Discussion on the Relationship Between Intelligence and Creativity

The relationship between intelligence and creativity has been subjected to research for many years. Unfortunately, there is yet no consensus on how these constructs are related. The connection between intelligence and creativity is that they are functions of the brain that handle data to determine a solution to a problem. Intelligence and creativity are different abilities that contribute to the other. Ho we can discuss the relationship between intelligence and creativity is presented in this essay.

Intelligence has been defined as an individual's capacity to learn, perceive, and understand the world while reasoning and using resources and opportunities effectively while creativity is the ability possessed by an individual to be able to produce new and novel ideas, concepts, and solutions. There are several styles of exhibiting creativity. However, one common element is the production of something new.

Most of the research between the relationship between the two, up until the 1960s, was based on the idea that creativity and intelligence are coinciding. Cox and Terman put forward that highly creative individuals are also knowledgeable, and they tried to approximate the IQ of 301 of the most renowned people who lived between 1450 and 1850. The study was disapproved because of the unreliability of the data but also because of the subjectivity pertained in estimating IQs.

A study done by Getzels and Jackson, was the first to validate to the degree that creativity and intelligence were independent concepts. It was proposed that the presentation of tests and the subject's frame of reference are essential in confirming whether there is a significant connection between intelligence and creativity. Defenders of the cognitive approaches generally thought that the study of creativity was just an extended study of intelligence as it was assumed, they both involved the same mental processes.

Guilford was the first researcher to develop an arrangement of human abilities, called the structure of intellect (SOI), in which creative thinking was featured explicitly as a part of intellectual functioning. He reasons that old-style intelligence tests do not suitably measure creative abilities, and he hypothesized that creative individuals possess divergent thinking abilities, including idea production, fluency, flexibility, and originality.

Many researchers in the field agree with the 'Threshold theory,' which assumes that above-average intelligence represents a necessary condition for high-level creativity. While previous research mostly supported the threshold hypothesis, it has been criticized in recent investigations. This hypothesis is commonly investigated by splitting a sample at a given threshold and determining separate correlations for lower and upper IQ ranges. However, there is no reason why the threshold should be fixed at an IQ of 120, and no attempts have been made to detect the limit given empirically.

In response to the fact that present-day research focuses on the idea that creativity and intelligence are unrelated, two researchers, Nusbaum and Silvia had conducted a study based on improved approaches to creativity measurement, which contemplates that fluid and executive cognition is central to creative thought. By combining the results, the experimenters suggested that creativity is probably more convergent than modern theories assume.

In conclusion, views on the relationship between intelligence and creativity are incredibly varied, and there is evidence to be found for each of them. Probably the most significant problem of this area of research is finding a suitable definition for the abstract concept of creativity