Creativity Over the Life Course—A Call for a Relational Perspective

Abstract

Research into creativity over the life course has a long history of concentrating on individual characteristics thought to be associated with shifting patterns. In large measure creativity has been explained as a consequence of intelligence, cognitive style, personality, imagery, and other endogenous factors. These human capital factors are not sufficient in themselves to explain differential creativity either by age or among diverse groups. In addition to individual-level considerations there is an array of societal and domain specific factors that must be taken into account. A number of these are discussed under the rubric of social capital. Finally a relational perspective is advocated as an interpretative framework and discussed in terms of dialectical life span approaches to the life course.