essay on emotional intelligence in english

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Mia Belle Frothingham

Author, Researcher, Science Communicator

BA with minors in Psychology and Biology, MRes University of Edinburgh

Mia Belle Frothingham is a Harvard University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Sciences with minors in biology and psychology

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Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to perceive, understand, and manage one’s own emotions and relationships. It involves being aware of emotions in oneself and others and using this awareness to guide thinking and behavior. Emotionally intelligent individuals can motivate themselves, read social cues, and build strong relationships

Some researchers propose that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others argue it is an inborn characteristic.

The ability to express and manage emotions is essential, but so is the ability to understand, diagnose, and react to the emotions of others. Imagine a world in which one could not understand when a friend felt sad or a classmate was angry.

Why is Emotional Intelligence Critical?

Emotional Intelligence is the “ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior” (Salovey and Mayer, 1990).

Having a higher level of emotional intelligence allows one to empathize with others, communicate effectively, and be both self and socially aware. How people respond to themselves and others impacts all types of environments.

Living in this world signifies interacting with many diverse kinds of individuals and constant change with life-changing surprises.

Being emotionally intelligent is key to how one reacts to what life throws. It is furthermore a fundamental element of compassion and comprehending the deeper reasons behind other people’s actions.

It is not the most intelligent people who are the most prosperous or the most fulfilled in life. Many people are academically genius and yet are socially incompetent and unsuccessful in their careers or their intimate relationships.

Intellectual ability or intelligence quotient (IQ) is not enough on its own to achieve success in life. Undoubtedly, IQ can help one get into university, but your Emotional Intelligence (EI) will help one manage stress and emotions when facing final exams.

IQ and EI exist in tandem and are most influential when they build off one another.

Emotional intelligence is also valuable for leaders who set the tone of their organization. If leaders lack emotional intelligence , it could have more far-reaching consequences, resulting in lower worker engagement and a higher turnover rate.

While one might excel at one’s job technically, if one cannot effectively communicate with one’s team or collaborate with others, those specialized skills will get neglected.

By mastering emotional intelligence, one can positively impact anywhere and continue to advance one’s position and career in life. EI is vital when dealing with stressful situations like confrontation, change, and obstacles.

Emotional intelligence helps one build stronger relationships, succeed at work or school, and achieve one’s career and personal goals, as well as reduce group stress, defuse conflict, and enhance job satisfaction.

It can also help connect with one’s inner feelings, turn purpose into action, and make informed decisions about what matters most to oneself.

During these times, it is essential to remember to practice kindness, and being in touch with our emotions can help us do just that.

Examples of Emotional Intelligence

How does one become emotionally intelligent? Below we will discuss what one can do to learn to improve the skills that are behind emotional intelligence (EI).

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to recognize the meanings of emotions and to reason and problem-solve based on them (Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 1999).

By working on and improving these skills, one can become more emotionally intelligent and, therefore, more successful!

Emotional Awareness and Understanding

Self-awareness, or the ability to recognize and comprehend one’s own emotions, is a vital emotional intelligence skill. Beyond acknowledging one’s feelings, however, is being conscious of the effect of one’s actions, moods, and emotions on other people.

According to research by Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist, 95% of individuals believe they are self-aware. Still, only 10 to 15 percent genuinely are, which can cause problems for the people one interacts with.

Being with people who are not self-aware can be frustrating and lead to increased stress and decreased encouragement.

To become self-aware, one must be capable of monitoring one’s emotions while recognizing different emotional reactions and correctly identifying each distinct emotion.

Self-aware individuals also can recognize the connections between the things they feel and how they act.

These individuals also acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, are open to new data and experiences, and learn from their exchanges with others.

Furthermore, people who maintain self-awareness have a fine sense of humor, are confident in themselves and their capabilities, and know how others perceive them.

Here are some tips on improving one’s self-awareness:

Ask for constructive feedback from others.

Keep a journal of one’s thoughts and feelings.

Practice mindfulness – try meditating.

Pay careful attention to one’s thoughts and emotions.

Pursue one’s passions and do what makes one happy.

Learn new skills and set goals for oneself.

Reflect on one’s experiences and be grateful.

Use positive self-talk daily.

Work on building a growth mindset.

Emotional Self Regulation (Managing Emotions)

In addition to being aware of one’s own emotions and the impact one has on others, emotional intelligence requires one to regulate and manage one’s emotions .

This does not mean taking emotions out of sight and essentially “locking” them away, hence hiding one’s true feelings. It just means waiting for the right time and place to express them. Self-regulation is all about communicating one’s emotions appropriately in context. A reaction tends to be involuntary.

The more in tune one is with one’s emotional intelligence, the easier one can transition from an instant reaction to a well-thought-out response. It is crucial to remember to pause, breathe, compose oneself, and do what it takes to manage one’s emotions.

This could mean anything to oneself, like taking a walk or talking to a friend, so that one can more appropriately and intentionally respond to tension and adversity.

Those proficient in self-regulation tend to be flexible and acclimate well to change. They are also suitable for handling conflict and diffusing uncomfortable or difficult situations.

People with healthy self-regulation skills also tend to have heightened conscientiousness. They reflect on how they influence others and take accountability for their actions.

Here are some tips on improving one’s self-regulation:

Look at challenges as opportunities.

Be mindful of thoughts and feelings.

Build distress and anxiety tolerance skills.

Work on accepting reflections and emotions.

Find ways to manage difficult emotions.

Practice communication and social skills.

Recognize that one has a choice in how one responds.

Use cognitive reframing to change emotional responses and thought patterns.

Social Empathy (Perceiving Emotions)

Empathy , or the capability to comprehend how other people are feeling, is crucial to perfecting emotional intelligence.

However, it involves more than just being able to identify the emotional states of others. It also affects one’s responses to people based on this knowledge.

How does one respond when one senses someone is feeling sad or hopeless? One might treat them with extra care and consideration, or one might make a push to lift their mood.

Being empathetic also allows one to understand the authority dynamics that frequently influence social relationships, especially in the workplace.

This is essential for guiding one’s daily interactions with various people. In fact, it is found that empathy ranks as the number one leadership skill.

Leaders proficient in empathy perform more than 40% higher in coaching, engaging others, and decision-making. In a different study, researchers found that leaders who show more empathy toward their co-workers and constructive criticism are viewed as better performers by their supervisors.

Those competent in this element can recognize who maintains power in different relationships. They also understand how these forces impact feelings and behaviors. Because of this, they can accurately analyze different situations that hinge on such power dynamics.

Here are some tips on improving social empathy:

Be willing to share emotions.

