CREATIVITY RESULTING FROM CONFLICT

The first question is If “creativity requires conflict,” under what conditions of conflict is creativity likely to emerge?

One of the creative functions of conflict resides in its ability to arouse moti­vation to solve a problem that might otherwise go unattended.

Thus, although acute dissatisfaction with things as they are and motivation to recognize and work at problems are necessary for creative solutions, these things are not sufficient. The circumstances conducive to creatively breaking through impasses are varied, but they have in common that “they provide the individual with an environment in which he does not feel threatened and in which he does not feel under pressure. He is relaxed but alert” (Stein, 1968). Threat induces defensiveness and reduces both tolerance of ambiguity and openness to the new and unfamiliar; excessive tension leads to primitization and stereotyping of thought processes. As Rokeach (1960) has pointed out, threat and excessive tension lead to the closed rather than open mind. To enter­tain novel ideas that may at first seem wild and implausible, to question initial assumptions of the framework within which the problem or conflict occurs, the individual needs the freedom or courage to express herself without fear of cen­sure. Much research (see, for example, Carnevale and Probst, 1998, and Chap­ter Three of this volume) has demonstrated that a competitive, as opposed to cooperative, approach to conflict leads to restricted judgment, reduced com­plexity, inability to consider alternative perspectives, and less creative problem solving.