See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/322835797

Emotional intelligence

Chapter · January 2018

CITATIONS READS

0 3,044

2 authors, including:

Navjot Bhullar
University of New England (Australia)
79 PUBLICATIONS   1,527 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Mental and Physical Health View project

High quality markets & value chains for small-scale & emerging beef cattle farmers in South Africa View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Navjot Bhullar on 02 February 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 1

Emotional Intelligence

Accepted for publication in:

Bhullar, N., & Schutte, N. S. (in press). Emotional intelligence. In B. J. Carducci (Editor-

in-Chief) & C. S. Nave (Vol. Ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Personality and

Individual Differences: Vol. I. Models and Theories. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Corresponding author:

Associate Professor Navjot Bhullar, University of New England, Australia

navjot.bhullar@une.edu.au
 2

Abstract

Emotional intelligence consists of interrelated competencies relating to perception,

understanding, utilizing, and managing emotions in the self and others. Emotional

intelligence is conceptualized and assessed both as an ability and as a trait or typical

functioning, and is associated with positive outcomes in a variety of life domains.

Research has shown that training in emotional intelligence skills produces beneficial

outcomes in a range of fields including education and organizational management. Future

research might focus on collective emotional intelligence and lead to beneficial

applications at the level of work-groups, organizations, and families.

Keywords

Emotional Intelligence, Ability vs. Mixed Models, Psychosocial Functioning, Well-

Being, Emotional Intelligence Skills Training

 3

Main Text

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a set of interrelated competencies to adaptively perceive,

understand, regulate, and harness emotions in the self and others (e.g., Salovey & Mayer,

1990; Schutte, Malouff, & Bhullar, 2009) and involves the capacity to control and utilize

feelings wisely. It is a positive human attribute that is related to a variety of positive life

outcomes. Emotional intelligence may be linked to adaptation – the person’s adjustment

to external circumstances in order to minimize harm and maximize benefits. For example,

the emotionally intelligent person is successful in adapting to circumstances that elicit

emotion, either through effective regulation of emotion itself, or through application of

more general coping and interpersonal skills.

Salovey and Mayer (1990) developed the original theory of emotional

intelligence, and the concept was widely popularized by Goleman (1995). Different

models of emotional intelligence can be classified into fairly distinct groups termed

ability models and mixed models (Neubauer & Freudenthaler, 2005). Ability versus

mixed models of emotional intelligence vary considerably regarding the

conceptualizations of emotional intelligence and also with respect to the proposed

instruments used to measure emotional intelligence (Schutte et al., 2009). Mixed models

conceptualize emotional intelligence as typically displayed emotional abilities and use

self-report or other-report measures. The ability model conceptualizes emotional

intelligence as potential or latent performance and uses performance-based measures of

emotional abilities.

The four-branch model of emotional intelligence (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso,

 4

2004) proposes that emotional intelligence consists of appraisal of emotion in the self and

others, expression of emotion, regulation of emotion in the self and others, and utilization

of emotion in solving problems. Subsumed under these branches are functions such as

verbal and nonverbal appraisal and expression of emotion and using emotions to motivate

as part of the utilization of emotions. In line with this conceptualization they developed

first the Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS) and then its successor, the

Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), both maximal

performance tests modeled after traditional cognitive ability tests.

Emotional intelligence has also been conceptualized as a trait or typical

functioning (Neubauer & Freudenthaler, 2005), similar to personality dimensions such as

extraversion, openness to experience, or conscientiousness. A trait conceptualization and

measurement of emotional intelligence such as one proposed by Bar-On (2000), and

operationalized through the EQ-I. Bar-On’s (2000) mixed model suggests that emotional

intelligence comprises emotional self-awareness as well as various skills or

characteristics that may stem from the effective use or regulation of emotions, such as

good interpersonal relationships, problem solving, and stress tolerance. Other trait

conceptualizations of emotional intelligence are offered by the Assessing Emotions

measure developed by Schutte et al. (2009) based on the original model proposed by

Salovey and Mayer (1990), and the Trait Meta Mood Scale, also based on this earlier

Salovey and Mayer definition.