Listen to other people.

Practice meditation.

Engage in a purpose like a community project.

Meet and talk to new people.

Try to imagine yourself in someone else’s place.

Social Skills (Using Emotions)

The ability to interact well with others is another vital aspect of emotional intelligence. Solid social skills allow people to build meaningful relationships with others and develop a more robust understanding of themselves and others.

Proper emotional understanding involves more than just understanding one’s own emotions and those of others. One also needs to put this information to work in one’s daily interactions and communications.

In the workplace or professional settings, managers benefit by being able to build relationships and connections with employees.

Workers benefit from developing a solid rapport with leaders and co-workers. Some prefer to avoid conflict, but it is crucial to address issues as they arise correctly.

Research shows that every unaddressed conflict can waste almost eight hours of company time on unproductive activities, damaging resources and morale. Essential social skills include active listening , verbal communication, nonverbal communication, leadership , and persuasiveness.

Here are some tips on improving social skills:

Ask open-ended questions.

Find icebreakers that will help start conversations.

Practice good eye contact.

Practice active listening with the entire body.

Notice other people’s social skills.

Show interest in others and ask them personal questions.

Watch one’s body language and that of others.

In The Workplace

Emotional intelligence includes showing genuine compassion, empathizing with the needs of individuals, and encouraging the ongoing personal growth of individuals.

When a leader takes into account the emotions of their followers, they then learn how to best engage with them.

1. Lending a Compassionate Ear to a Frustrated Co-Worker

Employees will inevitably get upset, have bad moods, argue, and just generally have bad days. In practice, compassion, understanding, and awareness are definite signs of emotional intelligence.

Awareness of and reacting to other people’s emotional states shows an understanding that all humans experience intense emotions and says that a person’s feelings matter.

2. Listening to Others Respectfully

Ever been to a conference when it seems like everyone is speaking over each other, trying to get the last word?

This is not only an indication of egos taking over and a lack of consideration for others; these are also indications of there being a lack of emotional intelligence.

When individuals are allowed to speak, and others listen without persistent interruptions, it is a good sign of EI. It shows reciprocal respect between parties and is more likely to lead to a productive conclusion in meetings.

3. Being Flexible

Flexibility is a critical term in organizations today. Building flexibility into how people function can be the difference between keeping the best workers and drifting out the door.

Emotionally intelligent leaders comprehend the changing needs of others and are ready to work with them rather than attempting to impose rigid restrictions on how people go about their work.

They do not expect everyone to work the hours they do, hold the same priorities, or live by precisely the same values.

In Healthcare

1. being patient with hurting individuals.

When in healthcare, it is expected that doctors and nurses will have to manage people in pain. Emotional intelligence not only allows for better patient care but also for better self-care.

For instance, if a patient is lashing out, and one can see that they are in pain, one will be far less likely to take their combativeness personally and treat them better.

2. Acting as the Effective Leader

In healthcare, there is a necessity to have influential leaders, a trusting environment with a helpful team, critical thinking, and quality patient and family-centered care.

A higher emotional intelligence will allow healthcare professionals to respond and react better to patients. Studies have shown a correlation between emotional intelligence and positive patient outcomes.

3. Responding Better to Stressful Situations

Multiple occasions in healthcare involve an urgent situation involving a life or death scenario. Doctors and nurses must check their own emotions.

Being in healthcare is a highly emotional career, and being aware of your feelings when they come up is key to effective self-care.

Interacting with patients can cause overwhelming joy or deep sadness, and these fluctuations can be utterly exhausting.

The ability to deal with these feelings, take breaks, and ask for help when you need it is another example of good emotional intelligence that nurses should practice.

Tips for Improving EI

Be more self-aware.

Awareness of one’s emotions and emotional responses to others can significantly improve one’s emotional intelligence. Knowing when one is feeling anxious or angry can help process and communicate those feelings in a way that promotes healthy results.

Recognize how others feel

Emotional intelligence could start with self-reflection, but measuring how others perceive one’s behavior and communication is essential. Adjusting one’s message based on how one is being received is an integral part of being emotionally intelligent.

Practice active listening

People communicate verbally and nonverbally, so listening and monitoring for potentially positive and negative reactions is essential. Taking the time to hear others also demonstrates a level of respect that can form the basis for healthy relationships.

Communicate clearly

Solid communication skills are critical for emotional intelligence. Knowing what to express or write and when to offer information is crucial for building strong relationships.

For instance, as a manager in a work environment, communicating expectations and goals is required to keep everyone on the same page.

Stay positive

A positive attitude is incredibly infectious. Emotionally intelligent people comprehend the power of positive words, encouraging emails, and friendly gestures. When one can also remain positive in a stressful situation, one can help others stay calm. It can also encourage further problem-solving and collaboration.

Thinking about how others might be feeling is an essential quality of emotional intelligence. It means you can empathize with feelings that one may not be feeling oneself and respond in a way that is respectful and relaxing to others.

Be open-minded

Emotionally intelligent people are comfortable to approach because they are good listeners and can consider and understand other viewpoints. They are also receptive to learning new things and embracing novel ideas.

Listen to feedback

It is essential to be the type of person who can hear feedback, whether it is positive on a recent presentation or more critical advice on how you should commission tasks more efficiently.

Being receptive to feedback means taking responsibility for one’s actions and being willing to improve how one communicates with others.

Stay calm under pressure

It is essential to approach stressful situations with a calm and positive attitude. Pressures can quickly escalate, primarily when people are operating under deadlines, so keeping steady and concentrating on finding a solution will help everyone complete their goals.

History of Emotional Intelligence

In the 1930s, psychologist Edward Thorndike explained the concept of “social intelligence” as the ability to get along with other individuals.

During the 1940s, psychologist David Wechsler suggested that different practical elements of intelligence could play a critical role in how successful people are in life.

In the 1950s, the school of thought was known as humanistic psychology, and scholars such as Abraham Maslow concentrated attention on how people could build emotional strength.

Another critical concept to arise in the development of emotional intelligence was the concept of multiple intelligences . This idea was put forth in the mid-1970s by Howard Gardner, presenting the idea that intelligence was more than just a single, broad capacity.

Emotional intelligence did not come into our vernacular until around 1990. The term “emotional intelligence” was first utilized in 1985 as it was presented in a doctoral dissertation by Wayne Payne.

In 1987, there was an article written by Keith Beasley and published in Mensa Magazine that used the term emotional quotient or EQ.

Then in 1990, psychologists John Mayer and Peter Salovey published their milestone article, Emotional Intelligence , in the journal Imagination, Cognition, and Personality .

