Creativity is often associated with the arts, but it can present in many other areas of life as well. From scientific breakthroughs to business innovations, creativity can be found in all aspects of our lives.
Understanding the different types of creativity can help us tap into our own creative potential and apply it in new and exciting ways.
From crafts to painting, writing stories, making music, designing a a big project (we once made a wheel chair to play doctor that became a week-long engineering extravaganza) or anything that you are creating, creativity allows you to communicate yourself and your ideas to the world.
Maybe you don't draw like your Artist Friend. That doesn't mean you're not creative!
How are you creative?
Neuropsychologist Arne Dietrich is well-known for defining types of creativity. He defined four types of creativity:
Deliberate and cognitive
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is home to this type of creativity. It allows you to make connections and focus. It's what you do when you are experimenting, engineering, or creating in an organized way. For these types of creative thinkers, it's essential to have lots of opportunities for research and learning.
Deliberate and emotional
This type of creativity comes from the cingulate cortex–an area of the brain that connects our emotions to the Pre Frontal Cortex. Creativity comes from sitting quietly and reflecting on your situation. These types of creatives likely have "a-ha" moments where you seem to pull a solution out of thin air. But, most don't see that the idea isn't actually out of nowhere, but from time spent pondering and asking questions, as opposed to research and time spent studying.
Spontaneous and cognitive
The Basal Ganglia is a part of the brain where dopamine is stored, and it operates outside conscious awareness. It's also a part of the brain that processes movement-related information. Someone who falls into this category is said to require time to do something else, allowing their subconscious to keep working on the problem. You need to walk around or run or move to create.
Spontaneous and emotional
The amygdala is your emotion headquarters. If your creativity comes from here, you express your emotions through art like music or visual arts or theater or dance, and you are very good at it. You have epiphanies, or sudden inspiration that feels urgent. It's more challenging to design these moments into our regular lives because epiphanies can't be forced or manufactured. They simply require patience.