A trait approach to assessing emotional intelligence draws on self or other reports

to gather information regarding the display of emotional intelligence characteristics in

daily life. Even though some literature presents ability and trait conceptualizations of
 5

emotional intelligence as mutually exclusive alternatives (e.g., Mayer et al., 2004), we

believe that both are important and complementary dimensions of adaptive emotional

functioning.

Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Positive Outcomes

Emotional intelligence has received substantial attention in psychology as well as in areas

such as education and business. A Google Scholar search in 2018 showed that over the

past years 2,270,000 scholarly works mentioned emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence compliments the predictive value of traditional cognitive

factors that leave a considerable amount of variance unexplained in educational and

organizational outcomes. Further, emotional intelligence has incremental validity in

predicting academic and social life outcomes, life satisfaction, and happiness above

traditional measures of academic intelligence and personality. Trait emotional

intelligence may overlap with a general social effectiveness factor of personality, while

ability emotional intelligence seems only moderately associated with this factor (van der

Linden et al., 2017).

A meta-analysis by Schutte, Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Bhullar and Rooke (2007)

found significant associations between emotional intelligence and mental, physical and

psychosomatic health across studies. A later meta-analysis (Martins, Ramalho, & Morin,

2010) including subsequent studies found similar results.

Emotional intelligence is associated with markers of subjective well-being such as

more positive mood, greater life satisfaction and more psychological well-being. Further,

emotional intelligence is associated with positive characteristics such as prosocial

behavior, empathy, parental warmth, family and peer relations, good quality social
 6

interaction, and varied organizationally relevant outcome variables such as job

satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational productivity, and trust.

Higher emotional intelligence is linked with aspects of better psychosocial

functioning (Schutte et al., 2007), including intrapersonal factors such as greater

optimism and interpersonal factors such as better social relationships. Some of these

psychosocial factors, such as more social support and more satisfaction with social

support for those with higher emotional intelligence, may serve as buffers to physical

illness. Schutte, Palanisamy, and McFarlane (2016) found that higher emotional

intelligence was associated with longer telomeres, a biomarker indicating better health

and predicting lower mortality rate.

Can Emotional Intelligence be Increased through Training?

Schutte, Malouff, and Thorsteinsson (2013) reviewed studies using emotional

intelligence training interventions and provided evidence that such training resulted in

increases in emotional intelligence and positive outcomes in important life domains.

Typically emotional intelligence training includes psycho-educational elements and

application cognitive behavioral strategies (Schutte et al., 2013).

For example, Kotsou et al. (2011) also found that participants in an emotional

intelligence intervention condition reported greater increases in life satisfaction, lower

self-reported stress levels and better cortisol levels as measured by saliva assays. In an

organizational study, Groves, McEnrue, and Shen (2008) provided employees with an 11-

week training program that presented information on emotional intelligence and modeled

the competencies comprising emotional intelligence. They found that those in the training

group had significantly higher typical emotional intelligence after the training period than
 7

employees in a comparison group.

Future Directions

Future research and applications of emotional intelligence could focus further on group

level emotional intelligence and societal and policy implications of emotional

intelligence. Most emotional intelligence research and application have focused on

individuals; however, emotional intelligence can also be conceptualized as a collective or

group characteristic that is associated with group performance. More research focusing

on collective emotional intelligence at the level of work-groups, organizations, families,

and societies would help open further avenues for beneficial applications relating to

emotional intelligence.

An example of possible societal and policy implications of emotional intelligence

is provided by Mikolajczak and Van Bellegem (2017). Through assessing associations

between participants’ emotional intelligence and their health care expenditures, they

found that every 1% increase in intrapersonal emotional intelligence corresponded to a

1% decrease in healthcare costs. Coupled with findings regarding the feasibility of

increasing emotional intelligence through training, this finding suggests that societal

programs aimed at increasing emotional intelligence might have economic benefits as

well as enhancing personal well-being.

