In times of uncertainty and dynamic change, one can experience crisis situations in various areas of life. The greatest enemy in such cases are very strong emotions, such as helplessness or frustration. These, in turn, can lead to an impasse – a situation in which the individual does not know how to solve the problem and gives up looking for potential courses of action. Paradoxically, this may be the turning point that stimulates creativity in the search for solutions. It may also facilitate the activation of the insight process – a phenomenon defined as a sudden and abrupt change in the image of a problematic situation.
The issue of insight and three groups of concepts explaining the origin of this phenomenon will be analyzed: the selective encoding theory (Davidson & Sternberg, 1984), the problem simplification theory (Simon, 1977), and the “opportunistic assimilation” theory (Seifert et al., 1995). These will be analyzed in terms of generating new solutions in situations of experienced impasse.
Next, empirical studies will be presented, which have shown, among others, the relationship between stress caused by crisis events and an increase in creativity (Forgeard, 2013), the influence of high emotional intensity on the increased probability of insight (Hill & Kemp, 2016), and examples of other selected studies.
In the summary, the answer will be given to the question of whether the presented theoretical concepts and research findings can be practically used in solving problems in crisis situations.