They described emotional intelligence as the capability to monitor one’s and others’ feelings and emotions, discriminate among them, and use this knowledge to guide one’s thinking and actions.

Salovey and Mayer also initiated a research study to develop accurate measures of emotional intelligence and explore its significance. For example, they found in one investigation that when a group of people saw an upsetting film, those who ranked high on emotional clarity, or the ability to recognize and label a mood that is being experienced, recovered more quickly.

In a different study, people who scored higher in the ability to perceive accurately, understand and appraise others’ emotions were sufficiently capable of responding flexibly to changes in their social environments and building supportive social networks.

But despite it being a relatively new term, attraction to the concept has grown tremendously. In 1995, the concept of emotional intelligence was popularized after the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book  Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is emotional intelligence important in the workplace.

Researchers have indicated that emotional intelligence influences how excellently employees interact with their colleagues, and EI is also considered to play a role in how employees manage stress and conflict.

It also affects overall performance on the job. Other studies have connected emotional intelligence with job satisfaction.

Studies have shown that workers with higher scores on measures of EI also tend to be ranked higher on criteria of interpersonal functioning, leadership abilities, and stress management.

While standard intelligence was associated with leadership success, it alone was not enough. People who are prosperous at work are not just brilliant; they also have a high EI.

But emotional intelligence is not simply for CEOs and senior executives.

It is a quality that is essential at every level of a person’s career, from university students looking for internships to seasoned workers hoping to take on a leadership role.

Emotional intelligence is critical to success if one wants to succeed in the workplace and move up the career ladder.

Can emotional intelligence be taught?

As it turns out, the question whether emotional intelligence can be learned is not a straightforward one to answer.

Some psychologists and researchers claim that emotional intelligence is a skill that is not quickly learned or improved. Other psychologists and researchers, though, believe it can be improved with practice.

One key to improving EI is sustained practice – especially in high-stakes situations. Referring back to the above tips, one could read them and say those guidelines are pretty straightforward.

But, the challenging task is to do these practices in real-time and consistently. It takes practice to develop these skills. Then as you acquire them, you have to rehearse them under stress.

Can emotional intelligence be measured?

Several different assessments have arisen to gauge levels of emotional intelligence. These trials typically fall into one of two types: self-report tests and ability tests.

Self-report tests are the most abundant because they are the quickest to administer and score. Respondents respond to questions or statements on such tests by rating their behaviors.

For example, on a comment such as “I sense that I understand how others are feeling,” a test-taker might describe the statement as strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree.

On the other hand, ability tests involve people responding to situations and assessing their skills. These tests often require people to demonstrate their abilities, which a third party rates.

If one is taking an emotional intelligence trial issued by a mental health professional, here are two measures that could be used: Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI).

What is the dark side of emotional intelligence?

The dark side of emotional intelligence is using one’s understanding of emotions manipulatively, to deceive, control, or exploit others.

High emotional intelligence can mask hidden agendas, enabling insincere charm or feigned empathy, potentially leading to deceitful or self-serving actions.

Boyatzis, R. E., & Goleman, D. (2011). Emotional and social competency inventory (ESCI): A user guide for accredited practitioners.  Retrieved December ,  17 , 2019.

Eurich, T. (2018). What self-awareness really is (and how to cultivate it).  Harvard Business Review , 1-9.

Gardner, H. E. (2000). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century . Hachette UK.

Goleman, D. (1996).  Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ . Bloomsbury Publishing.

Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D. R., & Salovey, P. (1999). Emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for an intelligence.  Intelligence, 27 (4), 267-298.

Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1993). The intelligence of emotional intelligence.  Intelligence, 17 (4), 433-442.

Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (2007).  Mayer-Salovery-Caruso emotional intelligence test . Toronto: Multi-Health Systems Incorporated.

Payne, W. L. (1985). A study of emotion: developing emotional intelligence; self-integration; relating to fear, pain and desire.

Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence .  Imagination, cognition and personality ,  9 (3), 185-211.

Thorndike, R. L., & Stein, S. (1937). An evaluation of the attempts to measure social intelligence.  Psychological Bulletin ,  34 (5), 275.

Wechsler, D., & Kodama, H. (1949).  Wechsler intelligence scale for children  (Vol. 1). New York: Psychological corporation.

The Truth About Emotional Intelligence

For those who have it, it predicts success in many ways..

By Psychology Today Contributors published March 5, 2024 - last reviewed on March 6, 2024

A Brief History of Emotional Intelligence

Everyone values EI, but actually learning the component skills is another matter entirely.

By Marc Brackett, Ph.D., and Robin Stern, Ph.D.

Thirty-four years ago, in a world still debating whether emotions were a disruptive or adaptive force, two research psychologists proposed the concept of emotional intelligence . Peter Salovey and John Mayer contended that there is “a set of skills contributing to the accurate appraisal of emotions in self and others and the effective regulation of emotion in self and others” and that feelings could be harnessed to motivate oneself and to achieve in life. So unorthodox was the notion that people could benefit from their emotions that their article could find a home only in an obscure journal. Five years later, psychologist-writer Daniel Goleman, unconstrained by scholarly review processes, penned Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ , which widely popularized the idea.

Decades later, there exists a general understanding that emotions matter and can serve people’s goals ; emotions have a seat at the table. From gaslighting to rizz , recent words of the year, people have adopted the language of emotions. Parents want their children to have emotional intelligence, and the new field of social and emotional learning is helping teachers bring it into classrooms. Adults understand the importance of EI in relationships and consider it a desirable quality in a partner. CEOs see it as essential to the 21st-century workplace, a requirement for good decision-making , inspiring others, team functioning, and general productivity ; headhunters pose interview questions to assess it.

Further, we know from theory and some preliminary research that the skills of emotional intelligence actually matter. People who have them are healthier, happier, more effective, and more productive. EI predicts things of importance for children and adults. And if the worth of EI wasn’t clear before 2020, the pandemic halted so much social interaction—the growth medium of EI—that just about everyone hungered for human contact and stumbled in their social and emotional well-being.

However chastened the world is about the value of understanding yourself, maintaining friendships, and mastering daily frustrations, it’s inescapable that mental health in the U.S. has been declining in recent decades, especially among the young. If EI contributes to mental health and offers tools to address disappointments and uncertainties, how could that be?

