Emotions are part of the creative process, and emerging research shows the emotions and creativity association extends well beyond simply the enhancing effects of pleasant emotions in laboratory studies on divergent thinking. More and more, researchers are recognizing that how the creator interprets, channels, and manages their emotions matters. So, are emotionally intelligent people more creative? The short answer is, it depends on who you ask. In this chapter, we will first describe prominent models of emotional intelligence (EI) and creativity and then review what evidence exists for the connection between the two constructs. We next describe our own conceptualization of EI and creative achievement grounded in the ability model of EI and actual creative performance. We conclude with examples of training programs and educational initiatives that can support both the development of EI and creative abilities.

Research on creativity by Chinese researchers began to boom in the 1990s. From then on, creativity research and practice regarding the enhancement of creativity in Chinese societies, particularly in Mainland China, have developed very quickly. The present chapter gives an overview of the enhancement of creativity across the lifespan in Mainland China, focusing on the literature published in the new millennium. Major approaches of creativity enhancement proposed by Chinese researchers on the basis of decades of creativity research and education experience in Mainland China will be introduced. Typical examples of creativity enhancement measures for different age phases, ranging from kindergarten to later life, will be presented. Based on the review, characteristics of the research and practice on creativity enhancement across the lifespan will be summarized, and it is pointed out that more “bottom-up” approaches should be encouraged and promoted in Mainland China in its further efforts in enhancing creativity among people of different ages.

The development of creativity is simultaneously possible and impossible. It is impossible because creativity is very domain specific, which means there is no general, all-purpose creative-thinking skill or set of skills that is applicable across domains. Just as there is no such thing as domain-general expertise – one can be an expert in one or many domains, but one cannot be an all-purpose expert in all domains – there is no domain-general creativity. There being no such domain-general skills, there are no domain-general creativity-relevant skills to be nurtured. On the other hand, the nurturance of creativity domain by domain is quite possible. This chapter explores the issue of how domain specificity affects the development of creativity.