Idea evaluation, divergent thinking, and creativity

Abstract

Discusses ideation and its relation with various kinds of evaluation. The premises of this relationship are outlined and the use of ideational assessments is defended. A series of empirical studies of ideational evaluation are discussed, which have covered parent and teacher evaluations of children's ideas, children's evaluations of their own ideas, evaluations of ideas given to realistic (in contrast to standard) problems, comparisons of inter- and intrapersonal evaluations, and evaluations by managers. In every case, the evaluations focus on originality, with other criteria including creativity and popularity. The studies reported are relevant to a wide rate of topics, including divergent thinking, creativity enhancement and facilitation, education, and parenting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved) (from the chapter)