每日英語 #141: Factors that Help and Hinder Creativity 影響創造力的因素

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Factors that Help and Hinder Creativity 影響創造力的因素

Why are some people more “creative” (able to think of new and original ideas) than others? Psychologists have “sought” (looked for) an answer to this question for many years, with some interesting “hypotheses” (guesses; theories).

為什麼有些人比其他人更具有「創造力」（能夠想到新的和原創的想法）？心理學家多年前就開始「尋找」（尋求）這個問題的答案，並提出了一些有趣的「假設」（猜測；理論）。

Dean Keith Simonton at the University of California, Davis, is well known “in the world of” (field of; area of) psychology as the “leading” (one of the top or best) researchers in this area. Simonton has identified several “factors” (influences; items) that may influence creativity. Here are some of those, “categorized” (classified) by whether they help or “hinder” (hurt) creativity:

加州大學戴維斯分校的迪恩·基思·西蒙頓是心理學界「著名的」（領域內的）頂尖研究人員之一。西蒙頓識別出了一些可能影響創造力的「因素」（影響；條件）。以下是他依據這些因素是否能夠幫助或「妨礙」（損害）創造力進行的「分類」（歸類）：

Help: Being born last in the family. Younger members of the family will get to see different kinds of “role models” (people whose actions and ideas you may want to imitate) and are “exposed to” (experience) family conflicts and how they are resolved. These experiences can “fuel” (increase) original thinking.

幫助：家中最小的孩子。家庭中較年幼的成員能夠看到不同類型的「榜樣」（你可能想模仿他們的行為和想法），並「接觸」（體驗）家庭衝突及其解決方法。這些經歷可以「激發」（增強）原創思維。

Hurt: Being born first in the family. First-born children are more likely to think in “conventional ways” (traditional or commonly accepted ways).

妨礙：家中最年長的孩子。長子長女更有可能以「傳統方式」（傳統或普遍接受的方式）思考。

Help: Taking time off. Taking a break from your work allows your ideas to “incubate” (develop slowly without interruptions) and gives original ideas a chance to grow.

幫助：休息一下。暫時遠離工作可以讓你的想法「醞釀」（不受干擾地緩慢發展），並給予原創想法成長的機會。

Hurt: Resistance to change. People who don’t want to change are almost “by definition” (by that very fact) people who cannot be very creative, since being creative means doing something original and that hasn’t been done before.

妨礙：抗拒改變。那些不願改變的人幾乎「必然」（根據這一事實）不能非常有創意，因為創造力意味著做一些原創且前所未有的事情。

Interestingly enough, Simonton found that those who too easily give up on an idea are also less creative. Sometimes we need to continue with an idea even though some of our ideas fail.

有趣的是，西蒙頓發現，那些太容易放棄想法的人創造力也較低。有時，即使我們的一些想法失敗了，我們也需要堅持。

Help: Freedom to take risks. It’s hard to be creative if your boss won’t ever let you do anything different. Being able to work on a “variety of” (mixture of; different) things can help you think in different ways, and “thereby” (because of that fact) be more creative.

幫助：有冒險的自由。如果你的老闆從不允許你做任何不同的事情，那麼你很難有創造力。能夠處理「各種」（多樣的）事情可以幫助你以不同的方式思考，「因此」（基於此事實）更具創造力。

Hurt: Pressure to play it safe. To play it safe means to never take any risks, to always do things that have no possible danger involved. Again, almost by definition, this is something that will make you a less creative person, since creativity means sometimes doing things that might fail or even hurt your chances in the future.

妨礙：保守行事的壓力。保守行事意味著永遠不冒險，總是做沒有任何可能風險的事情。同樣，這幾乎必然會使你成為一個創造力較低的人，因為創造力有時意味著做一些可能失敗或甚至影響你未來機會的事情。

重要單字

• 1. Creative /kriˈeɪ.tɪv/ 創造力的
• 2. Sought /sɔːt/ 尋求
• 3. Hypotheses /haɪˈpɒθəsiːz/ 假設
• 4. Factors /ˈfæktərz/ 因素
• 5. Categorized /ˈkætɪɡəraɪzd/ 歸類
• 6. Hinder /ˈhɪn.dər/ 妨礙
• 7. Incubate /ˈɪŋkjʊˌbeɪt/ 醞釀
• 8. Conventional /kənˈvɛnʃənl/ 傳統的
• 9. Freedom /ˈfriː.dəm/ 自由
• 10. Variety /vəˈraɪəti/ 多樣