THOUGHTS AND COMMENTARY
A Book Excerpt From
The Road to Neuroplasticity and Change to Heal Trauma, Improve Cognitive Capacity and Maximize Performance
LINKING ADHD AND CREATIVITY
See Also:
Divergent Thought and Creativity
Achieving Creative Flow Boost and Reignite Creativity
Creativity and Visualization
The Neuroscience of Creativity
Divergent Thought and Creativity
Achieving Creative Flow Boost and Reignite Creativity
Creativity and Visualization
The Neuroscience of Creativity
THE CREATIVE BRAIN
ADHD minds produce symptoms that are similar to the characteristics of creativity. They:
Creativity is generally defined as the ability to create something original and unprecedented. It spans all fields and it can be just as strong in an artist as it is in a mathematician. Ideas may be new and surprising, technically advanced, clever or out of the box, or useful, functional and relevant. Creativity comes from intensive knowledge, artistic skill, technical mastery, risk and scientific inquiry but it also comes from curiosity, courage, perseverance, intuition or divergent thought, drive and motivation and sometimes even luck.
See Also:
The ADHD Brain
ADHD people may be perceived as being very spontaneous, curious, inquisitive, enthusiastic, lively and witty. These traits suggest a creative thinker or innovator. Divergent thought is developing ideas with creative solutions to a problem and is common in innovation.
See Also:
Achieving Creative Flow
Inattention, impulsiveness and hyperfocus are three core ADHD symptoms that play a huge part in creative thought. Inattention produces daydreaming, mind wandering, and drifting of thoughts. These experiences are essential for divergent thought. Innovation thrives on the out of the box thinking that comes from daydreaming. People with ADHD are also more impulsive and willing to take risks. They approach new things and situations easily and without fear. The creative idea generation thrives when risk and ingenuity come together with perseverance. Pushing forward an ADHD mind with perseverance will get to the eureka moment eventually using chaotic or divergent thought. Finally hyperfocus is when a person becomes intensely focused on a topic that interests them so much they tune out the world around them. Perfecting their craft takes undivided attention and hyperfocus and Creative Flow give ADHD creatives the boost they need to push through with their ideas.
RESEARCH
Research into the relationship between ADHD and creativity to date has not been consistent since it is difficult to calculate or quantify creative output. However there are exciting new advances being made.
In innovation designers who look to an example for inspiration may experience getting stuck (known as fixation) In creative research, participants are given examples prior to a task that requires them to invent something new. They produce inventions that incorporate aspects of the examples so they are not as inventive. The ability to overcome incorporating model similarities is essential to innovation with creative thinking.
A study conducted by the Journal of Creative Behavior involved 26 college students with ADHD and 26 without. They were tasked with two creativity tests. The first test requested they invent and draw alien fruit without copying any found on Earth. Students with ADHD proved to create more unique fruit. The second rest asked them to invent product labels for the fruit and those with ADHD were able to come up with more unconventional names.
In a study adolescents, with a group of ADHD kids and a group without, were tasked with a toy invention task. Participants were first shown sample toys with specific features (for example a ball), then asked to invent new toys that were very different from existing toys. The toys invented by the ADHD group included fewer elements inspired by the samples compared to the non-ADHD group.
In another study, 203 5-10 year old children participated in a Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) experiment. BART (a computerized test where participants can blow up balloons one click at a time) tracks every time a balloon is inflated and the participants earn money. If the balloon pops they lose money. Researchers found that thousands of ADHD kids pumped more than the control group because they took greater risks. Further the kids with both ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) pumped the most of all groups.
A 2018 study showed that adults with ADHD had higher and more frequent episodes of hyperfocus when it came to hobbies, school and screen time. Similar to mind wandering, this ability is also extremely beneficial for creative or artistic tasks.
Researchers White and Shah (2006) tested people with ADHD and found them to score higher than those without in divergent thinking (deriving up with creative solutions to a problem). Furthermore, people with ADHD scored less than those without on convergent thinking (giving a "correct" answer to a test question).
Another study by White and Shah (2011) found that people with ADHD scored higher in original creativity and creative achievement than those without ADHD. They also theorized that people with ADHD prefer generating ideas while those without l preferred clarifying problems and developing the ideas.
A study published by the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences tested 60 undergraduate students at the University of Memphis and found that those with ADHD enjoyed more creative achievement then students without. They scored better on a series of tests that measured creativity in 10 areas, including drama, humor, music, visual arts, creative writing, invention, and scientific discovery.
