo sąvokos apibrėžtis 1.3. Creativity as a result In the scientific literature there are concepts where creativity is equated with the result of creative activity. Robert Drazin, Robert K. Kazanjian and Mary Anna Glynn write: “In these studies, creativity is almost always understood as a product important to the social system and independent variables are considered as factors that can be controlled to improve those products” (Drazin, Kazanjian, Glynn 2009: 268). There is a group of researchers who define creativity as assessment. According to Cameron Ford and Maribeth Kuenzi, creativity is a “subjective assessment of the novelty and value of the outcome of a particular action, depending on the specific field” (Ford, Kuenzi 2009: 66). Although evaluation (as well as problem solving) can be understood in two ways, here we treat it as a product of a process (thinking) – an opinion expressed or written by evaluators. Thus, the concept of creativity as a product of creation includes the following subspecies: creativity as a product or result of activity, evaluation, as well as a solution to a problem or an idea and the result of interaction. 1.4. Creativity as a component product In scientific publications, definitions of creativity are found, in which there are several concepts of different kinds. For example, “creativity can be described as a result and as a process” (Shalley, Zhou 2009: 4). The so-called component models of creativity also belong to the complex (composed of several parts) definitions of creativity. One of the first and probably the most famous of them is the 4P model by Mel Rhodes (Rhodes 1961). In this model, creativity consists of four components: person, process, product, and environmental impact. In his article, M. Rhodes (1961) describes these elements not as elements or components of creativity, but as fields of research that are related to creativity in one way or another. However, the author still called the model a model of creativity. This is how most researchers understood this model, so the idea that creativity is made up of several different parts spread in the scientific literature. Later, theoretical schemes of creativity with more than 4 "creativity" elements appeared. One of the most frequently cited models of creativity is the scheme of Teresa M. Amabile (1983), which depicts the stages of the creative process and the abilities, knowledge and motivation of the creator affecting them. Later, 83Terminologija | 2022 | 29 the author modified this scheme and added the effect of the environment on the creator’s motivation (Amabile 1996). T. Amabile (1983, 1996) called his scheme "the model of creativity". Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2009) developed a distinctive model of creativity. His model consists of three main parts: the creator, the evaluators and the creative domain. In this model, the creator is understood as an individual with the necessary skills and adequate preparation for creation. Critics are part of society as a whole, and the creative field is part of the culture of its time. After creating a product, the developer submits it for evaluation to experts in the relevant field. If the experts evaluate the product favourably, the product (already as a work of art) enters the creative sphere. For example, a scientific article is published in a journal if it is accepted by the editorial board and positively evaluated by the reviewers. There are quite a lot of models of creativity in psychological literature. They differ from each other in their components and in the relationships represented between them. The above-mentioned models of M. Rhodes, T. Amabile, M. Csikszentmihalyi are the best known and most frequently discussed in the scientific literature. Creativity is sometimes described as the interaction between internal personality and environmental factors or parts of a constructed theoretical model. “Creativity is the naudingus produktus“, – teigia Jonathanas A. Pluckeris ir Sasha A. Barab (Plucker, Barab 2005: 201). Kūrybiškumas retsykiais pavadinamas sąveikos interaction between talents, process and environment, through which an individual or group creates tangible new and socially relevant results. Discussing the model of M. Csikszentmihalyi (2009), Emma Policastro and Howard Gardner write: “Creativity is perceived not as the product of the mind of the individual, but rather as the result of the dynamic interaction between the creative individual, the field in which he or she works, and the set of judges (field) that assesses the quality of work” (Policastro, Gardner 2009: 214). The concept of creativity as interaction should be assigned to the type of concept of process, and the result of interaction – to the type of creativity as a result. We can say that researchers of creativity have long been talking about creativity as a complex structure consisting of several different components. We would also include component models of creativity in this type of concepts. 