What Creativity Really Is

This lesson defines creativity as a psychological process rather than a rare trait or a burst of inspiration. Students learn the difference between creative thinking, novelty, and usefulness, and why creativity usually involves recombining existing knowledge in new ways.

The lesson also introduces the core mental components of creativity: attention, memory, association, flexibility, and evaluation. It explains why creativity can happen in many everyday settings, not just in art or invention, and begins separating myths about “creative types” from what research actually shows.