---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: Reading research about creativity is fun
author:
  display_name: David Brake
  login: David Brake
  email: david-brake@blog.org
  url: http://blog.org
author_login: David Brake
author_email: david-brake@blog.org
author_url: http://blog.org
excerpt: 'I’ve been looking at Amabile, T. (1996) Creativity in Context : Update
  to the Social Psychology of Creativity, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado ; Oxford.  In
  it I learned Dean K. Simonton tried to find out the effects of stress on creativity
  by, among other things, correlating the creativity of Beethoven, Mozart and other
  [...]'
wordpress_id: 3683
wordpress_url: http://blog.org/?p=1832
date: '2011-10-12 16:17:02 +0000'
date_gmt: '2011-10-12 14:17:02 +0000'
categories:
- PlanetPOuL
tags: []
comments: []
---
<p> I&#8217;ve been looking at Amabile, T. (1996) <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0813330343/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;tag=davidbrakeswe-21&%23038;linkCode=as2&%23038;camp=1634&%23038;creative=19450&%23038;creativeASIN=0813330343">Creativity in Context</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=davidbrakeswe-21&#038;l=as2&%23038;o=2&%23038;a=0813330343" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> : Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado ; Oxford.  In it I learned Dean K. Simonton tried to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1979-28154-001">find out the effects of stress on creativity</a> by, among other things, correlating the creativity of Beethoven, Mozart and other composers with the intensity of the wars affecting their countries at the time. I also just learned that  &ldquo;it is said that Schiller kept rotting apples in his desk drawer because the aroma helped him concentrate on writing poetry&#8230;  Dr Johnson required a purring cat, and orange peel, and plenty of tea to drink.&#8221; I much prefer Johnson&#8217;s prescription to Schiller&#8217;s!</p>