1.5. Creativity as a factor On the Internet, in popular literature, and sometimes in articles of an economic, sociological, political nature, there are concepts in which creativity is presented as economic, scientific, technical and other progress Gediminas Beresnevičius 84 Classification of concepts of creativity as a stimulating factor. “Creativity … is now a decisive source of competitive ir kūrybiškumo sąvokos apibrėžtis advantage,” states Richard Florida (Florida 2002: 5). There are also other definitions of creativity that are closer to this concept in terms of meaning, which are more reminiscent of winged phrases or poetic metaphors. For example: “Creativity is the driving force of cultural evolution” (Csikszentmihalyi 2009: 320); “Creativity and creativity are the main engine of scientific progress, because only creative scientific thought and creative abilities generate various inventions and innovations” (Barevichiūtė 2014: 19). In this chapter we will analyze the types and subtypes of concepts presented above from the perspective of justice, i.e. we will try to determine which concepts of creativity are correct or incorrect, usable or not. 2.1. Creativity as an intrinsic characteristic Based on the linguistic logic of word formation in Lithuanian, the derivatives of adjectives with suffixes -ingas, -a and -iškas, -a indicate what characteristic the object has: creativity defines the abundance of that characteristic, and creativity – the essence of the characteristic (DLKG 1997). Both concepts are very close in terms of meaning and usage: we can say that creativity and creativity define the peculiarity of the object, show what the object is, what it is characterized by, and so on. If we are talking about a creative person, then the above-mentioned characteristic is undoubtedly the ability to create. It is precisely human abilities that are the psychological mechanisms that allow to perform mental or physical functions, in this case – to create. So the notion that creativity is the ability to create is absolutely correct. Such a concept does not violate the logic of speech and is appropriate when describing the results of research by psychologists, the development of creativity, the influence of the environment and other things related to creativity. As we mentioned, this type of concepts of creativity can be attributed not only to abilities, but also to the concept of creativity as a personal characteristic, a complex of characteristics, a trait, a power, a quality and a propensity. The definitions that identify creativity as a human quality are basically correct, because ability is also a quality. A characteristic is a more stable mental construct than abilities, which depend on training, i.e. the ability strengthens during learning and development. Studies show that 91Terminologija | 2022 | 29 The definitions of creativity presented in the scientific literature rarely mention, although sometimes from the context it can be understood that creativity is a certain inner peculiarity not only of the creator, but also of the work itself or of creation as a process. According to the semantic meaning of the word creativity, we should understand this concept as a description of an object or event. We draw attention to the fact that creativity is not an idea, not an object, not a process, but a characteristic of an idea, an object, a process. Thus, we can say that creativity is the ability developed by the creative creator to create qualitatively new imaginary or material objects, the qualitative novelty of the process and the product of the creator’s activity and the environment. This definition does not claim to be the ultimate truth and can be improved. CONCLUSIONS After reviewing the scientific literature, which writes about creativity, all the concepts of this concept were classified into five main types: 1) creativity as an inner characteristic of the creator, 2) creativity as a creative process, 3) creativity as a result of creation, 4) creativity as a component product, 5) creativity as a factor of progress. Each type of concept has several subspecies. Other concepts of creativity that do not fall into this classification make up a very small part of the concepts of this concept. 