Recent Trends in the Psychological Study of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

Abstract

In order to explain what has happened in psychological aesthetics and the study of genius, a brief overview of the history of psychology since the nineteenth century is given. There has been a movement from grand theories and the beginnings of experimental aesthetics though behaviorism, which was a catastrophic era for the study of aesthetics, to a sort of renaissance marked by the emergence of cognitive psychology. Across the 25 years during which Empirical Studies of the Arts has been published there has been a consistent trend in psychological studies of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts. In the early years, studies were based upon a mélange of late behaviorist, early cognitive, and psychodynamic theories. This was followed by a period during which cognitive approaches were dominant. During the last decade there has been a very clear trend toward work based upon evolutionary psychology and neuroscience. Examples of some but far from all of the important work done during the last several decades are discussed.