Transformational Creativity
The field of creativity has made the (serious) mistake of overemphasizing the measurement and development of creativity without paying sufficient, or often, any attention to the purposes for which the creativity is deployed. Pseudo-transformational leaders, from Adolph Hitler to Vladimir Putin, have shown some creativity, but have directed it toward toxic and destructive ends. It is not enough to pass the buck to those we teach, or simply to offer our wares and hope for the best, meanwhile collecting our salaries and promotions and eking out our (hopefully) middle-class existence. We have a responsibility as scholars and educators to recognize that the same creativity that advantages some individuals in the achievement of their own goals often can severely disadvantage others who become targets of manipulation (e.g., via massaging of social media to maximize revenue) and destruction (e.g., via violence and wars). We need to teach for positive and even transformational creativity that makes a world better, not worse. Otherwise, it is not clear what future, if any, humanity has.
Robert J Sternberg
Robert J. Sternberg is Professor of Psychology in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University and Honorary Professor of Psychology at Heidelberg University, Germany. Previously, Sternberg served 8 ½ years in academic administration as a university dean, senior vice-president, and president. Before that, he was IBM Professor of Psychology and Education and Professor of Management at Yale and Director of the Yale Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise.
Sternberg is a Past President of the American Psychological Association, the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the Eastern Psychological Association, and the International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology. Sternberg also has been president of four divisions of the American Psychological Association and Treasurer of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Sternberg’s BA is from Yale University summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, his PhD is from Stanford University, and he holds 13 honorary doctorates. Sternberg has won more than two dozen awards for his work, including the James McKeen Cattell Award (1999) and the William James Fellow Award (2017) from APS. He also is the winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Psychology (2018). He is the author of over 1800 publications.
He was cited by research.com as the #10 top psychological scientist in the US and #20 in the world. He also was cited in an APA Monitor on Psychology report as one of the top 100 psychologists of the 20th century and in a report in Archives of Scientific Psychology by Diener and colleagues as one of the top 200 psychologists of the modern era. He was cited by Griggs and Christopher in Teaching of Psychology as one of the top-cited scholars in introductory-psychology textbooks. According to Google Scholar, he has been cited over 224,000 times with an index of 230. Sternberg is a member of the US National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.