Psychology of creativity

Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or organize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. When I think about creativity, it naturally comes to my mind some unusual way of behaving, which no way could be considered as abnormal, on the contrary, it is always interesting, different, and unexpected way of thinking, solving problems, seeing world. More over, we say that person is creative when he or she has some unique talent, and is somehow special. Speaking about psychological view, creativity is very interesting and important phenomenon in our lives. So, what are the reasons for creativity’s need? Of course, geneticists would argue with me, but sometimes it looks that people have inherent need for novelties. That’s why man began to create in very old times. We need only to think how much civilization has developed, and it becomes obviously that man perhaps has unlimited resources of creativity. On the other hand, creativity sometimes is very simple expression of our daily life. Every day human being needs to solve problems.Like this, need for comfort, better conditions for living made us to create so many incredible technologies. Now it is normal for us to have perfect connection with people in other continent every second, fly or swim all over the world without any efforts or time waste, and I suppose there is no need to speak about amazing world wide internet, without which, it seems, human will not be able to function at all. That is a fact, creativity holds world and doesn’t let us to stop moving further. Let’s say, everything has started when ancient man struck the fire from stones, and now the ideas about robots, telepathic communication, incredible machines are not so strange. Still, this kind of creativity is, of course, very useful, but it is, collective one because it is up for everybody’s convenience. Now I would like to cite one author’s words about creativity:"Creative" refers to novel products of value, as in "The airplane was a creative invention.", "Creative" also refers to the person who produces the work, as in, „Picasso was creative.", "Creativity," then refers both to the capacity to produce works, and to the activity of generating products“. As a matter of fact, I understand creativity as the biggest gift for the person. For me very interesting view of creativity is developed by the one of the most famous psychologists Jung. He states that personality is developing through all over life. Till middle adulthood person is trying his potentials, collects knowledge as mach as it is possible, and is trying to find what he is and what he can do, or, let’s say, to create. Jung, in his theory of personality, argues that the main goal for complete personality is the process of individualization, which can be reached only in the second part of our lives. So, exactly at this time people are completely ready for creativity and genius, because they are not stopped by any inhibitions of imperfect personality. This view is close to E. Erickson’s stages’ of psychological development, where he talks about generativity-versus-stagnation stage at middle adulthood, when the person may become most productive. Here appears question of nature-nurture, because some individuals look as artists, talents from the childhood, some are without any imagination, and can not achieve success in any art area. It is one of issue psychology tries to solve- is creativity can be inherent, or we all have potential for it, just we need to develop it through lives. I would like to list the main features that are attributed to creative person:

1. Creative individuals have a great deal of energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest.
2. Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time.
3. Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
4. Creative individuals alternate between imagination and fantas, and rooted sense of reality.
5. Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies on the continuum between extroversion and introversion.
6. Creative individuals are also remarkable humble and proud at the same time.
7. Creative individuals to a certain extent escape rigid gender role stereotyping and have a tendency toward androgyny.
8. Generally, creative people are thought to be rebellious and independent.
9. Most creative persons are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.
10. The openness and sensitivity of creative individuals often exposes them to suffering pain yet also a great deal of enjoyment.

As we can see, creative people are really very exceptional ones. But those characteristics can be attributed to individuals whom we are usually calling artists, scientists, writers. There is opinion that some of them are a lit a bit mad. Such a personalities as Einstein, Salvador Dali, da Vinci are called either schizophrenics or creative geniuses. That's way, we can diagnose for the either, narcissism or perfectionism, depression or anxiety. But won't be able to overlook that creative persons are even too wise, brave, optimistic, and realistic. Still, creativity I understand not only like specific talent, or extraordinary inventions. Psychologists must be creative not lesser. Making interpretations about ones behavior or minds require a lot of creativity. And for conclusion, I would like to say, that maybe many of you won’t agree with me, but I think creativity (and doesn’t matter, is it ability to create some remarkable roles, paintings, inventions, theories, or ability to solve problems in novel way, and use imagination for interpreting every days events) is something like a gift. If we are able to use it, we won’t be afraid of disapproval or negative evaluations, we certainly will be able to improve our skills, talents- or creativity. That is the main point of being creative.

