Theory and Context / Theory in Context: Towards an Expanded View of the Creativity Field

Abstract

It is debatable whether the psychology of creativity is a field in crisis or not. There are clear signs of increased fragmentation and a scarcity of integrative efforts, but is this necessarily bad? Do we need more comprehensive theories of creativity and a return to old epistemological questions? This depends on how one understands theory. Against a view of theoretical work as aiming towards generality, universality, uniformity, completeness, and singularity, I advocate for a dynamic perspective in which theory is plural, multifaceted, and contextual. Far from ‘waiting for the Messiah’, theoretical work in the psychology of creativity can be integrative without having the ambition to explain or, even more, predict, creative expression across all people, at all times, and in all domains. To avoid such ambition, the psychology of creativity requires a theory of context that doesn’t arbitrarily separate person and environment or simply postulate the existence of ‘levels’ of context without questioning the relations between them. In order to understand these levels and their inter-relations we need however to consider insights from a variety of disciplines outside psychology, in a truly transdisciplinary manner. Consideration needs to be given as well to connected scholarship focusing on imagination, innovation, and improvisation. Last but not least, an expanded theory of context cannot ignore the institutional context of doing research on creativity. Creativity scholars are facing considerable constraints when it comes to advancing theory beyond disciplinary limits, but this makes such efforts all the more worthwhile.