The concluding chapter reflects on the contributions across five parts of the Handbook. We consider the threads connecting specific chapters within the topical sections devoted to the methodology of studying creativity and emotion, creative process, creative person, creative product, and creative contexts. In this reflection, we pay special attention to what is missing and what are key directions for future research. We propose an integrative model describing the role of affective processes across different aspects of creativity. The model discusses the need to specify the nature of creativity being studied (in terms of time, potential vs. actualization, and locus of judgment of creativity), as well as levels in which the role of emotions in creativity manifest itself (individual, dyadic, group, institutional, cultural). The process model of affective influences on creativity describes the role of affective states, emotion-related traits, and emotion abilities at different points from facing or initiating creative problems to creative beliefs and intentions, creative behavior, and creative products or achievements.

This chapter examines the role of emotion traits in creativity. Here, creativity is defined as a syndrome that involves attitudinal, cognitive, and behavioral components. Emotion traits most centrally affect aspects of the creativity syndrome that are manifested across situations and time. Specifically, the chapter reviews evidence of emotion traits influencing the creative decision, creative process engagement, domain-specific performance, and frequency of creative activities and achievement. The function of emotion traits is to direct attention, energize, and lower the threshold for behavior. The chapter suggests future directions in the study of emotion traits and creativity.

The invention of imaginary worlds may be understood as a powerful tool for exploring experience, discovering the self, and creating knowledge and meaning. An imagined world is an earth or universe or a system of make-believe ideas and things that may be contemplated in the mind, though it remains veritably unexperienced. In childhood, worldplay (paracosm play) refers to imaginative pretense that is persistent, cumulative, and constructive (maps, stories, drawings, and more may be generated). In adulthood, worldplay refers to the world-building narratives of writers and artists; to the plausible reconstructions, scenarios, and probable worlds of social scientists; and to the theoretical suppositions and possible worlds of scientists. As such, worldplay presents a unique opportunity to probe what-if cognition. Indeed, as the history of its study indicates, world invention as play and as creative strategy tells us much about development of imaginative thinking and the growth of creative competence across the lifespan.