Creative Thinking in Scientists vs. Engineers: Two Types of Professional Thinking

The psychology of creativity and cognitive psychology share the same methodological problem: they both interpret creative thinking as a universal ability, leaving out the fact that the creative thinker represents a particular professional field, which affects the regulatory mechanisms of creative thinking. The authors reconstructed creative processes preferred by scientists and engineers as two qualitatively different types of professional thinking, with different mechanisms of conceptual and regulatory reorganization. The cultural-historical and activitybased approaches made it possible to describe thinking as an activity mediated by its objects, goals, means, and conditions. The leading mechanisms of creative thinking proved to depend on the profession of the thinker: scientists were prone to conceptual and semantic reorganization, while engineers demonstrated regulatory-project reorganization. These mechanisms differed in the type of uncertainty, self-regulation methods, timing, success criteria, and attitude toward errors. Distinguishing between these professional forms of creative thinking may yield new research perspectives and differentiated academic programs for scientific and engineering personnel.