Integrating research from cognitive, social, organizational, and developmental psychology, the present article builds on the idea that constraints play a key role in creativity. The Mr. Plumbean approach, which refers to the willing integration of focusing constraints for creative purposes, emphasizes the role of attitude toward constraints in…

Students on an enterprise course running in a number of colleges in the UK in which invention and innovation formed part of the curriculum were asked to complete a questionnaire immediately upon having an inventive thought in an attempt to establish the thinking processes involved. Results from those who had ideas that subsequently proved to be…