Ability-Related Emotional Intelligence: An Introduction

Summary & key facts

Emotional intelligence (EI) here means real, testable skills for noticing, understanding, using, and managing emotions. Researchers now favor ability-based tests over self-reports because self-reports often look like personality. But ability-based EI has measurement problems and only small, inconsistent links to real-world outcomes. Some studies find tiny or near-zero links with well-being or job behaviors, and effects often shrink when personality or cognitive ability are taken into account. The field needs better theory, better tests, and more work on how EI might work or be trained.

Key facts:

• Ability-based EI is defined as skills for perceiving, understanding, managing, and using emotions and is measured with performance tests rather than self-reports.
• Researchers generally prefer ability-based tests to self-report EI because self-reports often correlate strongly with personality traits and do not match ability scores.
• Common ability-based EI tests include the MEIS (first widely used), the MSCEIT, STEU, STEM, NEAT, and the GECo; common emotion-recognition tests include JACBART, MERT, and GERT.
• Meta-analytic and review evidence shows only small and inconsistent predictive links: many correlations are around r = 0.2, and some are much smaller (for example, one study found MSCEIT–well-being correlations near r = 0.04).
• A meta-analysis reported ability-EI predicted workplace citizenship behavior with r = 0.17 and had a non-significant relation with counterproductive work behavior (r = 0.01).
• Many reported EI effects become smaller or disappear after controlling for personality and/or cognitive ability, creating uncertainty about what ability EI uniquely predicts.
• Some studies find specific benefits tied to ability EI (not self-report EI), such as lower reactive aggression, less distress-linked suicidal behavior, and better cognitive control in emotional contexts, but these findings are selective and
• The article calls for more theory, clearer measurement (including less prototypical and more context-rich tasks), and research on mechanisms and training to better understand what ability EI is and how it works.

Abstract

Emotionally intelligent people are thought to be more skilled in recognizing, thinking about, using, and regulating emotions. This construct has garnered considerable interest, but initial enthusiasm has faded and it is time to take stock. There is consensus that ability-related measures of emotional intelligence (EI) can be favored to self-report tests, in part because the resulting scores cannot be equated with personality traits. However, there are questions surrounding measurement as well as predictive value. Experts in the field were encouraged to chart new directions, with the idea that these new directions could reinvigorate EI scholarship. Special Issue papers speak to theory, mechanism, measurement, and training. In addition, these papers seek to forge links with research traditions focused on interpersonal perception, emotional awareness, and emotion regulation. As a result of these efforts, new insights into what EI is and how it works can be anticipated in upcoming years.

Topics

Emotional Intelligence and Performance Learning Styles and Cognitive Differences Personality Traits and Psychology

Categories

Psychology Social Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Cognitive psychology Computer science Construct (python library) Emotional intelligence Enthusiasm Interpersonal communication Law Machine learning Neuroscience Perception Personality Political science Programming language Psychology Scholarship Social psychology Value (mathematics)