Listening podcast

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/fooc/fooc_20071013-1341.mp3

I have chosen podcast which was for native English speakers. Its length was about thirty minutes. The report was weekly news from BBC correspondents. The first news was about Russia’s president Vladimir Putin who has to be replaced. But, correspondent states that, despite his resignation next year, his influence will be around quite long. For the last two years the biggest question for Kremlin and duma was: who will replace president Putin. And as a matter of fact, his resignation is a must. There were reports that he will replace his old friend from KGB A. Medvedev. But these news changed dramatically. V. Putin openly suggested that perfect candidate to replace him would be the Prime Minister V. Zubkov. Besides, he, V. Putin, would be great Prime Minister after his retirement. So, BBC correspondent argues that for real, the man who will replace V. Putin will be exactly V. Putin and his reports about his heir were only misleading speeches. Correspondent sees evidences for this in V. Putin’s promotional tricks like photos during his holidays, where he can be seen as a strong and relaxed man. But according to some persons close to duma, V. Putin’s epoch is not ending but just beginning. The question is just how he will remain in government. By the way, correspondent sees another big danger- will Russia become authoritarian society again, while Russian people are relieved that country is again stable. Another report is about Chinese investment in Africa’s natural resources. Correspondent was doing her investigation in Angola. She thinks that it is Chinese government’s impact that fabrics in Chinese do not employ workers from Angola, country which is suffering from unemployment. More over Chinese workers are sent to work in Angola despite that hiring native people. The project that the most interested BBC correspondent is reconstruction of eight hundreds long railway that was the most important for transporting the minerals from Congo to Angola. Chinese are blaming Angola for money, involved in this project, disappearance. But Angola’s government is not likely to talk about important questions like: how many workers are involved in this project and its finishing day. It is difficult to understand cash flows and the relationships between Chinese and Angola. What is clear, that decisions about Angola’s politics are taken by a very small group of people who are close to president. In next report the BBC journalist investigates the icy Northwest Passage around Canada which can become the shipping route because of impact of changes in climate. This passage is invincible when the sea is frozen. By the way, correspondent mentions J. Franklin, the first man who begin trip through this road to find North passages, and get stuck into an ice for several months. But journalist presses the point that this summer has broken the records of melting in the Antarctic. The warming was so intense that melted some toughest ices in the North Pole and they are moving to the south. Journalist remembered that because of moving ices J. Franklin had spent two winters in the traps of an ice. And his expedition’s disappearance is still big mystery because there was no way for communication. After all, the first successful expedition which reached the North Pole had been lasting for four years. Next report is about problem of unsafe abortions that are done because of the banning them. Correspondent met some women in Nicaragua who has faced this problem. There is huge number of pregnant teenage girls. But in this catholic country abortions are banned. Unfortunately, in this country women are often sexually abused by men without any respect. Still, there is a little chance that law will be changed because government is not interested that women are still going to do abortions. The last report is about flights. And not the simply one’s but those who are really comfortable. Speaker was impressed by the flight. Advantages during flight with Zeppelin were these: speaking without efforts, dining and sleeping rooms, wonderful sight cause height was not like flying with planes but much nearer the earth. Besides, after the flight you can get off refreshed and relaxed. Summarizing everything up, speakers speeches were understandable. But I have found difficulties in understanding specific terms. That's way, I have put across only main idea of the last report, cause there were too many terms of planes and navigation. Of course, the same problem appeared in previous reports as well. As far as my opinion is concerned, it is problem not with my listening skills, but with dictionary. So, listening to podcast as useful, because now I know what part of my English I should improve.

