Divergent Thinking and Imagination

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Divergent Thinking and Imagination
Divergent thinking refers to the ability to generate creative ideas by combining diverse types of information in novel ways CITATION Gui67 \l 1033 (Guilford, 1967). It is an important ability, especially when dealing with non-linear problems requiring unstructured and unorthodox approaches. Children are often associated with divergent thinking. A child can come up with over 20 ways of using a paper clip, while an adult would struggle with getting half of that. While some of the propositions put forward by the child may not be very practical, some are, and children come up with these solutions on the go. On the other hand, most of the solutions and or uses for the paper clip coined by the adult will be practical but fewer. He/she may also take more time to come up with those applications.
Therefore, divergent thinking is an important ability because it allows an individual to come up with many ways to tackle problems and find creative and better solutions to many problems. Unfortunately, divergent thinking has been shown to diminish with age. By age 10, many children have already lost over 60% of their divergent thinking abilities CITATION Geo93 \l 1033 (Land & Jarman, 1993).
How and why are divergent thinking and imagination associated with childhood.
One of the key reasons divergent thinking is common with children is that they have diminished culpability to think critically and analyze situations. Children lack a well-developed rationality system to guide their thoughts to a meaningful outcome. Since their logical unit is not well-developed, they do not find it illogical or weird to utter whatever comes into their mind. Unlike adults, children have not developed a system of thought that checks for errors or inconsistencies in how they speak or express themselves.
Adults have adapted social norms that have accepted ways of thinking. It is an important element of a healthy society and social development. For this reason, some things like speaking our minds might be struck down before they are actualized because society does not entertain such efforts. For example, if I stood up in front of people and spoke things that did not make sense with a confidence of a person who knows what he/she is speaking about, few, if any, a person in the audience would call me out for it. They may realize that I am wrong, but they shy away from calling me out. They are bound by their own ideas, cultural values, and self-doubt stemming from questioning what they know about the subject such that they cannot say anything. Even when they eventually gain the confidence to push back, they are visibly anxious, and some would rather start speaking behind my back or to their friends than call me out. What they are doing at that point is seeking validation for their thoughts and opinions on the subject matter before they eventually call me out. Children easily call someone out when they realize that he/she is wrong about a subject matter, and they do not seek their peers’ validation.
The self-doubt and fear of the adult stem from social conditioning that checks the behavior and actions of an individual ...