As we see it, the number-one problem is implementation. People give lip service to wanting EI but don’t necessarily devote effort to gaining the skills. You can’t hold a one-hour workshop or put kids in a circle to talk about their feelings and call it EI. Emotional intelligence consists of a set of skills that advance developmentally, as people do, and their teaching has to be aligned with social and cognitive development. Just being aware of emotions is not enough. And you can’t teach EI to children unless you teach adults first; parents have to live it at home, teachers have to model it in school.

Becoming emotionally healthy and emotionally intelligent is hard work. That’s a hard sell in a culture that, over the past 30 years, has promoted the idea that you can gain mental health by taking a pill. Effort must go not only into gaining mental health but also maintaining it.

Emotional intelligence supports mental health, but it isn’t the whole of mental health. People get anxious or depressed for many reasons: Their biology may incline them to it. A partner suffers a debilitating experience. A breadwinner gets laid off. The more readily a person can recognize and label their emotional responses to life’s roller coaster, the better able they are to address those feelings while experiencing them, so as not to be overwhelmed by them.

Another major factor eroding the mental health of the population is that the world is exponentially more complicated today than even 30 years ago. There are more reasons for kids and adults to be anxious and overwhelmed. Climate change is an existential threat. There are school shootings. The governance of the country has been openly roiling for close to a decade, with a new level of uncertainty accompanying elections.

You can’t talk about mental health today without talking about technology. Digital technology was becoming available globally just as the concept of EI was introduced. When you are staring at a screen much of the day versus interacting with a live person, you miss out on important emotional currency.

At the same time, algorithms are keeping people in a state of emotional upheaval. Social media in particular have deliberately built into their platforms mechanisms to activate the nervous system . Research has shown a correlation between anxiety and time spent on social media.

It’s not impossible to course correct. The world has moved beyond the Freudian idea that emotions sit in a cauldron of the unconscious , driving us to do things we don’t want to do. We have an emotion system for a reason. Emotions are helpful. Happiness tells you that you are achieving your goals. Fear alerts you to prepare for danger. All emotions are data and information. There are skills that can help people use them wisely, but every one of them has to be learned.

Marc Brackett, Ph.D ., is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center. Robin Stern, Ph.D ., is the associate director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and an associate research scientist in the Child Study Center.

Why You Should Expand Your Emotional Vocabulary

Emotional granularity, or the ability to precisely name a wide range of emotions, plays a critical role in psychological wellness. Here’s how to cultivate it.

By Katrina McCoy, Ph.D.

We’ve all felt it—the nagging of an unpleasant emotion that is difficult to name or explain. Maybe you chalk it up to feeling “off” or “upset.”

But finding more precise labels for our emotions can help us feel better—both in the moment and over the long term. This precise labeling of emotions is called emotional granularity.

The Benefits of Emotional Granularity Emotional granularity is a skill, and researchers have demonstrated its important role in psychological well-being for decades. For example, a 2015 review of the research on emotional granularity found that folks who could differentiate their emotions while experiencing intense distress were less likely to engage in potentially harmful coping strategies, such as binge drinking, lashing out at others, and hurting themselves.

This means a person who describes feeling “angry,” “disappointed,” “sad,” or “ashamed” in the context of, let’s say, a conflict with a friend is likely to cope more effectively with those feelings than a person who uses vague descriptions, such as feeling “bad” or “upset.”

Impressively, the benefits of emotional granularity extend beyond any specific moment of distress. That same 2015 review found that people who describe and label their emotions more specifically have less severe episodes of anxiety and depression .

How Emotional Granularity Works How does using more specific language to describe unpleasant experiences reduce distress? A straightforward answer is this: The more accurately we can describe our emotional experience and the context in which the experience is happening, the more information we have to decide what will help. Neuroscience even suggests that labeling our emotions can decrease activity in brain areas associated with negative emotions.

Yet a more nuanced answer requires us to take a step back and look at the components from which our emotions are made. Start by answering a simple question: What are emotions?

Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett succinctly sums up emotion as “your brain’s creation of what your bodily sensations mean about what is going on around you in the world.” Imagine this: Your heart is racing, your palms are sweaty, and you’re short of breath. If you are walking down a dark street alone at night, you might label your experience as fear . Now, imagine you are experiencing those same physical sensations while enjoying a candle-lit meal with a romantic interest. In that case, you might label the experience as attraction .

Thus, the same constellation of physiologic experiences organizes us around different actions depending on the context. In the first example, our fear functions to keep us safe and readies us to fight, flee, or freeze. In the second example, our attraction functions to focus our attention on our love interest, thus increasing our connectedness (and therefore regulation and well-being).

Importantly, our personal histories determine what predictions and needs we might have in any specific context. Throughout our lives, we collect diverse emotional experiences, typically first labeled by our early caregivers, which help us categorize and form our emotion concepts—the diverse collection of physical sensations, thoughts, and situations we learn to associate with a particular emotion.

Our concept of anger, for example, may include a flushed face, muscle tension, and being cut off in traffic. Our concept of anger may also have a racing heart, the urge to speak loudly, and thoughts of being taken for granted by a relationship partner. These categorizations help us to navigate our physiology in the context of the specific situation, to figure out if we should take a breath and focus on a podcast—if, say, we were cut off in traffic—or use communication skills to improve our relationship if we’re feeling taken for granted.

More precise language leads to more tailored responses (“mild annoyance” cues letting it go, whereas “outrage” cues advocating for change). Not only that, more precise language can allow us to incorporate details that create a different emotion category altogether. For example, if you home in to notice and describe hunger during a relational conflict, you may save yourself from experiencing anger.

How to Strengthen Emotional Granularity Precisely labeling your emotional experiences, then, is likely to improve your quality of life. But how should you go about developing this skill? Experts recommend creating new emotion concepts and examining our existing concepts more closely.

In her book How Emotions Are Made , Feldman Barrett suggests that one of the easiest ways to build new emotion concepts is to learn new words. She also suggests we can add to our emotion concepts by being “collector(s) of experiences” through perspective-taking (e.g., reading books, watching movies) and trying new things.

To start, explore the emotion words collected in the list below. Find one or two words you don’t typically use and ask yourself if they describe your recent experiences. Perhaps when you next notice that nagging, nameless emotion, you will skim this list of emotion words to find the ones that resonate.

Katrina McCoy, Ph.D ., is a psychotherapist, educator, consultant, and scholar with a private practice based in Westchester, New York.

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Name That Feeling

Happy, sad, and angry are useful terms but aren’t enough to describe the full range of our emotional experience. Explore this list to identify emotion words that better capture your feelings.

Anger Rage Indignation Vengefulness Wrath

Sadness Despair Disappointment Sorrow Grief

Happiness Joy Contentment Pleasure Exhilaration

Fear Anxiety Dread Terror Apprehension

You’ve Named Your Emotions—What Now?

