CREATIVE theorists in the media

Rank's Creative Type: Creativity flows from people who are well adjusted and self actualized--people who are "mentally healthy, self-accepting, forward growing, fully functioning, democratic, and more" (Davis, 2004, p. 2) and who use all of their talents to be as great as they potentially can be.

Examples: Miss Honey from the movie Matilda. Really, many teachers follow this, but Miss Honey came to mind first. Please excuse the video, but it shows the relationship between Miss Honey and Matilda. Miss Honey loves her job as a teacher and is happy to do anything to help her students. She ultimately comes up with a clever idea that helps Matilda escape from her family.

Imogene Herdman from The Best School Year Ever. People at school think Imogene Herdman is the most ill-mannered person, but she comes up with some very clever ideas (buttering the head of someone who is stuck in a bike rack etc) because she is secure in who she is and what she is doing. Imogene is definitely "at one with herself."

Jung's Psychological Type of Creative Person: Creativity draws on emotional shocks, and experiences of passion. Davis quotes Jung saying "the poet's work is an interpretation of conscious life that raises the reader to greater clarity and understanding. Novels about love, crime, the family or society, along with didactic poetry and much drama, also are of the psychological type" (Davis, 2004, p. 43).

Example: The Giver by Lois Lowry. In The Giver, people live in a utopian society where everyone progresses through "life's stages" at the same time. Upon finishing this novel, the reader is aware of many of the nuances of society.

Jung's Visionary Type of Creative Person: Creativity is due to dissatisfaction and a need for change or reform.

Example: Martin Luther and his 95 theses. Because of his dissatisfaction with the church, Luther posted his grievances to the church door.

Torrence's Creative Type: Creativity comes from sensing problems, forming hypotheses, testing them, and getting results. This take on creativity is a results based theory.

Example: Thomas Edison's light bulb invention.

Creative Press: The creative press, or creative environment is responsible for many of the creative accomplishments, but it can also be responsible for "squelching" the creative flow of the brain.

Example: In the movie The Stepford Wives, the environment of the characters' society made it where every woman was expected to be the same perfect wife. To ensure this, they "switched out" the wives with robot like women. Because of this, there was no originality or thinking outside of the box in this community.

Mental Happenings: Sometimes creative inspiration cannot be explained. It often comes to people in the strangest of forms, but the results are nonetheless impressive.

• Science: The Wright brothers. Wilbur Wright was "idly" playing with a bicycle inner tube box when he just came up with the idea of what is now modern flight.
• Literature: J.K. Rowling. The idea for Harry Potter and other characters came to J. K. Rowling as she was sitting on a train. Now, Harry Potter is an internationally recognized book and character.
• Music: Doug and his song Think Big. In the Nickelodeon show, Doug dreams about a song called "Think Big." When he wakes up, he writes down the words and writes his own song.
• Music (2): "Take Me Out to the Ball Game": Inspired while riding on a train, Jack Norworth wrote the lyrics in about half an hour.
• Art: Andrew Stanton, director and writer of Finding Nemo. The idea for the movie for Finding Nemo came to Stanton as a "third voice."

It is clear that these theorists are NOT outdated, as their works appear and have appeared in popular culture.