The utility of high emotional intelligence in various realms of life and endeavors

might be further explored. For example, Schlegel, Mehu, van Peer and Scherer (2018)

examined the role of emotional intelligence in negotiation outcomes and found that

higher emotional intelligence was associated with greater dyadic gains, benefitting both

negotiation partners, as well as greater cooperativeness and liking of negotiation partners.

 8

Future research and applications might investigate further the buffering effects of

emotional intelligence for individuals in high stress occupations or for those in especially

challenging situations. Research shows that higher emotional intelligence helps in

reducing the impact of high work-family conflict on poor mental health among nurses.

Such findings implications both for investigating other populations experiencing stress or

challenge and suggest that emotional intelligence training studies involving such

populations might be useful.

See Also

wbepid0238

wbepid0399

wbepid0192

wbepid0389

References

Bar-On, R. (2000). Emotional and social intelligence: Insights from the emotional quotient

inventory. In R. Bar-On & J. D. A. Parker (Eds.), The handbook of emotional

intelligence (pp. 363-388). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. New York:

Bantam Books.

Groves, K. S., McEnrue, M. P., & Shen, W. (2008). Developing and measuring the

emotional intelligence of leaders. Journal of Management Development, 27, 225-250.

Kotsou, I., Nelis, D., Grégoire, J., & Mikolajczak, M. (2011). Emotional plasticity:

Conditions and effects of improving emotional competence in adulthood. Journal of

 9

Applied Psychology, 96, 827-839.

Martins, A., Ramalho, N., & Morin, E. (2010). A comprehensive meta-analysis of the

relationship between emotional intelligence and health. Personality and Individual

Differences, 49, 554-564.

Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2004). Emotional intelligence: Theory,

findings, and implications. Psychological Inquiry, 15, 197-215.

Mikolajczak, M., & Van Bellegem, S. (2017). Increasing emotional intelligence to

decrease healthcare expenditures: How profitable would it be?. Personality and

Individual Differences, 116, 343-347.

Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition and

Personality, 9, 185-211.

Schlegel, K., Mehu, M., van Peer, J. M., & Scherer, K. R. (2018). Sense and sensibility:

The role of cognitive and emotional intelligence in negotiation. Journal of Research

in Personality, 6-15.

Schutte, N.S., Malouff, J.M., Thorsteinsson, E.B., Bhullar, N., & Rooke, S.E. (2007). A

meta-analytic investigation of the relationship between emotional intelligence and

health. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 921-933.

Schutte, N.S., Malouff, J.M., & Bhullar, N. (2009). The assessing emotions scale. In

Assessing emotional intelligence (pp. 119-134). Springer US.

Schutte, N.S., Malouff, J.M., Thorsteinsson, E.B. (2013). Increasing emotional

intelligence through training: Current status and future directions. International

Journal of Emotional Education, 5, 56-72.

Schutte, N.S., Palanisamy, S.K., & McFarlane, J.R. (2016) The relationship between
 10

positive psychological characteristics and longer telomeres. Psychology & Health,

31, 1466-1480.

Further Reading

Neubauer, A.C., & Freudenthaler, H.H. (2005). Models of emotional intelligence. In

Schultz, R. & Roberts, R.D. (eds), Emotional intelligence: An international

handbook (pp. 31-50). Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe.

van der Linden, D., Pekaar, K. A., Bakker, A. B., Schermer, J. A., Vernon, P. A., Dunkel,

C. S., & Petrides, K. V. (2017). Overlap between the general factor of personality

and emotional intelligence: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 36-52.

Biography

Navjot Bhullar, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of New

England, Australia. Her research focuses on examining a range of psychological,

emotional and environmental factors influencing mental heath and well-being.

Nicola S. Schutte, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of

New England, Australia. Her research interests lie in the area of positive psychology and

include a focus on motivation, emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and positive affect.

View publication stats