Being aware of your emotions isn’t enough; you also have to manage them. These four strategies can help you master this second pillar of emotional intelligence.

By Michael Wiederman, Ph.D.

Awareness of your and others’ emotions is the foundation on which emotional intelligence rests. But awareness, in itself, is not enough. Here, let’s consider four ways you can develop another critical pillar of EI: emotional self- management .

1. Pause to mentally distance. In an emotionally charged situation, the path of least resistance is to follow your feelings. Instead, take conscious control of your attention and shift from allowing your limbic system to guide your behavior (reacting) to engaging your cerebral cortex (responding). Doing so lets you choose how to act.

Of course, mentally stepping out of a whirlwind of emotion is easier said than done. As a first step, it can be helpful to note the particular physical experiences that accompany troublesome emotions. Then, when a situation arises that triggers those physical responses, take a moment to mentally step out of your immediate experience. Asking yourself a question, or imagining what you might look like to others, often does the trick. At that point, although still physiologically keyed up, you’ll be able to more calmly consider the best course of action. In other words, you won’t be just reacting; you’ll be choosing how to act.

2. Take control of your self-talk . We’re frequently unaware of how much chatter goes on in the background of our minds. Such self-talk might not be in fully articulated phrases but just flashes of thought about what’s happening, what should be, or how right we are and how wrong someone else is.

Becoming aware of your self-talk is an important skill because it is those background beliefs that fuel our emotional responses. To genuinely defuse a strong negative emotion requires examining the underlying belief and how accurate or useful it is.

You may be tempted to justify the belief (This situation should not be so difficult!) but, instead, recognize that the situation is the way it is, no matter how much you wish otherwise. Ask yourself: How useful is it to me to keep clinging to this belief? You might also flex your conscious awareness to focus on asking: Over what parts of this situation do I have some degree of control? What do I need to do to exercise that control?

3. Enlist partners. Ask others you trust to help you recognize when your emotions seem to be getting the best of you. Agree on a gesture or word to serve as a signal that your trusted individual wonders whether you’re riding the led-by-your-limbic-system train.

Of course, they may get it wrong—and even when they’re right, it can feel irritating to be called out when you’re already keyed up. But instead of responding defensively, focus on the fact that this person is offering a gift—one that you asked for!—and is taking a risk. Respond with grace and gratitude .

4. Cultivate curiosity. Our brains are wired to draw conclusions quickly. These judgments are not necessarily accurate but often feel as if they are, and they are responsible for many of our negative emotional states. Working to be more curious about other peoples’ experiences, including their interpretation of events and their own motives for their behavior, helps inhibit such hasty judgments.

To be able to apply the brakes on your strong emotional reaction when triggered, practicing curiosity in situations that are not nearly as charged is a good way to build that skill for when it’s most important. A side benefit of cultivating curiosity is that it also promotes a sense of empathy and deeper connection with those you better try to understand.

A common thread across these strategies is the ability to recognize an emotional storm and decide to shift to conscious intentionality rather than reaction. Like any skill, it requires practice, and there will be lapses along the way. However, the benefits, both professional and personal, can be immense. How might your life be enhanced by greater emotional self-control ?

Michael Wiederman, Ph.D ., is a former clinical psychology professor who now works full-time applying psychology to the workplace.

Emotional Intelligence Is a Skill Set

Peter Salovey, a co-author of the original paper on EI, clears up some widespread misunderstandings.

In the late 1980s, John Mayer and I noticed that there were separate groups studying facial expressions, emotion vocabulary, and emotion self-management, all independently. We thought there was a framework under which all those topics fit—an arsenal of skills that describe abilities having to do with the emotions. We called it “emotional intelligence.”

The skills form four basic clusters. The first is identifying emotions in yourself and in others, through verbal and nonverbal means.

A second is understanding how emotion vocabulary gets used, how emotions transition over time, what the consequences are of an emotional arousal—for example, why shame often leads to anger, why jealousy often contains a component of envy.

A third area is emotion management, which includes managing not only one’s own emotions but also the emotions of others.

The fourth is the use of emotions, such as in cognitive activities like solving a problem and making a decision.

Once we had a way to measure emotional intelligence, we realized that we had to demonstrate that EI matters above and beyond standard features of personality , such as the Big Five personality traits ( openness to experience , conscientiousness , agreeableness , neuroticism , and extraversion ) and beyond traditional intelligence as measured by an IQ test. Only if emotional intelligence still accounted for variance in important outcomes could we claim that it has validity.

Over the next 20 years, we showed that, in fact, it did predict outcomes in school, at work, and in relationships. It predicted who would receive positive performance evaluations and get recommended for raises, who would be viewed as contributing the most creative ideas and leading a group. It correlated with aspects of friendship and positive social relations—less aggression , less use of illicit substances, more friends, greater satisfaction in relationships with friends. In lab experiments, EI predicted subjects’ behavior with a stranger: Those with EI were more able to elicit information, and strangers rated the interaction as more pleasant. People viewing films of the interactions rated those with EI as more empathic .

There has been a lot of playing with the construct of emotional intelligence—for example, regarding the features as traits. But that does not yield any unique information. I think it’s best to stick to a definition of EI based on skills and abilities.

Peter Salovey, Ph.D ., is the president of Yale University.

Submit your response to this story to [email protected] .

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124 Emotional Intelligence Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Emotional intelligence is a crucial skill that helps individuals navigate their emotions, understand others' feelings, and build healthy relationships. It involves being aware of one's emotions, managing them effectively, and empathizing with others.