Psychological abuse

Psychological abuse is very wide area that compose various emotional violence. It could be alloted into female, child abuse, verbal, alcohol, drug abuse and so on. Speaking more generally, it can be defined as an emotional or psychological abuse that involves any behavior, verbal or non-verbal, that negatively impacts another person's emotional or psychological well-being. If someone thinks that it is uncommon phenomenon, it would be totally incorrect, because it occurs everyday in a various relationships such as between spouses, intimate partners, parents and children, peers, siblings, and toward the elderly or, in general, where a power differences exist. I would like to mention some main causes of psychological abuse. I suppose, that the biggest cause is seeking for superiority. People who want to take the control under others always find someone who is weaker. And there will always be a lot of persons who sees it difficult to fight, say no or maybe just to try finding helping from others. Let's think deeper about this issue. It goes without saying, that people's social state is not the same. Really, we can see a huge differences even among different countries. Unfortunately, there is rooted opinion, especially in Western culture, that economical, material well-being is the most important thing. More over, it is the indicator for appreciating others. Though, not forgetting psychological point, the most famous psychoanalytic Z. Freud says that chasing prestige and money means persons fixation of the second, anal stage, of development. Besides, a lot of psychologists, like A. Adler, C. Horney and many others, state that wanting to be better, taking control under others, showing strength by using psychological abuse means nothing else but inferiority complex. So, people want compensation for their selves weakness, problems, fears through abusing others. Also, I would like to press the point, that C. Horney was the firs psychologist who begin speaking about women psychology.She argued that male, who used to were completely dependent on their mothers envy women's virtues that are impossible for men ( like breastfeeding, pregnancy). If we believe in C. Horney, men in all over the world abuse their colleagues women, wives or just unknown women because of envy and inferiority. But it's a pity, all these findings do not change situation because to overcome psychological abuse ( not only female, but all kind of abuse ) we need changes in all civilization's point of view, more serious consideration about it in governments that can help creating help-centers and spreading information about it.

Psychology of handwriting

I would like to begin with saying, that psychology is trying to deepen knowledge about person not only through verbal communication but also through body language, the style of how we behave. That's why it should not be strange that even psychology of handwriting exist. So, what can handwriting show? As psychologists interested in nonverbal behavior suggest, it can say a lot about personality's traits, interpersonal communication, characters and so on. This idea can be explained by structure of personality which is composed not only of traits, minds but also different style of behavior. By the way, one of the pioneers of psychology Binet thought that one of the ways to determine characters is to analyze writing. After a lot of experiments he found correlations between handwriting and gender. Binet stated that male writing is always more original than female. Graphologists suggest that it is possible to interpret characters from such a graphic signs: 1) ascending handwriting which is associated with self-love and pride; 2) handwriting composed of a thin lines, saying that it is very shy person; 3) personality's strength is associated with a thick letter "t"; 4) long "t's" stem means toughness 5) writing letters "a" and "o" roundly shows reserve, reticence. But on the contrary to these findings I would like to mention research done by psychologists Mongomery and Hull to support or deny this idea. Firstly, they grouped sample of seventeen students, for example, by pride. After that, they were asked to write some paragraph. Than all students exchanged their sheets and had to group colleague's by the level of pride, which should be seen through ascending lines. Unfortunately, there wasn't any correlations between handwriting and real traits of students characters'. Still, it goes without saying, that we all behave,and also write, differently. Calm person writes without hurry, legibly, in the contrary, A behavior type people write illegible, fast, impatiently. So, after all, it would be too brave stating that handwriting is not important field of psychology. Besides, a lot of psychologists, like A. Adler, C. Horney and many others, state that wanting to be better, taking control under others, showing strength by using psychological abuse means nothing else but inferiority complex. So, people want compensation for their selves weakness, problems, fears through abusing others. Also, I would like to press the point, that C. Horney was the firs psychologist who begin speaking about women psychology.She argued that male, who used to were completely dependent on their mothers envy their virtues that are impossible for men ( like breastfeeding, pregnancy. If we believe in C. Horney, men in all over the world abuse their colleagues women, wives or just unknown women because of envy and inferiority. But it's a pity, all these findings do not change situation because to overcome psychological abuse ( not only female, but all kind of abuse ) we need changes in all civilization's point of view, more serious consideration about it in governments that can help creating help-centers and spreading information about it.

