The Nature of Creativity: Cognitive and Confluence Perspectives

In the present psychology-informed literature review we address some aspects of the nature of creativity from cognitive and confluence perspectives. The authors begin by discussing models of creativity offered by cognitive and confluence approaches, focusing on the transition from univariate to multivariate models. The article explores what these literatures suggest about factors that can influence creativity, including cognitive conative and environmental ones. The article goes on to present the overlaps and distinctiveness between creativity and innovation and the vexed question of the evaluation of creativity exploring two contrasting stances of psychometric and componential approaches. The review concludes by acknowledging the complexity of the phenomenon of creativity explored here mainly through cognitive and confluence lenses touching on psychometric and social-personality approaches, and recognizes the potential of other lenses in psychology such as psychodynamic, humanistic and evolutionary, for understanding creativity. (Contains 2 footnotes.)