Foreign experience in research of the creativity in XX century

In the introduction part of the article the author gives a proof of the topicality of the issue, defines the goal andformulates the problem of the research. In the basic part of the work, the main approaches in research of creativity abroad, which hadactive development in the 20th century, are given. The analysis of foreign literature shows that understanding of creativity is changing.In pragmatism, the creative process is related to discovery and its practical correlation when it is scientific and theoretical is an inventionaimed at solving problem situations (J. Dewey, P. W. Bridgman). Development of the ideas of neo-realism, represented in the works ofphilosophers of the continental Europe (E. Husserl, A. Whitehead) contributed to a different understanding of creativity. The process ofcreation is a form of the unity of the universe. Psychology possesses profound knowledge on the theory of creativity development byforeign researchers. Creativity became an object of scientific study primarily because of the general interest in individual differences.This approach recognizes that individuals differ psychologically in traits or attributes. The creative act is multifaceted as well. It includespsychological, environmental, cultural, physical, and intellectual aspects. A large body of evidence has been accumulated in connectionwith the effort to identify particular personality traits, which lay the basis for creativity. E. Fromm, J.P. Guilford, A.H. Maslow,C.R. Rogers discussed the main ideas; other scientists (A.A. Angyal, F. Barron, E.R. Hilgard, V. Lowenfeld, N.C. Meier andR.L. Mooney) identified creative traits. Another body of data has been collected to prove that creativity can be fully explained as a seriesof chronological stages, each stage making its unique contribution to the total process (J. E. Arnold, J.M. Montmasson, G. Wallas).Summarizing all the points of view, J. Hallman proposes that a creative act can be analyzed from the point of view of five major components:as being a complete act, a unitary instance of behaviour; as being the last stage in the production of distinctive objects or formsof living; as being formed due to certain mental processes; as being dependent on specific personality transformations; as occurringwithin a particular kind of environment. The cognitive and multiple factor approaches develop actively in recent years. According to M.Boden, computational ideas can help us to understand what makes human creativity possible. This does not mean that creativity is predictable,nor even that the original idea can be explained in every detail after it has appeared. It offers to use computational ideas in understandingin scientific terms to learn how intuition works. In the final part of the article, the author expresses an opinion that there are some distinctivefeatures in research of creativity abroad. Firstly, it is the focus on the practical solution of problem situations in modern society.Creativity is interpreted as a successful combination of ideas that are generated by the need to solve a specific problem in the changing society.Secondly, the definition of creativity in terms of features gradually changes to the definitions of creativity in terms of process. Thirdly,the emphasis in the study of creative thinking abroad is transferred to the distribution of tools and methods to accelerate the creative processin recent decades. They are aimed at development of several aspects of thinking, including the means of artificial intelligence.

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