Psychology of laughter

Laughter is a common action in our daily lives. But to say the truth, we should not consider it as a simple, primitive response to something. According to one of the most famous philosophers Aristotle, laughter belongs to primary features’ of human being as language or thinking.Although, he claimed that it is used to humiliate somebody. But the fact that only man has such a unique gift says about its importance and extraordinary functioning. Let me emphasize that some psychologists, as M. Klein or D.W.Winnicott, say that the first infantile smile is more than impulse. Human’s child is the most helpless creature. It goes without saying, for the infant mother, or any other caring person, is as necessary as weather. Of course, child can not express his affection, thankfulness somehow differently as with smile. Child's smile, laughter shows that he can trust in his environment. It is important because it can bring him, as a separate person, confidence. According to E. Erickson, such a confidence will help to overcome crisis period and get hope for the future life. Speaking more about reasons of laughter, there are opinions that it is not inherent. Supporters of this idea claim that there is a social nature of laughter. For example, J. B. Watson emphasized that even one of the main emotions as fear can be conditioned. What is more, behaviorism points out that an important factor of learning is observation. That is why, laughter is considered as reaction to social behavior. There is no doubt that sometimes we get laughter from others. Besides, it can be as a hidden language that says more than words and shows our real emotions. Still, people are used to wear masks, that is to say, change their personas. So, laughter sometimes can be acted or express cynicism. Moreover, as I have already mentioned phenomenon of laughter is related to emotions. The question psychologists argue about what elements more influence emotions- cognitive or physiological. For example, Z. Freud would suggest that waywardness in our automatic behavior or speech appear without perception why we do so. He would disagree it could be cognitive elements that influence us before sudden laughter or smile, explaining it as an efforts of repressed unconscious impulses to arise. But opinion that physical bodily changes make us react emotionally is a bit primitive if we want to explain laughter. It is either reaction to our thoughts or environment and it can change individual’s mood, attitude. By the way, is the best remedy not only from depression but also serious physical illness. In other words, the best advice for all of us should be cognitive psychology approach: to think positively about world, consider laughter as an instrument for better health, social being and therefore to laugh all the time. In conclusion, psychology of laughter wonders not only about reasons of laughter, its nature and functions in our lives. Also, laughter is thought to be as one of the most amazing why of worldly communication, besides, it is feature that makes human beings exclusive. Hopefully, psychology would widen possibilities of applying laughter therapies.

Psychology of conflicts

At the beginning, I would like to mention that speaking about conflicts it is not enough to give a simple definition for understanding it. Concept conflict includes wide area and various situations. We can characterize it as a real war between countries or nations, also, as a daily arguments which lead us when we communicate with family or in job. What is more, I suppose, non of us has been lucky to avoid conflicts with our Selves. There is no doubt that from childhood people try to form their persona. It is what psychologist C.G.Jung defined as the appearance we present to the world. So, we represent ourselves as it is appropriate to our consciousness. An important point, is that it becomes very hard to admit features we don't accept as real ones. What is more, all these discrepancies are repressed into unconscious. But to say the truth, all instinctive impulses always try to be put up into our rational mental set. That is way people are made to confront their negative, unacceptable side. And then conflicts are unavoidable. Furthermore, persona, which has been called "conformity archetype" by C.G.Jung, can explain our abilities to adopt social roles. When people argue they often emphasize that they are what they are and can not, or don't want, to exchange never. Unfortunately, not always we can appreciate it as strength of personality. We live in the world which is stable only because of compromise we achieve in any ambiguous situation. The way we are able to apply our persona, to change its "masks" is the way we can use social skills, debate and find compromises. It is the most important thing trying to avoid conflicts. And it has to be learned. Besides, for some of us conflicts are like competition, pleasing activity. Still, it depends only on capacities to master our behavior when we are in public life. Many psychologists claim that people are aggressive by nature. For example, A.Adler thinks it is a reaction to realized worthlessness which raises an ambitions compensate helplessness by blindly reaching the power, recognition or triumph. I suppose, it is quite obvious that a lot of conflicts come only because of desire to show one's strength. It is a pity, that examples of this idea we can see in policy, social life. International conflicts in many cases are made to satisfy somebody's aggressive features of temper. In conclusion, it is a fact that the truth arrives from arguments and debates. But people should respect each others. Only then rational disputes will not grow to conflicts.