If you're looking for inspiration for an essay on emotional intelligence, we've got you covered. Here are 124 emotional intelligence essay topic ideas and examples to help you get started:

• The importance of emotional intelligence in leadership
• How emotional intelligence affects workplace performance
• Strategies for developing emotional intelligence in children
• The role of emotional intelligence in conflict resolution
• The impact of emotional intelligence on mental health
• How emotional intelligence can improve communication skills
• Emotional intelligence and its influence on decision-making
• The relationship between emotional intelligence and self-esteem
• Emotional intelligence and academic success
• The connection between emotional intelligence and empathy
• How emotional intelligence can enhance teamwork
• The benefits of emotional intelligence in relationships
• Emotional intelligence and its role in stress management
• The impact of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction
• Strategies for improving emotional intelligence in the workplace
• Emotional intelligence and its link to resilience
• The relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional regulation
• The connection between emotional intelligence and social skills
• How emotional intelligence can help in conflict resolution
• The role of emotional intelligence in effective leadership
• Emotional intelligence and its impact on mental health disorders
• The benefits of emotional intelligence in academic settings
• Strategies for developing emotional intelligence in adolescents
• The connection between emotional intelligence and self-awareness
• How emotional intelligence can improve decision-making skills
• The impact of emotional intelligence on interpersonal relationships
• Emotional intelligence and its influence on job performance
• The role of emotional intelligence in effective communication
• The benefits of emotional intelligence in team dynamics
• Strategies for enhancing emotional intelligence in the family
• Emotional intelligence and its impact on conflict resolution in the workplace
• The relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional resilience
• How emotional intelligence can help in managing stress
• The connection between emotional intelligence and emotional regulation in children
• The role of emotional intelligence in building empathy
• Emotional intelligence and its impact on social skills development
• The benefits of emotional intelligence in parenting
• Strategies for improving emotional intelligence in the classroom
• Emotional intelligence and its influence on academic success
• The connection between emotional intelligence and self-esteem in teenagers
• How emotional intelligence can improve decision-making in adolescents
• The impact of emotional intelligence on peer relationships
• Emotional intelligence and its role in mental health promotion
• The benefits of emotional intelligence in conflict resolution in school
• Strategies for developing emotional intelligence in young adults
• Emotional intelligence and its impact on social-emotional learning
• The relationship between emotional intelligence and self-compassion
• How emotional intelligence can enhance emotional regulation skills
• The connection between emotional intelligence and emotional intelligence in the workplace
• The role of emotional intelligence in effective team communication
• Emotional intelligence and its influence on job satisfaction in the workplace
• The benefits of emotional intelligence in building positive workplace relationships
• Strategies for improving emotional intelligence in diverse work environments
• Emotional intelligence and its impact on employee engagement
• The relationship between emotional intelligence and conflict resolution in the workplace
• How emotional intelligence can help in managing workplace stress
• The connection between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness
• The role of emotional intelligence in promoting a positive work culture
• Emotional intelligence and its influence on organizational performance
• The benefits of emotional intelligence in building strong team dynamics
• Strategies for enhancing emotional intelligence in leadership roles
• Emotional intelligence and its impact on employee retention
• The relationship between emotional intelligence and effective communication in the workplace
• How emotional intelligence can improve decision-making in a professional setting
• The connection between emotional intelligence and emotional regulation in the workplace
• The role of emotional intelligence in conflict resolution in a team setting
• Emotional intelligence and its influence on team collaboration
• The benefits of emotional intelligence in building trust among team members
• Strategies for improving emotional intelligence in a fast-paced work environment
• Emotional intelligence and its impact on employee well-being
• The relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance
• How emotional intelligence can help in managing workplace conflicts
• The connection between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness in a global organization
• The role of emotional intelligence in promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace
• Emotional intelligence and its influence on employee morale
• The benefits of emotional intelligence in building strong client relationships
• Strategies for enhancing emotional intelligence in customer service roles
• Emotional intelligence and its impact on team productivity
• The relationship between emotional intelligence and

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Emotional Intelligence Measures: A Systematic Review

Lluna maría bru-luna.

1 Department of Basic Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain; [email protected]

Manuel Martí-Vilar

César merino-soto.

2 Psychology Research Institute, Universidad de San Martín de Porres, Lima 15102, Peru

José L. Cervera-Santiago

3 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal, San Miguel 15088, Peru; ep.ude.vfnu@arevrecj

Associated Data

Not applicable.

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, express, understand, and manage emotions. Current research indicates that it may protect against the emotional burden experienced in certain professions. This article aims to provide an updated systematic review of existing instruments to assess EI in professionals, focusing on the description of their characteristics as well as their psychometric properties (reliability and validity). A literature search was conducted in Web of Science (WoS). A total of 2761 items met the eligibility criteria, from which a total of 40 different instruments were extracted and analysed. Most were based on three main models (i.e., skill-based, trait-based, and mixed), which differ in the way they conceptualize and measure EI. All have been shown to have advantages and disadvantages inherent to the type of tool. The instruments reported in the largest number of studies are Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), Schutte Self Report-Inventory (SSRI), Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test 2.0 (MSCEIT 2.0), Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS), Wong and Law’s Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue). The main measure of the estimated reliability has been internal consistency, and the construction of EI measures was predominantly based on linear modelling or classical test theory. The study has limitations: we only searched a single database, the impossibility of estimating inter-rater reliability, and non-compliance with some items required by PRISMA.

1. Introduction

1.1. emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence (EI) was first described and conceptualized by Salovey and Mayer [ 1 ] as an ability-based construct analogous to general intelligence. They argued that individuals with a high level of EI had certain skills related to the evaluation and regulation of emotions and that consequently they were able to regulate emotions in themselves and in others in order to achieve a variety of adaptive outcomes. This construct has received increasing attention from both the scientific community and the general public due to its theoretical and practical implications for daily life. The same authors defined EI as “the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions and the ability to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought” [ 2 ] (p. 511). This definition suggests that EI is far from being conceptualized as a one-dimensional attribute and that a multidimensional operationalization would be theoretically coherent.

1.2. Conceptualizations of Emotional Intelligence

However, over the past three decades, different ways of conceptualizing EI have emerged, which are mainly summarized in three models: ability, trait, and mixed. These models have influenced the construction of measuring instruments. In the ability model, developed by Mayer and Salovey, EI is seen as a form of innate intelligence made up of several capacities that influence how people understand and manage their own emotions and those of others. These emotion processing skills are: (1) perception, evaluation and expression of emotions, (2) emotional facilitation of thought, (3) understanding and analysis of emotions, and (4) reflective regulation of emotions [ 3 , 4 ]. Consistent with this conceptualization, the measures were designed as performance tests. Subsequently, the model proposed by Petrides and Furnham [ 5 ], the trait model, was developed. This model defines EI as a trait; that is, as a persistent behaviour pattern over time (as opposed to skill, which increases with time and training), and it is associated with dispositional tendencies, personality traits or self-efficacy beliefs. It is composed of fifteen personality dimensions, grouped under four factors: well-being, self-control, emotionality and sociability [ 6 ]. The last of the three main models of conceptualization of EI is the mixed one. It is made up of two large branches that consider this construct a mixture of traits, competencies and abilities. According to the first one, developed by Bar-On [ 7 ], EI is a set of non-cognitive abilities and competences that influence the ability to be successful in coping with environmental demands and pressures, and it is composed of five key components: intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, adaptation skills, stress management skills and general mood. The second one, proposed by Goleman [ 8 ], also conceptualizes EI as a mixed model that shares certain aspects with the Bar-On model. It is made up of the following elements: recognition of one’s own emotions, management of emotions, self-motivation, recognition of emotions in others, and management of relationships. These emotional and social competencies would contribute to managerial performance and leadership.