2.After analyzing the classified concepts of creativity, we found that the correct and usable concept of creativity as the ability to create. Based on the analysis of the concepts of creativity and expanding the concept of creativity to the peculiarities of the object and the process, we can define creativity as the ability developed by the creator to create qualitatively new imaginary or material objects, the qualitative novelty of the process and the product of the creator’s activity and the environment. LITERATŪRA Almonaitienė Junona 2000: Šiuolaikinis požiūris į kūrybingumą ir įvertinimo problemos. – Psichologija 21, 117–121. Amabile Teresa M. 1983: The Social Psychology of Creativity, New York: Springer-Verlag. Amabile Teresa. M. 1996: Creativity in Context: Update to The Social Psychology of Creativity, Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Barevičiūtė Jovilė 2014: Pagrindiniai kūrybiškumo ir kūrybingumo aspektai šiuolaikiniuose humanitariniuose bei socialiniuose moksluose. – Filosofija. Sociologija 25(1), 19–28. Beresnevičius Gediminas 2020: Kūrybiškumas: lietuvių mokslinių publikacijų 1979–2019 m. statistika. Prieiga internete: https://www.academia.edu/43463246/K%C5%ABrybi%C5%A1kumas_lietuvi%C5%B3_ mokslini%C5%B3_publikacij%C5%B3_1979_2019_m_statistika. Gediminas Beresnevičius 92 Kūrybiškumo sampratų klasifikacija ir kūrybiškumo sąvokos apibrėžtis Beresnevičius Gediminas 2022: Kūrybiškumo ir kūrybingumo sąvokų Lietuvos autorių mokslinėse publikacijose vartosena bei prasmių analizė. – Psichologija 66, 8–20. Burnard Pamela 2012: Musical Creativities in Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Csikszentmihalyi Mihaly 2009: Implications of a Systems Perspective for the Study of Creativity. – Handbook of Creativity (12th printing), ed. R. J. Sternberg, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 313–335. Černevičiūtė Jūratė, Strazdas Rolandas 2014: Kūrybingumo sampratų raida: nuo genijaus į kūrybines sistemas. – Santalka: Filosofija, Komunikacija 22(2), 113–125. DLKG – Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika, trečias pataisytas leidimas, red. V. Ambrazas, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas, 1997. Drazin Robert, Kazanjian Robert K., Glynn Mary Ann 2009: Creativity and sensemaking among professionals. – Handbook of Organizational Creativity, eds. J. Zhou, C. E. Shalley, N.Y.: Psychology Press, 263–281. Florida Richard 2002: The Rise of the Creative Class, New York: Basic Books. Ford Cameron, Kuenzi Maribeth 2009: “Organizingˮ Creativity Research Through Historical Analysis of Foundational Administrative Science Texts. – Handbook of Organizational Creativity, eds. J. Zhou, C. E. Shalley, N.Y.: Psychology Press, 65–92. Franken Robert E. 1993: Human Motivation, 3rd ed., Boston: Cengage Learning. Ganusauskaitė Aurelija, Blažienė Agnė, Vveinhardt Jolita 2020: Kūrybingumo ir kitų su kūryba susijusių žodžių apibrėžčių diskurso analizė lietuvių kalbos žodynuose. – Visuomenės saugumas ir viešoji tvarka 24, 70–87. Girdzijauskienė Rūta 2014: Kūrybiškumui ugdyti palanki aplinka Lietuvos mokyklose. – Tiltai 4, 79–91. Grakauskaitė-Karkockienė Daiva 2002: Kūrybos psichologija, Vilnius: Logotipas. Houtz John C., Patricola Cathryn 1999: Imagery. – Encyclopedia of Creativity 2, eds. M. A. Runco, S. R. Pritzker, San Diego: Academic Press, 1–11. Jovaiša Leonas 2007: Enciklopedinis edukologijos žodynas, Vilnius: Gimtasis žodis. Laužackas Rimantas 1998: Sistemoteorinės profesinio ugdymo kaitos dimensijos: hab. darbas, Kaunas. Lubart Todd I. 2009: Creativity Across Cultures. – Handbook of Creativity (12th printing), ed. R. J. Sternberg, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 339–350. Mumford Michael D. 2003: Where have we been, where are we going? Taking stock in creativity research. – Creativity Research Journal 15, 107–120. Petrulytė Ala 1995: Kūrybiškumo ugdymo aktualijos, Vilnius: Leidybos centras. Petrulytė Ala 2001: Kūrybiškumo ugdymas mokant, Vilnius: Presvika. Plečkaitis Romanas 2001: Apibrėžimas. Prieiga internete: https://www.vle.lt/Straipsnis/apibrezimas-74875. Plucker Jonathan A., Barab Sasha A. 2005: The Importance of Contexts in Theories of Giftedness. – Conceptions of Giftedness (Second edition), eds. R. J. Sternberg, J. E. Davidson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 