Evolving systems approach

According to Gruber and Wallace (1999: 689), evolving systems approach represents

both a method and theory for understanding the unique, individual creative person at work. It involves no commitment to discovering generalizations one can make about all creative people. Its primary aim is to construct an account, both analytical and developmental, of each creative person considered and to arrive at what may be called a "theory of the individual". By "developmental" we do not mean an account starting from infancy, but one that starts wherever is feasible. [...] The evolving system comprising the creative person includes three major subsystems: knowledge, purpose, and affect. Creative acts are taken to be outcomes of the functioning of this system, and every episode and every facet of the process of creative work engages all three subsystems.

The evolving system approach relies on the case study method and is based on three guiding ideas: "The creative person is unique, developmental change is multidirectional, and the creative person is an evolving system" (ibid.)