Customer Reviews

Handbook of Creativity

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Sternberg's Handbook has an almost mythical reputation amongst the Creative Studies Students at Buffalo State College. While there are shortcomings to the Handbook, areas where key authors or subjects are missing (it is written from the behavioral scientist point of view, and there are other, equally valid viewpoints in creative studies), each chapter will have plenty of food for thought.

And, guaranteed, you will have the time to digest this food for thought, as each and every chapter requires slow and careful reading. If the writing were to be any denser, it would tear free from the pages and sink to the very center of the Earth! Yet, there is so much information that, in the end, the knowledge derived is more than worth the work needed to get at it.

One last note: This is a handbook for those interested in the deep research on creativity. It is NOT suitable a "first book" for anyone starting out to learn about creativity!

Just reading the table of contents of this book will expand the ways you thought creativity could be studied. This is a cery broad book that gives representation to most of the approaches to studying creativity that have proven fruitful at all to date. Includes chapters on case study, historio-metrical, psychometrical, experimental, and many more research paradigms in creativity. Because the book is so wide ranging I'd say it's best as an intriduction for a college or graduate student interested in either perhaps entering this field of research, or one who is simply interested in a highly comprehensive and somewhat technical overview of inquiry into human creativity. Since it includes two chapters on the history of thought on creativity, it is even more comprehensive than one may expect!

Dr.Sternberg's book on the evolution process of creativity research is a splendit source for anybody who deals with social sciences, a must for organizational behaviorists and a very satisfactory piece of reading for general reader.

The book does not give mere descriptions on the scope of creativity but it provides great amount of knowledge on the evolutionary process of creativity research from ancient times up to today! Furthermore, the subject of creativity has been examined both from theoretical and methodological perspective in such a creative manner which gives a very good knowledge about the major approaches, the outcomes of the previous researchs, main obstacles in the course of investigation, and finally the probable studies for further research on the creativity.

Consequently, the reader finds a good chance not only to have a detailed theoretical and practical information on the subject but also to learn the main approaches of outstanding social scientists towards the subject and not mentioning about the meticoulisly prepared bibliography.

I am amazed with the intensity of Dr.Sternberg's study the language of which is clear enough those of us whose Mother tongue is not English (like me!).

I was looking for a comprehensive introduction to creativity research for students that combined a mapping function--showing what is out there by whom trending where--and a grounding interest function--showing how the research really does elucidate and give insight on insights, creation, etc.. Well..... The table of contents was perfect--absolutely perfect. But half of the articles served purely as mappings, with little or no insight provided. One does not know immediately whether to ascribe this to a fault in the articles included on in the research surveyed. Students who happened to get assigned good chapters came away excited, but those who happened to get assigned purely mapping chapters were bored by creativity research and hard to keep motivated. So now I have to use Sternberg's earlier book on Insight along with this Handbook. I apologize for the honesty of this review. It is a great mapping book and a moderate insight provider in sum.

Although all the contributors of the book wrote about creativity, their writing and presentation styles are stiff, dry, and boring--- totally uncreative!

They used too much of their left brain to discuss a fascinating subject like creativity, which is supposed to be fun, lively, and thoughts provoking.

The only merit of this book is that it is a well-researched facts book on creativity, very suitable for the academic people. It focuses more on the WHY side of creativity, rather than on the HOW TO side, which makes it less practical and appealing to the creativity practitioners or end-users!

Still a good book to put on the bookshelf though.

The compilation of essays from leaders in the field of creativity provide a good picture of the current state of creativity research.

Although all the contributors of the book wrote about creativity, their writing and presentation styles are stiff, dry, and boring--- totally uncreative!

They used too much of their left brain to discuss a fascinating subject like creativity, which is supposed to be fun, lively, and thoughts provoking.

The only merit of this book is that it is a well-researched facts book on creativity, very suitable for the academic people. It focuses more on the WHY side of creativity, rather than on the HOW TO side, which makes it less practical and appealing to the creativity practitioners or end-users!

Still a good book to put on the bookshelf though.