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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010334369 | BF717 R87 2014 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Converging evidence suggests that pretend play in childhood has an important role in providing a foundation for adult creativity. Indeed, many of the processes central to creativity occur in pretend play.
In this book, Sandra W. Russ reviews the theory and research on pretend play and creativity, including cognitive and affective processes involved in play and creativity, possible evolutionary purposes of play, and its cultural variations. In particular, she highlights the importance of pretend play in helping children to access emotional memories and fantasies. She explains how creative processes in play can be measured using the Affect in Play Scale, which she developed and is included in the volume. Additionally, she describes play interventions designed to encourage creativity in children, with transcripts of sessions from a pilot intervention.
Brief case studies of creative adult scientists and artists are also presented, illustrating similarities in play processes and creative processes in adulthood.
Given the need for highly developed creativity in science, engineering, and the arts, the link between pretend play and creativity is important to explore. This book explores what we know about the topic and how researchers might approach future studies in this area.
Author Notes
Sandra W. Russ, PhD , a clinical child psychologist, is the Louis D. Beaumont university professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She has served as president of the Society for Personality Assessment; of the Clinical Child Section of APA Division 12 (Society of Clinical Psychology); and of Division 10 (Division of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts). She teaches a psychology of creativity seminar, and her research program has focused on relationships among pretend play, creativity, and adaptive functioning in children. Russ developed the Affect in Play Scale, which assesses pretend play in children, and she and her students are developing a play facilitation intervention. She is the author of Affect and Creativity: The Role of Affect and Play in the Creative Process (1993) and Play in Child Development and Psychotherapy: Toward Empirically Supported Practice (2004) and coauthor of Play in Clinical Practice: Evidence-Based Approaches (Russ & Niec, 2011).
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Russ (Case Western Reserve) reviews her work on play and creativity, a subject to which she has devoted her career. She examines converging evidence from evolutionary, psychodynamic, and developmental work to look at the connections between characteristics of childhood pretend play and adult creativity at both the everyday level and the level of major artistic and intellectual innovations. Russ considers information about cognitive factors like divergent thinking and transformation abilities in pretend play and in adult creativity, as well as affective characteristics like access to affect-laden thoughts and images. Concluding that children's play and adult creativity share processes, she includes a chapter about work on encouragement of pretend play for children. A final overview suggests directions for research on these topics. Transcripts of pretend play and an appendix describing the Affect in Play Scale will be useful for researchers, as will the extensive reference section and complete index. Thorough and simply organized, this title is an invaluable resource; however, appealing though the topic is, the book will not be accessible to general readers. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. J. Mercer emerita, Richard Stockton College
