Mark Runco: The Psychology of Creativity, Assessment, and Creative Potential
Dr. Mark Runco is a professor and is the Director of Creativity Research and Programming at Southern Oregon University. Over 35 years ago, he founded an influential scientific journal called The Creativity Research Journal and he was the editor of that journal until 2020. He’s published books that are widely read by creativity researchers such as his college textbook, Creativity: Research, Development, and Practice (three editions), The Creativity Research Handbook (1997, 2011, 2012), and the very first Encyclopedia of Creativity in 1999. He’s known for his studies of core topics in creativity research including problem finding, assessment, and divergent thinking. His recent writings are critical of the widespread claim that Gen AI is creative. He argues that creativity is unique to humans, and we’re going to talk about that today.
Mark developed and still teaches seminars on creativity, including "Creativity: What It Is and What It Is Not," "The Assessment of Creativity," "Creative Cognition," and "Social Contexts for Creativity." He is past president of Division 10 (Psychology, Art, Creativity, and Aesthetics) of the American Psychological Association. Episodes 23 and 24 of this podcast are about the annual conference of Division 10.
Additional information:
First edition of Encyclopedia of Creativity, 1999 (with Steven Pritzer)
Second edition, 2011 (with Steven Pritzker)
Creativity: Research, Development, and Practice (third edition, 2023)
The Creativity Research Handbook (third edition, 2012)
Music by license from SoundStripe:
"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ
"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ
"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich
Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer