19. CRITERIA OF CREATIVITY

Are there new factors that determine creativity at these subsequent stages of activity? It seems to us that the main criteria for distinguishing between creative and non-creative do not fundamentally change and their set is not substantially replenished, although each acquires a relatively greater certainty throughout the course of further activities as a process of directly solving a problem, direct determination.
First, these are criteria related to the very nature of the goal set by the subject and the task set by him, and ultimately to the objective nature of the problem. The presence and level of the creative in the task are determined by the degree of completeness or incompleteness of its conditions (the novelty of the task and the “mysteriousness” of the problem); the possibility or impossibility of its solution using already known methods of activity; the degree and quality of determination of the solution of the problem directly to the “data” in its conditions, as they are “revealed” to the subject; the number of equally probable ways and methods of solution and the minimally necessary stages of it; the possibility or impossibility and the level of applicability of the activity algorithms known to the subject and generally approved in this field of activity.
In general, the task contains the more opportunities for creativity, the greater the incompleteness of its “cash” conditions, the more complex its structure (the more steps it takes to solve), the more probabilistic the task is and, accordingly, the less strictly desired result and the decision process is determined by the initial conditions and the greater the number of “apparent possibilities” seems productive based on these conditions. Creativity in the process of solving even creative in its formulation and objective essence of the problem (in terms of problematics, in its subject matter, even - in this case we admit - in its objective significance) is possible only there and where and since the search level of the new algorithm reaches (in in any case, for the subject) with its qualitative definiteness of exactly how to search for the new, of what is not achieved by the trivial procedures of the logical inference from the directly given conditions of the problem.
In turn, the creative nature of solving a creative task also depends on conscious attitudes, on the positioning of the subject in relation to the task. The degree of productivity, prospects for further action is determined by the goal-oriented installation of the subject of activity “on creativity”: on treating the conditions of the task as an “intrigue”, on detecting the insufficiency of the existing data, on a consciously critical attitude to all “obvious” methods and solutions, on readiness captious testing of the “obvious” - both experimental and theoretical, for a conscious search for a non-algorithmic solution. As part of positioning the subject in relation to the task, the creative (productive) and non-creative (reproductive) nature of the future activity is highlighted, but even choosing the first one does not necessarily mean that the desired result will be achieved and will become the result of “creative”.
Secondly, it is possible to isolate some general criteria of a creative and non-creative approach no longer to the task itself, but to the process of its solution: the functional activity in the process of directly solving the problem. They are essentially related to the “immanent” nature of this specific process: the functional phase or stages of activity. Not only creativity, but any activity on the direct realization of a goal is the process of implementing the “plan” of the subject, his hypothetical “ideal” model of the desired result in a specific “material” - in the subject of activity as a certain object of reality, material or ideal. Because of this, the process of “goal-creating” activity (the direct solution of a problem) is always a process of actually practical (including spiritually practical) interaction of the subject with the subject of activity. Therefore, it is this stage (stages) of any activity that is objectively fraught with surprises of such an order that it does not happen at all previous stages of activity.
