Taking Stock in Taking Stock

In Have We Been, Where Are We Going To? Taking Stock in Creativity Research, the author attempted to use 2 recent handbook publications as a basis for drawing some general conclusions about the current state of affairs in creativity research. The commentaries provided by Eisenberger, Kaufmann, Runco, and Russ with regard to this review not only aptly illustrate some key points made in this feature article, but also provide some thought-provoking extensions of this review. In this reply, the author considers these commentaries with respect to both points of agreement and disagreement. With regard to points of disagreement, he stressed in his initial review, and would continue to stress, the practical, social aspects of creative work, as well as the need to reference creativity against products as opposed to potential. In agreement with the commentators, however, he would argue that creativity research has now progressed beyond the provisional hypotheses generation stage. Thus, the challenge confron...