1.3. Importance of Emotional Intelligence

To date, the importance that academics attach to the study of EI has been recognized by the literature in many areas, such as the workplace. For example, in professions where working with people is needed, burnout syndrome is common. It is a syndrome that is expressed by an increase in emotional exhaustion and indifference, as well as by a decrease in professional effectiveness [ 9 ]. To date, numerous studies have shown that EI can help change employee attitudes and behaviours in jobs involving emotional demands by increasing job satisfaction and reducing job stress [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Likewise, on the one hand, it has been found that certain psychological variables, including EI and social competence, are related to less psychological distress. On the other hand, the acquisition of emotional and social skills can serve to develop resilience, which is a protective variable against psychological distress [ 14 ].

1.4. Types of Measures

With the challenge of choosing the conceptual model of EI also appears the challenge of choosing the appropriate measures to estimate it. For this reason, part of the work developed in the field of EI has focused on the creation of objective instruments to evaluate aspects associated with this construct. Most of them have been created around the main conceptualization models described in the previous paragraphs. Ability-based tools indicate people’s ability to understand emotions and how they work. These types of tests require participants to solve problems that are related to emotions and that contain answers deemed correct or incorrect (e.g., participants see several faces and respond by indicating the degree to which a specific emotion is present in the face). These instruments are maximal capacity tests and, unlike trait tests, they are not designed to predict typical behaviour. Ability EI instruments are usually employed in situations where a good theoretical understanding of emotions is required [ 15 ].

Trait-based instruments are generally composed of self-reported measures and are often developed as scales where there are no correct or incorrect answers, but the individual responds by choosing the item which relates more or less to their behaviour (e.g., “Understanding the needs and desires of others is not a problem for me”). They tend to measure typical behaviour, so they tend to provide a good prediction of actual behaviours in various situations [ 5 ]. Trait EI is a good predictor of effective coping styles when facing everyday stressors, both in adults and children, so these instruments are often used in situations characterized by stressors such as educational and employment contexts [ 15 ].

Questionnaires based on the EI mixed conceptualization often measure a combination of traits, social skills, competencies, and personality measures through self-reported modality (e.g., “When I am angry with others, I can tell them”). Some measures typically take 360-degree forms of assessment too (i.e., a self-report along with reports from supervisors, colleagues and subordinates). They are generally used in work environments, since they are often designed to predict and improve workplace performance and are often focused on emotional competencies that correlate with professional success. Despite the different ways of conceptualizing EI, there are some conceptual similarities between most instruments: they are hierarchical (i.e., they produce a total EI score along with scores on the different dimensions) and they have several conceptual overlaps that often include emotional perception, emotional regulation, and adaptive use of emotions [ 15 ].

1.5. Relevance of the Study

The proliferation of EI measures has received a lot of attention. However, this has not been the case in studies that synthesize their psychometric qualities, as well as those that describe their strengths and limitations. Therefore, there is a lack of studies that collect, with a wide review coverage, the instruments developed in recent years. The few reviews that can be found [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ] are limited to describing both the most popular measures (e.g., Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test [MSCEIT], Emotional Quotient Inventory [EQ-i], Trait Meta-Mood Scale [TMMS], Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire [TEIQue], or Schutte Self-Report Inventory [SSRI]) and those validated only in English, producing an apparent “Tower of Babel” effect (i.e., the over-representation of studies in one language and the under-representation in others) [ 20 ]. This is a problem that is not only more common than is believed, but it is also persistent [ 21 ]. This effect produces a barrier for the complete knowledge of current EI measures, the breadth of their uses in different contexts, and their incorporation into substantive studies relevant to multicultural understanding. In summary, it reduces the commonality of efforts made in different contexts to identify common and communicable objectives [ 22 ], specifically around the study of EI.

Therefore, a systematic review allows us to establish a knowledge base that contributes by (a) guiding and developing research efforts, (b) assisting in professional practice when choosing the most appropriate model in possible practical scenarios, and (c) facilitating the design of subsequent systematic evaluative reviews and meta-analysis of relevant psychometric parameters (e.g., factorial loads, reliability coefficients, correlations, etc.). For this reason, the aim of this article is to provide an updated systematic review of the existing instruments that allow the evaluation of EI in professionals, focusing on the description of its characteristics, as well as on its psychometric properties (reliability and validity). This systematic review is characterized by having a wide coverage (i.e., studies published in languages other than English) and having as a framework a consensus of description and taxonomy of valid evidence (i.e., “Standards”) [ 23 ].

2. Materials and Methods

This work contains a systematic review of the scientific literature published to date that includes measurements of EI. For its preparation, the guidelines proposed in the PRISMA statement [ 24 ] ( Table A1 ) carrying out systematic reviews have been followed. Regarding the evaluation of the quality of the articles, since our study does not analyse the studies that employ the EI instruments but the instruments themselves, the assessment of the internal or external validity of the studies is not applicable to this research. However, an internationally proposed guide to the study of the validity of instruments, called “Standards”, has also been used [ 23 ]. It presents guidelines for the study of the composition, use, and interpretation of what a test aims to measure and proposes five sources of validity of evidence: content, response processes, internal structure, relationship with other variables and the consequences of testing. Likewise, a recently proposed registration protocol [ 25 ] for carrying out systematic reviews has also been followed based on the five validity sources of the “Standards”.

2.1. Information Sources

The bibliographic search was carried out in three phases: an initial search to obtain an overview of the current situation, a system that applies inclusion–exclusion criteria, and a manual search to evaluate the results obtained. The search was conducted in February 2021 in the Web of Science (WoS) database, including all articles published from 1900 to 2020 (inclusive). This database was selected to perform the search because (a) it is among the databases that allows for a more efficient and adequate search coverage [ 26 ]; (b) it provides a better quality of indexing and of bibliographic records in terms of accuracy, control and granularity of information compared to other databases [ 27 ]; (c) the results are highly correlated with those of other search engines (e.g., Embase, MEDLINE and Google Scholar) [ 26 ]; (d) it is controlled by a human team specialising in the selection of its content (i.e., it is not fully automated) [ 28 ]; and (e) it has experienced a constant increase in scientific publications [ 29 ].

