Note: This activity has multiple parts. Make sure you submit each part for credit. You can answer all the prompts in the same file.

 

Part 1: Definitions 

 

Sometimes it can be difficult to keep the various theories of creativity straight.  For this assignment, create a collage, concept map, or other type of graphic organizer to help you remember the theories and see the connections/overlaps among them.  You might make one for each set of theories or try to incorporate all of them into one complex graphic.  Instead of listing the theorists into categories, use images or phrases to help you remember them.  (Source:  Starko, Creativty in the Classroom, p. 67).    

 

Please submit the following:

 

• A picture of your graphic organizer. Or, if you did the organizer electronically to begin with, submit the file with the organizer. 
• A description of your thought process leading to how you grouped the theories together and/or chose specific images for particular theories.  

 

Part 2:  Self-Actualization 

 

Take the self-actualization test on p. 17 of your book and score it.  What do you make of the results of your self-actualization test?   What are your strengths?   How might you improve on some of Maslow’s traits listed on page three? 

 

Note:  You do not need to turn in the answers to your Self-actualization test–just your answers to the reflection questions.

 

Part 3: Flow

 

Csikszentmihalyi (for those who are interested, this is actually pronounced Chick-sent-me-high) defines the concept of flow as involving oneself so intently in an activity that one notices nothing else–not time, hunger, fatigue, anxiety–but the activity itself.  Have you ever had that experience where you are so engrossed in an activity that when you finally look up at the clock you notice that hours have gone by, it’s way past your bedtime, and you have forgotten to eat dinner?  This may sound nerdy to some of you, but for me, logic puzzles do it.  I could sit and do these puzzles for hours without any conscious awareness of my surrounding environment or physical needs such as eating or sleeping.   Davis likens the flow experience to self-actualization and creativity because it is in these peak experiences everything comes together:  pure enjoyment, dedication, motivation, and heightened use of abilities.  

 

For your reflection, please answer the following: If this is as good as it gets, why don’t we engage in these peak experiences more often? What do you think prevents some of us from experiencing flow regularly?