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Your Creativity is Under Attack.
It’s been under attack since you were a kid.
This isn’t hype.
Take a few minutes and wrap your mind around this study by Goerge Land.
Land followed a group of 1,600 kids over 15 years.
During this time, the kids were given a NASA Creativity Test three times. The test was given to the group when the kids were 5, 10, and 15 years old.
The results of the test were provided as the percentage of the group who scored in the “highly creative range” of the test.
Over the course of 15 years, there was an 86% drop in the number of kids sourcing in the “highly creative range” of the NASA Creativity Test.
I don’t know about you, but I was shocked when I first learned about this study and reviewed the results.
But there’s more.
The same test was given one time to a group of 1 million adults averaging 31 years of age.
We have a big problem resulting from this ongoing depression of people’s creativity.
This problem is causing a widespread occurrences of Psychosclerosis.
What’s Psychosclerosis?
"Psychosclerosis is the hardening of the attitude, which causes a person to cease dreaming, seeing, thinking, and leading. It is the hardening of the mind so that we become unteachable: we stop learning and we stop growing. It is the hardening of the heart, which takes away our ability to feel, love and believe. While this disease does not physically take lives, it robs millions of people of the quality of life and success they deserve. To combat this disease, successful people stay humble, are constantly learning and growing, and reaching for fresh goals. The purpose of this life is growth, becoming the person you are capable of becoming. Don't let psychosclerosis ruin your life."
Being Creative is based on openness, curiosity, and imagination which require a growth-oriented mindset vs. the fixed mindset of those with depressed Creativity and hardened attitudes.
By deconstructing, demystifying, and reframing your Creativity you can begin to recalibrate your restrictive thinking habits and beliefs which can depress your creativity.
The Creative Life Project has developed the Hack Your Creativity process to help you overcome Psychosclerosis and revitalize your Creativity in three steps.
Express your Creative Self by practicing the life skills of being creative to transform your creative thoughts into things.
Deconstructing and demystifying your Creativity, opens you to reframing your understanding of it, and willingness to adopt a new Creative Life Mindset based on creative intent, childlike curiosity, lifelong learning, and whole body health.
Hacking Your Creativity helps you reconnect with your Creative Self and teaches you to use your Creativity as a tool to live our best life.
A Creative Life Mindset is the foundation for living your best life by expressing your Creativity in personally meaningful ways.
Most of the internet content for improving Creativity is presented as a list of commonly referenced tactics, which have value but lack strategy and context.
During the Hack Your Creativity process, you learn about creativity within a new context called the Creative Expression Framework. Integrated within the Creative Expression Framework is the supporting strategies and the tactics for adopting a Creative Life Mindset.
Over time, you will come to understand the value of Creativity for yourself, and for those, you influence like your friends, family, students, or those you manage.
By sharing the importance of Creativity, we can influence the building of creative cultures which support creative expression and help make the world a better place for everyone.
I recommend you check the video of George Land giving a presentation including a review of his study. The presentation also provides a nice summary of the value of Creativity to culture. It’s a real benefit to watch creators presenting their own data.
2 Responses
Have you studied the work of E. PAUL TORRANCE and what he labeled THE 4TH GRADE SLUMP?
Alan,
Thanks for your question.
I was not familiar with the 4th Grade Slump until you posed your question.
I am, however, familiar with the work of E. PAUL TORRANCE.
I did some reading and from what I understand; the slump refers to a temporary decline in certain creative thinking skills by a segment of 4th grade students taking part in multiple longitudinal studies.
This post focuses on the indicators provided by the Land Study showing a decline from 98% testing high on creativity to 12% testing high on the same instrument over ten years. Given your expertise, I’m sure you are familiar with the Land Study.
Since the 4th Grade Slump would occur within the timeframe of this study, it seems to parallel the results, although there may be a difference in the cause of this phenomenon.
It seems, despite any differences in the causes of the slump, the overall depression of creative thinking, as measured by the NASA Creativity Test, shows a noticeable decline, and highlights the importance of hacking current attitudes and belief about creativity and building a new Creative Life Mindset™ more suited for the problems, challenges and opportunities of today’s world.