Editorial: Emotional intelligence: Current research and future perspectives on mental health and individual differences

Summary & key facts

This editorial reviews a collection of 10 articles about emotional intelligence (EI). It says EI research has grown a lot over the last two decades, but many different models and tests have created confusion. The editors note links between EI and mental health, stress, and school outcomes in several studies, but they also say more work is needed to sort out different models and how EI is measured.

Key facts:

• The Research Topic collected 10 articles on emotional intelligence (EI).
• Seven of the 10 articles used self-report tools to measure EI. Two of the 10 used the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, an ability-based performance measure.
• The editorial contrasts two main approaches: ability EI (measured with performance tests) and trait EI (measured with questionnaires).
• One paper (Zuanazzi et al.) confirmed the validity of the Trait EI Questionnaire in a large Brazilian sample.
• A systematic review (Pérez-Fernández et al.) concluded that EI may be a protective factor for emotional disorders and discussed EI’s role in managing diabetes, using cautious language ("may").
• Several empirical papers found associations (not proven causes) between EI and mental health or stress: Kökçam et al. linked EI to stress profiles; Sergi et al. connected emotion-recognition and control domains of EI with lower risk of depr
• Two studies using the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso test reported that coping strategies mediate the relation between ability EI and wellbeing/ill-being (MacCann et al.), and offered preliminary evidence of links between ability EI, attachment secur
• The editorial highlights a major limitation in the field: many conflicting EI models and measures produce different results, which makes it hard to summarize what EI predicts and to build consistent theory.

Abstract

The last two decades have seen a steadily growing interest in emotional intelligence (EI) research and its applications. As a side effect of this boom in res...

Topics

Emotional Intelligence and Performance Optimism, Hope, and Well-being Personality Traits and Psychology

Categories

Psychology Social Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Applied psychology Cognitive psychology Emotional intelligence Mental health Psychiatry Psychology Social psychology