FURTHER READING
ADHD minds produce symptoms that are similar to the characteristics of creativity. They:
- Are easily bored
- Are risk takers
- Color outside the lines
- Think with their heart
- Make lots of mistakes
- Hate the rules
- Work independently
- Change their mind a lot
- Have an eccentric reputation
- Dream big
Creativity is generally defined as the ability to create something original and unprecedented. It spans all fields and it can be just as strong in an artist as it is in a mathematician. Ideas may be new and surprising, technically advanced, clever or out of the box, or useful, functional and relevant. Creativity comes from intensive knowledge, artistic skill, technical mastery, risk and scientific inquiry but it also comes from curiosity, courage, perseverance, intuition or divergent thought, drive and motivation and sometimes even luck.
See Also:
The ADHD Brain
ADHD people may be perceived as being very spontaneous, curious, inquisitive, enthusiastic, lively and witty. These traits suggest a creative thinker or innovator. Divergent thought is developing ideas with creative solutions to a problem and is common in innovation.
See Also:
Achieving Creative Flow
Inattention, impulsiveness and hyperfocus are three core ADHD symptoms that play a huge part in creative thought. Inattention produces daydreaming, mind wandering, and drifting of thoughts. These experiences are essential for divergent thought. Innovation thrives on the out of the box thinking that comes from daydreaming. People with ADHD are also more impulsive and willing to take risks. They approach new things and situations easily and without fear. The creative idea generation thrives when risk and ingenuity come together with perseverance. Pushing forward an ADHD mind with perseverance will get to the eureka moment eventually using chaotic or divergent thought. Finally hyperfocus is when a person becomes intensely focused on a topic that interests them so much they tune out the world around them. Perfecting their craft takes undivided attention and hyperfocus and Creative Flow give ADHD creatives the boost they need to push through with their ideas.
RESEARCH
Research into the relationship between ADHD and creativity to date has not been consistent since it is difficult to calculate or quantify creative output. However there are exciting new advances being made.
In innovation designers who look to an example for inspiration may experience getting stuck (known as fixation) In creative research, participants are given examples prior to a task that requires them to invent something new. They produce inventions that incorporate aspects of the examples so they are not as inventive. The ability to overcome incorporating model similarities is essential to innovation with creative thinking.
A study conducted by the Journal of Creative Behavior involved 26 college students with ADHD and 26 without. They were tasked with two creativity tests. The first test requested they invent and draw alien fruit without copying any found on Earth. Students with ADHD proved to create more unique fruit. The second rest asked them to invent product labels for the fruit and those with ADHD were able to come up with more unconventional names.
In a study adolescents, with a group of ADHD kids and a group without, were tasked with a toy invention task. Participants were first shown sample toys with specific features (for example a ball), then asked to invent new toys that were very different from existing toys. The toys invented by the ADHD group included fewer elements inspired by the samples compared to the non-ADHD group.
In another study, 203 5-10 year old children participated in a Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) experiment. BART (a computerized test where participants can blow up balloons one click at a time) tracks every time a balloon is inflated and the participants earn money. If the balloon pops they lose money. Researchers found that thousands of ADHD kids pumped more than the control group because they took greater risks. Further the kids with both ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) pumped the most of all groups.
A 2018 study showed that adults with ADHD had higher and more frequent episodes of hyperfocus when it came to hobbies, school and screen time. Similar to mind wandering, this ability is also extremely beneficial for creative or artistic tasks.
Researchers White and Shah (2006) tested people with ADHD and found them to score higher than those without in divergent thinking (deriving up with creative solutions to a problem). Furthermore, people with ADHD scored less than those without on convergent thinking (giving a "correct" answer to a test question).
Another study by White and Shah (2011) found that people with ADHD scored higher in original creativity and creative achievement than those without ADHD. They also theorized that people with ADHD prefer generating ideas while those without l preferred clarifying problems and developing the ideas.
A study published by the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences tested 60 undergraduate students at the University of Memphis and found that those with ADHD enjoyed more creative achievement then students without. They scored better on a series of tests that measured creativity in 10 areas, including drama, humor, music, visual arts, creative writing, invention, and scientific discovery.
FURTHER READING
- The Creative Gifts of ADHD
- ADHD Brains Are the Most Creative: Why Do We Treat It Like a Disability?
- ADHD and Creativity: Your Creative Gift Also Treats ADHD
- ADD/ADHD and Creativity
- Harnessing the Power of Creativity in ADHD Students
- Why ADHD may be an Advantage
- The Creativity of ADHD
- Thinking outside the box: Adults with ADHD not constrained in creativity
- New evidence that the “chaotic mind” of ADHD brings creative advantages
- Is there a relationship between creativity and ADHD?
- ADHD's Upside Is Creativity, Says New Study
STARLIGHT POETRY BY KAI
View Me on Twitter @kairosoflife
See Creativity Chaos - a Creativity Blog by Kai
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© 2019-2020 Copyright Starlight Poetry
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View Me on Twitter @kairosoflife
See Creativity Chaos - a Creativity Blog by Kai
About | Reprints & Copyrights | Home
© 2019-2020 Copyright Starlight Poetry
VIEW FULL SITE DIRECTORY