201–216. Policastro Emma, Gardner Howard 2009: From Case Studies to Robust Generalizations: An Approach to the Study of Creativity. – Handbook of Creativity (12th printing), ed. In R. J. Sternberg, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 213–225. Rhodes Mel 1961: An analysis of creativity. – Phi Delta Kappan 42(7), 305–310. Runco Mark A. 2007: Creativity. Theories and Themes: Research, Development, and Practice, Amsterdam: Elsevier Academic Press. Sawyer R. Keith 2012: Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Shalley Christina E., Zhou Jing 2009: Organizational Creativity Research. – Handbook of Organizational Creativity, eds. J. Zhou, C. E. Shalley, N.Y.: Psychology Press, 3–31. Simonton Dean Keith 2009: Creativity from a Historiometric Perspective. – Handbook of Creativity (12th printing), ed. R. J. Sternberg, Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres, 116–133. Swiatek Lukasz 2014: Rewarding and Promoting Creativity: New Approaches, Old Realities. – Academic quarter 9, 73–86. Torrance Ellis Paul 1965: Scientific Views of Creativity and Factors Affecting Its Growth. – Daedalus 94(3), 663–681. Torrance Ellis Paul 1988: The nature of creativity as manifest in its testing. – Nature of creativity, ed. R. J. Sternberg, New York: Cambridge University Press, 43–75. Trilupaitytė Skaidra 2015: Kūrybiškumo galia? Neoliberalistinės kultūros politikos kritika, Vilnius: DEMOS kritinės minties institutas. 93Terminologija | 2022 | 29 CLASSIFICATION OF THE CONCEPTIONS OF CREATIVITY AND THE DEFINITION OF CREATIVITY Summary Scientific literature provides many different definitions of the concept of creativity. This raises theoretical problems and complicates empirical research. The only method to reduce the current misunderstanding related to the concept of creativity in psychology is the classification of the concepts of creativity and its scientific analysis. This would allow to determine the correct and usable concept of creativity. In this article, we consider such a definition (conception) to be correct that meets the following requirements: (1) the rules for its compilation apply to the definition; (2) the definition does not violate the fundamental principles of logic; (3) the term defining the conception is unambiguous; (4) the conception is scientific, i. e., suitable to describe theoretical models of creativity and empirical research. In this article, conceptions of creativity are grouped into types and subtypes. Five types of the conception of creativity are distinguished: creativity as an internal singularity of the creator, creativity as a creative process, creativity as a product, creativity as a formation of different components, and creativity as a driving factor of multi-sided progress. We identified that the type of the conception of creativity as internal singularity of the creator has the following subtypes: creativity as an ability, characteristic feature, power, quality, a complex of features, and predisposition. Creativity as a creative process has the following subtypes: creativity as creation, production, activity, behaviour, self-expression or self-actualisation, creative or divergent thinking, and a problem-solving (as a mental act) phenomenon. The type of creativity as a product has the following subtypes: creativity as a product or result of activity, an evaluation, a solution to a problem or an idea, and the result of the interaction of different factors. Conceptions perceiving creativity as a theoretical structure or a formation that consists of several components (parts) are based on Mel Rhodes (1961), Teresa Amabile (1983, 1996), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2009), and other componential models of creativity. The fifth type of the concept of creativity describes it as a factor that promotes economy, science, technology, culture, and other kinds of progress. After the analysis of the classification of the conceptions of creativity, we determined that the conception of creativity as the ability to create that belongs to conception of creator’s inner characteristic is correct and usable. Based on the analysis of the conceptions of creativity, we can define creativity as the creator’s ability to create qualitatively new imaginary or material objects, as well as the qualitative novelty of the process, the product or environment created. Retrieved 2022-08-10. Gediminas Beresnevičius Vilniaus universiteto Komunikacijos fakultetas Saulėtekio al. 9, I rūmai, LT-10222 Vilnius E-mail [email protected]