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= Irving Myron Maltzman =

Personal Life/Biography
Irving Myron Maltzman was born on May 9, 1924 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, to parents, Israel and Lillian (Mass) Maltzman. He met his wife, Diane Seiden in New York in the late 1940s. He courted Diane, who was from Corona, Queens, in a long-distance relationship, while he completed his doctorate. Upon completing his degree, he married her on August 21, 1949 and moved to Culver City, California and accepted a job that gave birth to his professional career in Psychology. Their three children: Sara Maltzman, Kenneth Maltzman, and Ilaine Maltzman; four grandchildren: Josina Manu, Matthew Greenstein, Corinna Kitchen, and Lena Maltzman and several great-grandchildren are testaments of their union shared.

Irving Maltzman and his wife lived their Jewish values by supporting those who experienced oppression and discrimination. According to the account shared in his obituary, It also can be said that, “although he left Brooklyn, Brooklyn never left him”. It further stated that he loved to regale family and friends with stories from the old neighborhood in his distinctive Brooklyn accent. Family, friends, and colleagues fondly remember rousing parties in the Maltzman home with Irving pounding out Boogie Woogie on the piano; scotch flowing; and laughter, lively debate, and discursion carrying on late into the night. Irving and Diane's love of family, art, music, and discussion made their home a center of celebration for many years. Dr Irving Maltzman passed on December 5, 2015 then his wife passed on October 27, 2020.

Education and Academic Career
Irving Maltzman was a renowned theorist who contributed significantly to the growth and diversity of the field of instructional design, instructional technology and/or distance education through his research in psychology. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the New York University in 1946 and a Doctor of Philosophy in experimental psychology under K. Spence at State University Iowa in 1949. After Irving Maltzman accepted an appointment in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Psychology, he rose through the academic ranks and remained at UCLA for his entire professional career. He served as a Member faculty at the University of California at Los Angeles, since 1949; associate professor, 1957-1960; professor psychology since 1961 and department chairman, 1970-1977. Irving Maltzman’s illustrious career as an American psychology professor found him contributing to the following: Fellow: American Psychological Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science; member: Psychonomic Society, Australian Psychological Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi.

Irving Maltzman established the Learning and Behavior program; he also promoted the recruitment of historically underrepresented students and students with financial need by establishing the Minority Undergraduate Research Program, now known as The UCLA Psychology Research Opportunity Programs (PROPS).

Maltzman's Publication
Irving Maltzman also contributed significantly to psychology as a field. In 1964, he traveled to the USSR as part of the first cultural exchange with Soviet psychologists and other scientists. His experiences in the USSR prompted him to sponsor the emigration of several Jewish scientists so they could escape Soviet anti-Semitism and continue their research in the U.S. Based on his research on the orienting reflex and collaboration with Soviet scientists. Irving and M. Cole, published A Handbook of Contemporary Soviet Psychology in 1969, introducing Soviet research to Western scientists.

Irving Maltzman also contributed to the study of creativity in learning and later in his career, published books and numerous papers on alcoholism, most notably a 1982 paper in Science with co-authors M. Pendry and L. J. West. Their paper detailed significant flaws in a study by Sobell & Sobell which had concluded that controlled drinking was a more successful treatment than abstinence for physically dependent alcoholics. The Science paper contradicted the Sobells' conclusions. This experience sparked Irving's subsequent intense interest in research ethics.

Irving Myron Maltzman wrote the book ‘Alcoholism: A Review of its Characteristics, Etiology, Treatments, and Controversies’ that published November 1999. He has been listed as a noteworthy Psychology educator by Marquis Who's Who. He retired in 1994 as a Distinguished Professor.

Irving Maltzman’s Research
Originality vs Creativity

In case the discipline- Instructional Design, Instructional Technology and Distance Learning sounds foreign, its essence in encapsulated in Gardner’s stance that "Instructional design and technology is the systematic process of designing and developing instruction with the use of tools that will design, develop and implement the instruction"( n.d.). 'Distance Education' refers to the outcome, benefit or consequence of instruction when the tools are applied. There are several theorists with varied viewpoints concerning this discipline. Some may seem close knitted while others are distinct. How these theories are interpreted is left solely to the instructor implementing them (Siemens, 2006).

Irving Maltzman performed studies that illustrated that originality could be increased. According to Maltzman(1960), originality is an infrequent behaviour that is uncommon under given conditions but relevant to those conditions. It is profound how Maltzman distinguished originality from creativity, the latter being the consequences of original behaviour as well as people’s reaction to the behaviour.

Maltzman (1960) describes three methods that can increase original responses: (1) the instructor presents an uncommon stimulus situation for which conventional responses may not be readily available, (2) the instructor evokes different responses to the same situation, and (3) the instructor evokes uncommon responses as textual responses. There is much evidence of these methods in formal and informal teaching and learning exercises. Maltzman’s theory captures exactly what it means to think outside the box. Learners who are taken from a controlled setting and allowed to experiment are said to yield greater results. Same holds true for learners, especially in today’s distance learning context. It is vital learners are engaged through experimentation as this compels them to think critically, learn through discovery and unlock their creative thoughts and ideas.

Irving Maltzman’s View and Divergent Thinking

Maltzman’s stance on originality coincides with the concept, ‘divergent thinking’ that was coined by J.P. Guilford to term a type of psychological operation while problem solving. Razumnikova posited that “Divergent thinking is defined as producing a diverse assortment of appropriate responses to an open-ended question or task in which the product is not completely determined by the information (2013, para. 1). This therefore means that a learner might attempt a Mathematical problem and may not necessarily follow a prescribed procedure but discovers that he has arrived at the same solution. Maltzman believed in trial and error as well as supported figuring out the problem to arrive at a correct method. While there are perhaps several different ways to solve problems, persons will often overlook them when they could, in fact, be helpful. Divergent thinking demonstrates the ability to produce new approaches and original ideas by forming unexpected combinations from available information and by applying such abilities as semantic flexibility, and fluency of association, ideation, and transformation (Guilford, 1959, as cited in Cropley, 2006, p. 1). It brings forth answers that may never have existed before and are often novel, unusual, or surprising (Cropley, 2006). So, divergent thinking concentrates on generating a significant number of alternative responses including original, unexpected, or unusual ideas. Thus, like Maltzman purported, divergent thinking is associated with creativity.