Basic Conceptual Provisions of the Theory and Practice of Creativity in Western Foreign Scientific Literature (XX – Early XXI Centuries)

A comprehensive analysis of the theoretical and methodological principles of the development of the creative potential in future specialists in foreign literature (XX – early XXI centuries) has been carried out. The content of the basic concepts of "creativity", "creative skills", "creative potential" has been clarified. The positions of foreign scientists on the development of creativity and creative skills in the future specialists have been systematized. The features of divergent thinking developed by the famous scientist J. Guilford as the basis of creative skills according to such parameters as speed, flexibility, originality, elaboration have been presented. The multidimensional model "4P" by Mel Rhodes has been analyzed, which structures the study of creativity in four directions: personality, process, product, environment. In the context of a systemic approach, the position of M. Csikszentmihalyi and R. Sternberg on creativity as a result of the interaction of systems has been considered. J. Kaufman and Ronald Baggett proposed a hierarchy of creativity: Mini-c (subjective learning), Little-c (everyday creativity), Pro-C (professional creativity of a specialist), Big-C (outstanding achievements that change culture or history). T. Amabayl developed a component model of creativity, as well as a model of the creative process, which includes the presentation of the problem, its preparation, generation, validation of ideas and evaluation of the result. The influence of the working environment is characterized, namely the factors that promote or hinder creativity in organizations. The role of the principle of progress in significant work has been substantiated and the contribution to the theory and practice of creativity by Teresa Amabayl has been analyzed. Thus, the analysis of foreign scientific literature indicates a deep differentiation of the concepts of "creativity" (creativity as a process/ability) and "creativity" (as an instrumental characteristic). Thus, Western scientific thought has gone from perceiving creativity as a "divine enlightenment" to developing clear psychometric and cognitive models, which lays the foundation for further promising developments in the mentioned field.