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Ronald A. Beghetto, Maciej Karwowski
Published online:

30 September 2025

Print publication:

23 October 2025
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Creative Agency Unbound explores how individuals transform creative potential into creative actions. Creative agency refers to the self-directed capacity to envision and enact meaningful changes within contextual constraints. This Element introduces the updated Creative Behavior as Agentic Action (CBAA) model, explaining four key decision points that shape creative engagement: Can I do this creatively? (creative confidence), Should I do this creatively? (creative centrality), Will I do this creatively? (creative risk-taking), and How will I do this creatively? (creative self-regulation). Each decision and its related self-belief is discussed in successive sections, integrating theory, research, and practical applications to illustrate how creative self-beliefs motivate creative behaviors. This Element serves as a foundational resource for those seeking to understand, study, and foster the transformation of creative potential into creative action.

How Plato and 20th Century Psychology Have Misled Us
John Baer
Published online:

10 June 2022

Print publication:

07 July 2022
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Most people (including creativity researchers) act as if they believe that creativity is not simply a useful category or label but a real thing with its own essence (just as Plato would argue that an ideal triangle has an essence that is shared with all actual triangles). Most people (including creativity researchers) also believe that there is a set of general creativity-relevant skills that can be applied to most problems in ways that will lead to more creative outcomes. Creativity research now calls these beliefs into question. A domain-general misunderstanding of the nature of creativity-relevant skills and the equally mistaken belief that creativity exists independently of actual creative things and ideas have together hindered creativity theory, research, assessment, and training. A more domain-specific and nominalist understanding of creativity will free creativity researchers to make progress in areas where it is currently stymied.

1 - Basic Concepts of Creativity
from Part I - Core Concepts of Lifespan Creativity Development
- By Hansika Kapoor, James C. Kaufman
Edited by Sandra W. Russ, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, Jessica D. Hoffmann, Yale University, Connecticut, James C. Kaufman, University of Connecticut
Book:

The Cambridge Handbook of Lifespan Development of Creativity

Published online:

19 November 2021

Print publication:

25 November 2021, pp 5-19
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Summary

In this chapter, we provide an overview of the basic concepts associated with creativity. This includes definitions as well as classic and contemporary models. Our approach to examining creativity theories is in line with the developmental theme of this book. We move through the progressive Four Cs model (mini, little, Pro, and Big) by elucidating each using appropriate theoretical conceptions. The Four Cs model and its representation of the creative trajectory over time, skill, practice, and expertise is crucial to our understanding of creativity across the lifespan. We conclude with placing creativity into a larger perspective that emerges from individual mental processes but thrives within overarching systems.