Janis Joplin, singer/musician - 1965 Porsche - aol.com

Do you have "right brain smarts," another term for "creative thinking"?

"Creating" can be synonymous with "inventing."  According to BNET Business Dictionary, "Creativity involves new and unique ideas, not in practice earlier.  Creative thinking is thinking out of the box."   

We usually think of creative people as being  musicians, artists, dancers, stylists, designers, athletes, inventors, and actors. 

A simple "Creativity Test" which measures "right" or "left" brain dominance can be found at
http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_results.pl, The Art Institute of Vancouver.  The test measures problem-solving techniques and thinking activity between creative and methodical problem solvers and explains the resulting left/right brain percentages.

The "Creative Test" describes "right-brained" as meaning, "The right side of your brain
controls the left side of your body.  In addition to being known as right-brained, you are also known as a creative thinker who uses feeling and intuition to gather information.  You retain this information through the use of images and patterns.  You are able to visualize the "whole" picture first, and  then work backwards to put the pieces together to create the "whole" picture.  Your thought process can appear quite illogical and meandering.  The problem-solving techniques that you use involve free association, which is often very innovative and creative."

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If you are "right-brained" rather than "left-brained," from where did your creative ability originate?  Is creativity innate or learned?

In the past, researchers have considered various origins of creativity, such as a difficult or chaotic childhood.  Reasons for a lack of creativity have, at times, been attributed to inhibitions or suppressions, possibly caused by parents, family and society.

Psychology expert, Douglas Eby, discusses the origin of creativity in his article, Developing creativity - using our bad thoughts and dark side.  Eby refers to author and workshop leader Jill Badonsky's article, The Shadow Muse - Gifts of your dark side, which states in reference to creativity, "To find our true potential, we need to know ourselves in depth, including our 'bad thoughts.'  One of the problems is trying to repress sides of ourselves that we think are unacceptable."

Today many organizational leaders and businesses conduct workshops to teach creativity to employees.   Can the skill actually be taught to all people?

Darren Rowse, web developer and speaker, has written articles about creativity and lists nine attitudes of highly creative people.  He suggests that creativity can be taught or enhanced.

However, recent research points to physical differences regarding brain activity in creative vs. noncreative people.  This theory infers an innate origin for creative thinking.

An article in Science Daily, Brain Activity Differs For Creative And Noncreative Thinkers, describes a study by John Kounios, professor of Psychology at Drexel University and Mark Jung-Beeman of Northwestern University.  Kounios believes that a pre-existing brain-state biases a person to use a creative or methodical strategy for problem solving.

Kounios' study compared the brain activity of creative and noncreative problem solvers. The study revealed a distinct pattern of brain activity, even at rest, in people who tend to solve problems with a sudden creative insight -- an “Aha! Moment” – compared to people who tend to solve problems more methodically.

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Could it simply be that creative people were born with a special talent - - just like certain left-brained people were born with a special talent for advanced calculus?

Could most people learn to compose music?

Some right-brained people may have the ability to take a white piece of paper or a white canvas and transform it into a realistic or live-looking person.

Imagine trying to teach that!