LIMITATIONS TO THIS STUDY PROGRAM

There appear four principle limitations to this study program, viz: • Study limited to behavioural and statistical considerations • Little attention given to child prodigy phenomenon

• Biographical case source limitations • Limitation in coding concepts

6.22 (1) STUDY LIMITED TO BEHAVIOURAL AND STATISTICAL ISSUES

This study was limited to a behavioural interpretation of the antecedent origins and behavioural traits of original enterprise. As such it ignores explanations based on neurological or genetic interpretations and other biological bases of creativity.

Martindale (1 999) has summarised many alternative venues of research excluding ·

any reference to behavioural origins. He examines the relationship between creativity and cortical activation for example, concluding that creative i�spiration is most likely in low-arousal, reverie-like states. Cortical arousal studies are quoted suggesting creative people typically exhibit de-focussed attention accompanied by low levels of cortical activation, and, that most interestingly, creativity appears to be an almost effortless activity, not based so much on will power as on withdrawal from many sensory stimulations and the induction of dreamlike states of mind.

Studies on the relationship between cortical hemispheric asymmetry have been carried out by numerous researchers suggesting right-hand dominance for the production of mental and verbal images and left-hand dominance for critical, analytical activity.

Martindale (1 999) summarises "that creative inspiration occurs in mental states where attention is de-focussed, thought is associative, and a large number of mental representations are simultaneously actuated" (p. 1 49). This study concludes that

although physical observations of this nature are of scientific interest, they fall outside the scope of this particular research programme.

6.22 (11) THE CHILD PRODIGY PHENOMENON

A second limitation in this study was the scarce attention given to the child prodigy phenomenum and its relationship to original creative enterprise.

This study has already commented on the preponderance of musical proclivity and originality in Chapter 5.31 (v). lt may be, however, that domain-specific prodigy examples are wider than music and that chess playing, mathematics, dance and literature should also be searched for neurological or family-linked historic strands behind prodigious behaviour.

Feldman (1 986, p.91) has commented on the typical age-ranges in various domains where a child prodigy is observed to occur. He comments "in mathematics, prodigies are virtually never found before age ten or twelve, whereas in chess they are not rare by age five or six, and in music performance by three or four."

The Menuhin history and tradition of prodigiousness evidently can be traced back to the early sixteenth century and is studded with numerous examples of religious and cultural proclivities of high order - an observation which echoes the findings of Sir Francis Galton in his Hereditary Genius study of 1 892.

6.22 (111) BIOGRAPHICAL LIMITATIONS

In hindsight, the inclusion of several biographies in this study may be queried. They exhibit degrees of technical proficiency, but would not be classified of a genius order.

Diva - Dame Nellie Melba

Science fiction author - Arthur C Clark Detective writer - Arthur Conan Doyle American entrepreneur - Lee lacocca

Inventor - King Gillette

In that all behaviour is creative to some degree, and there is no scientific basis for grading the degree of creativity across all domains, this limitation would not be considered very serious. Alternatively, there are biographical cases that exhibited

such classic cases of the acme of original creative enterprise that they .should have possibly been included. Examples are:

Arnold Schoenberg -

Sir lsaac Newton - Max Planck - John Stuart Mill -

very limited biographies available. Most recent to be published 2001

not in our 1 9th, 20th century cultural framework could not find biography

could not find biography

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - could not find biography

The Beatles - studied but could not score four persons as one

Friedrich August von Kekule (The Benzene Ring) - no biography available ·

Finally, the concept of biographies that were creative productive precursors in a serial discovery chain were not thoroughly canvassed or acknowledged. Wilkins for example, who must be considered an important contributor to the DNA molecule concept by Watson and Crick, should possibly have been included in this study.

Some biographies such as those of William Morris in art, Matisse, Stockhausen, Debussy and Schoenberg in the pilot study were omitted from the main study.

William Morris's commercial history is well documented, but his very wide artistic biographies are difficult to isolate from one another. Matisse, Stockhausen and Debussy were more commentaries than documented biographies. Schoenberg's biography was a collection of his letters, rather than a full biography. The complete biography of Schoenberg is not expected until 2001 . As lgor Stravinsky points out, Schoenberg is a "much neglected" composer (Dobrin 1 970, p. 1 60).

6.22

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The search for major codes likely to be of significance in this study was based on the author's own experience in psychological practice, on reading some 200

biographies ·of outstanding creative examples and a review of the relevant scientific literature.

Some codes of personal interest such as the collecting obsession, childhood play and isolated examples of sexual perversions obviously occurred too rarely to play a significant role in this study. Other codes, which could have been relevant, were not scored because biographical case histories do not provide sufficient evidence of the dimension, one way or the other.

• Family sibling rivalry data

• Cognitive dimensions such as the "geneplore model" contrasting the initial

generation of ideas with their extensive exploration

• The role of memory as an associated cognitive trigger to original performance • The synthesis or merging of previously separate concepts into single ideas or

paths of action.

• The existence of a broad creative skill which may be applied to numerous types

of problems and situations - the 'core genius concept'.

• The serial creativity concept - where original creative enterprise may be traced

back to earlier studies rather than confined to solely 'popular' examples.