This process itself - especially the solution of non-trivial tasks - can proceed successfully only due to the potential “generic” ability of a person to go beyond the limits of his own established or conditioned and secured and even “sanctified” by all previous sociocultural experience of humanity. The actualization of this ability is the creative process itself. Far from all of this process, going beyond the limits of the known, comprehended, everyday, trivial, even - it is enough that one-time overcoming of the limitations, one-time “detection of the unexpected” happens. But with a non-creative attitude towards solving a problem, the subject either does not notice the surprises that arise, or tries to get out of the situation with the old methods and techniques, trying as much as possible not to change the strategy and tactics once chosen, to preserve the original goal and formulation of the problem (the preliminary hypothesis of result). The creative process of direct “practical” activity (direct solution of the problem) is only if and only if and since the subject really understands the impossibility of productive further action within the framework of a predetermined program and in the process of activity consciously and purposefully changes the scale of the activity itself. The propensity for this kind of active behavior and measure the tests of creativity, and the activity of the manifestation of this propensity characterizes the quantity and quality of the creative abilities of the individual. Abilities of a person play a huge role in the process of solving non-trivial tasks, and the larger, the more nontrivial the task, However, in any case, the peculiarities of the individual psyche and the psychological sphere in general determine creativity only as relevant, and outside the creative act the sphere of mental “in itself” is fundamental opportunity, mechanism and space for the potential implementation of creativity. Even at the highest level of non-triviality of the task, the possibility of its solution depends primarily and most of all on the conscious purposeful installation of the subject on the decision process (on his tasks in this process) as a process that naturally and inevitably generates new and always qualitatively different surprises; as a process that requires constant readiness to review strategies and tactics of the solution and to find fundamentally new strategies and tactics, to constant vigilance in relation to the “changing situation” of activity, so as not to miss that moment in the process when the old methods and techniques begin already “ slip "and potentially can even lead on the wrong path; as a process that invariably and “obligatory” implies the inevitability and necessity of “reformulating” the task (preliminary hypothesis) up to changing the goal itself, timely innovative setting of intermediate - functional - subtasks and sub-goals. Only such an approach to the process of practical activity (the process of directly solving a problem, which is usually called the creative activity itself) can be considered creative, and only such activities are creative in the solution process itself, and the rest of the “successful” activities can be useful, necessary, often creative and by results productive, but reproductive in content, without fail accompanying creativity, but not actually creative.
At the last stage of activity (the stage of evaluation by the subject-palace of the conformity of the results obtained to the goal, and the final “product” - the initial hypothesis) the criterion of creative or uncreative can be in relation to its subject and to the activity “by itself” only one and only : a criterion that we call the criterion of creative potentiality. The principal novelty of the result obtained for the subject himself is at the “finished product” stage only a statement of the creative “nature” of this result. If everything is limited by this, if in the process of evaluation and clarification for himself of the value of the thing done, the subject himself does not “see” in his creation, in his discovery any problems “generated” by the last, any “qualitative” tasks, but only the possibility and necessity of “quantitative »Refinement, improvement, systematization, etc., then at this stage no creativity can arise. Only if the subject simultaneously “sees” both the real significance of the result, and its “mismatch” with the goal and the initial hypothesis, if he interprets this fact as fruitful, as the reality of the new problem, as an impetus to the formulation of tasks - only then at this stage creation. Creative attitude to the result is related to it not so much as to the end of the activity, as much as to the beginning (possibility and necessity) of the new activity, not so much as to the solved task, but to the “conditions” of the task ahead: this attitude is creative then, when and since it is based on the establishment of the permanence of creativity, the attitude to the world and to the results of one’s own activities as a potential source of new problems. From a psychological point of view, in the creative attitude to the result, there is a divergence of thinking, its “multidirectionality”, the ability of the thinking individual to see unexpected aspects of the application, interpretation, development of the “product” created by him, and sometimes this ability extends to readiness to give up the creative result, revision his values, etc. However, the presence of a psychological mechanism in itself does not mean either the indispensable “inclusion”, the actualization of this mechanism, or the qualitative certainty of the result of activity achieved with the help of this mechanism. Divergence, notes D. Bogoyavlenskaya, may simply mean mental inadequacy [2000, p. 190]. This is another argument in favor of the fact that the sphere of the psyche, providing creativity "materially", accommodates the phenomenon of creativity "not quite."
TEST 19
1. What is a criterion?
? quality mark
? distinctive feature
? sample criticism
? presumptuous critic
2. What is divergence?
? this is Darwin's teaching about the convergence of all kinds
? this is a discrepancy
? this is a mismatch
? it is a panic about anxiety
3. What is “reproductive”?
? playback related
? associated with destruction
? re-birth related
? associated with artificial insemination
4. How can the word “non-trivial” be interpreted?
? ugly
? usual
? fresh
? unique
5. What is positioning?
? stubbornness
? participation in the modeling business
? positioning
? criticism of creativity