Title: Further Unpacking Creativity with a Problem-Space Theory of Creativity and Constraint
Abstract: Over the last several decades, a dominant paradigm has emerged for creativity and innovation, in which people work on a clearly defined problem and search broadly across resources to develop novel and useful solutions to the problem. However, several scholars have proposed alternative models for creativity that challenge some of the underlying assumptions of this model. For instance, Unsworth (2001) "unpacked creativity" to argue that people may be more creative when working on a less clearly defined problem, and others have argued that people can be more creative when working with a more constrained set of resources. In this paper, we synthesize these disparate models of creativity into a coherent model by examining the way that various constraints structure the problem space for creativity. We identify conditions under which there is a healthy balance of constraint, which results in two active zones of creativity that we call deliberate creativity and emergent creativity, and conditions under which there is an unhealthy imbalance of constraint, which results in two dead zones of creativity that we call ambiguous opportunity and futile effort. We also develop propositions that explain how movement across these zones can result in increased, decreased, or sustained levels of creativity.