Psychology of laziness

To begin with, I would like to say that laziness, concerned with loss of desire to work generally, nowadays can not be called phenomenon. It is commonplace to hear that one is saying he is lazy. In addition, there are six reasons or faults of being lazy posted at a sing near a Burmese Buddhist temple, that sounds like that: it is too cold, too hot, too late, too early, I am to hungry, too full. So, what psychological reasons can be found for such a motiveless explanation? Of course, we should take into account, probability of pathology. Laziness can appear as indifference of emotional, social and physical life in apathy. This disorder sometimes is a reaction to stress when it manifests as learned helplessness. That means, people believe they still can not do anything, and so, they don't. It is high time, to mention that laziness can be not only physical. I am not going to talk about natural tiredness. For example, Intellectual laziness is absolutely psychological problem. It is also concerned with learned helplessness and thinking that something negative will prevent us to act. More over, for this kind of laziness it is typical feature to follow the crowd. By the way, cultural and social influence here plays a vitally important role. Obviously, in countries, where socialism, totalitarianism instead of liberal government dominate, people's psyche is affected forget any activity, expression. Furthermore, even phenomenon in psychology, when neither witness takes an initiative in an accident, contrarily, if person is alone, is caused because of universally common motivation that another person can do better, so I won't do anything at all. Secondly, let's discuss another aspects of laziness that are defined as emotional. They comes as a feeling that life is meaningless, our initiative is wrong, or as cynicism, therefore, one acts as unemotional. I suppose, it covers psychological problems of motivation. One of the highest need for the human being, according to psychologist Maslow, is self-realization. Unfortunately, for lazy people it is enough to satisfy their physiological needs. Maybe, explanation for it could be features of character as inadequacy, being superficial, what can be caused by many outer factors. For summarizing everything up, laziness as symptom, not mental factor, is people's problem of being unambitious, irresolute. After all, in big part it is influence of culture which treats person as a slight element in mass. But for all of as goal of life should be becoming personality, what is incompatible with neither type of laziness.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence includes skills of getting along well with others and ourselves. Speaking about emotional expression, term emotional literacy is used. It is defined as ability to express feelings with specific feeling words, in 3 word sentences. For example, I feel unappreciated. We need this ability to clarify and identify feelings. More over, emotional literacy we use to determine our emotional needs. Let me emphasize, that it is very important to develop these needs in order to find what is important for us and how can we achieve best results especially in learning, career, or some activity. Of course, as many people as many different basic needs. One wishes only to satisfy physiological needs as feed, sleep. While others may need independence, challenges, knowledge, or maybe to be understood, loved. There is no doubt, that in collective work somebody's needs wouldn't be pleased. This tendency, unfortunately, appears also in schools among children, universities, jobs. Still, we can find another problem associated with emotional needs and literacy. It is always hard to speak about that. Firstly, directly to express how one feels is unacceptable. Secondly, emotions and needs are personal, that's why it is difficult to think about them by ourselves, more over, say to another's. To say the true, all of us should more often use the basic feelings words. For example, comfortable, loved, happy, relaxed, worthy and so on. Of course, each feeling, and my mentioned positive ones, has its it negative equivalent: uncomfortable, hated, angry, frustrated, unworthy, etc. At last, I would like to speak about Emotional tests. They measures not only our emotionality but also can say a lot about characters. When I have done one of these test I have found that I am quite emotional person. But for real, it was the test about emotions people represent in working. So, it was kind of hard to decide what answers would be the most right. Some of them said that I could be more tolerant with people I have business, and others suggested I could be great manager. To conclude, I suppose it is obviously that emotional intelligence is not less important as general one. People should also learn to demonstrate what they feel, express those feelings politely and be empathic.