Creative processes in young children

Abstract

Enthusiasm for developing creativity in the individual has been remarkably widespread - at least in America - over the past twenty-five years or so. The armed services, the arts and sciences, educational institutions, businesses and industries are recognising to a greater and greater extent, the urgent necessity of developing this relatively neglected aspect of people is personalities. Their reasons differ, of course, and usually the welfare of the individual himself is not the main concern. This is perhaps fortunate, as advances made on philanthropic grounds alone have never progressed very rapidly. In business and industry, new ideas are urgently needed for survival - this was especially evident after World War II which was, in the end, really a battle of ideas. The importance of this implication has not decreased with distance in time from that conflagration, indeed, individuals in the armed services are probably the people most deeply involved in and the most concerned with the problem of developing creative thought. "We are in a mortal struggle for the survival of our way of life", writes Guilford. "The need (for developing creativity) is a national crisis" says Anderson*. Intro., p. 1.