2.2. Eligibility Criteria

Although no protocol was written or registered prior to the research, the inclusion and exclusion criteria for articles and instruments were previously defined. The search was conducted according to these criteria.

2.2.1. Inclusion Criteria

The inclusion criteria for the studies are made up of the following points: (a) published in peer-reviewed journals, (b) presented as full articles or short communications, (c) containing empirical and quantifiable results on psychometric properties (i.e., not only narrative descriptions), (d) containing cross-sectional or longitudinal designs, (e) written in any language (in order to collect as many instruments as possible, as well as to reduce the “Tower of Babel” effect) [ 20 ], and (f) published from 1900 to 2020 (to maximize the identification of EI measures).

As for the inclusion criteria of the instruments, they are made up of the following points: (a) instruments that measure EI, (b) articles that are the first creation study of the instrument, (c) instruments aimed at people over 18 years, (d) instruments that can be applied in the workplace.

2.2.2. Exclusion Criteria

On the other hand, research that presented at least one of the following exclusion criteria was discarded: (a) contains synthesis studies (i.e., systematic reviews or meta-analyses), instrument manuals or narrative articles of instrument characteristics, (b) contains only qualitative research designs, (c) published after 2020.

Instruments that presented at least one of the following exclusion criteria were discarded: (a) instruments that were validations of the original one, (b) instruments aimed at people under 18, (c) instruments to be used in areas specifically different from the workplace.

2.3. Search Strategy

All available methods to obtain empirical answers have been included so as to maximize the coverage of the results. The following terms were included: test, measure, questionnaire, scale and instrument. The combinations of terms used were: “emotional intelligence AND test”, “emotional intelligence AND measure”, “emotional intelligence AND questionnaire”, “emotional intelligence AND scale”, and “emotional intelligence AND instrument”. Only those article-type studies were selected.

In the selection process, the title, abstract and keywords of the studies identified in the search were reviewed with the aforementioned criteria. This was carried out by only one of the authors.

2.4. Data Collection

The data to be extracted from each of the instruments were also defined in advance, ensuring that the information was extracted in a uniform manner. The selected documents were then recorded in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to check for duplicate records.

Thus, the name of the instrument and its acronym, the language and country in which it was created, and its structural characteristics (i.e., type of measurement, number of items, dimensions and items of which they were composed, and theoretical model) were extracted together with relevant psychometric information (i.e., reliability and validity). This procedure was also carried out by the same author. Articles that used different versions of the original EI instrument were accepted, but the analysis was made only on their originals. Instruments whose original manuscript were inaccessible were discarded ( n = 10), but they are presented at the end of the results. All those articles that were duplicated or that had used measures aimed at people under 18 or for contexts specifically different from the professional area (e.g., school contexts, sports contexts, etc.) were eliminated. The search process and the number of selected and excluded results can be seen in Figure 1 . Regarding the ethical standards, no ethical approval or participant consent is required for this type of research (i.e., systematic review).

Flowchart according to PRISMA.

A total of 40 instruments were found ( Table 1 shows a synthesis of all of them). Below, a brief description of each one is presented, following which a division according to the theoretical model they use (i.e., ability-based model, trait-based model, mixed approach model, and others that do not correspond to any of them), and the psychometric properties of each one are explained.

Main characteristics of the included instruments.

TMMS: Trait Meta-Mood Scale, LOT: Life Orientation Test, CES-D: Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale; SSRI: Schutte Self-Report Inventory, BFP: Big Five Personality, TAS: Toronto Alexithymia Scale, ZDS: Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, BIS: Barratt Impulsiveness Scale; MEIS: Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale; MSCEIT: Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, MSCEIT 2.0: Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Revised Version, MSCEIT-YV: Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Youth Version, MSCEIT-TC: Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Chinese Version; PIEMO: Profile of Emotional Intelligence; WLEIS: Wong and Law’s Emotional Intelligence Scale, EQ-i: Emotional Quotient Inventory; WEIP-3: Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile-3, WEIP-S: Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile-Short Version, IRI: Interpersonal Reactivity Index, JABRI: Job Associate-Bisociate Review Index; MEIA: Multidimensional Emotional Intelligence Assessment, JPI-R: Jackson Personality Inventory-Revised, MEIA-W: Multidimensional Emotional Intelligence Assessment-Workplace, MEIA-W-R: Multidimensional Emotional Intelligence Assessment-Workplace-Revised; EmIn: Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire; IIESS-R: Sojo and Steinkopf Emotional Intelligence Inventory-Revised Version; SREIS: Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale; EISDI: Emotional Intelligence Self-Description Inventory; GEIS: Greek Emotional Intelligence Scale, SSI: Social Skills Inventory, EES: Emotion Empathy Scale, SWLS: Satisfaction with Life Scale, PANAS: Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, ASSET: An Organisational Stress Screening Tool; STEM: Situational Test of Emotion Management; OCEANIC-20: Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism Index Condensed 20-item version, STEM-B: Situational Test of Emotion Management-Brief Version; STEU: Situational Test of Emotional Understanding, STEU-B: Situational Test of Emotional Understanding-Brief Version; ESCQ: Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire; AVEI: Audiovisual Test of Emotional Intelligence; GERT: Geneva Emotion Recognition Test, GERT-S: Geneva Emotion Recognition Test-Short Version, GECo: Geneva Emotional Competence Test; TIE: Test of Emotional Intelligence, SIE-T: Emotional Intelligence Scale-Faces, NEO-FFI: NEO Five-Factor Inventory; EIQ-SP: Self-Perception of Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire; TEIFA: Three-Branch Emotional Intelligence Forced-Choice Assessment; TEIRA: Three-Brach Emotional Intelligence Rating Scale Assessment; NEAT: North Dakota Emotional Abilities Test, DANVA 2-AF: Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-Adult Faces; IIEP: Perceived Emotional Intelligence Inventory; MEIT: Mobile Emotional Intelligence Test; RAVEN: Raven’s Progressive Matrices; EIT: Emotional Intelligence Test; EQ-i: S: Emotional Quotient Inventory Short Version, EQ-i: 2.0: Emotional Quotient Inventory Revised Version, EQ-i: 360°: Emotional Quotient Inventory-360-degree version; EQ-i: YV: Emotional Quotient Inventory-Youth Version, EQ-i: YVS: Emotional Quotient Inventory Youth Short Version; ECI 2.0: Emotional Competence Inventory 2.0, ECI-U: Emotional Competence Inventory University Version; EIQ: Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire; 16PF: Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, OPQ: Occupational Personality Questionnaire, BTR: Belbin Team Roles; EIA: Emotional Intelligence Appraisal; EIS: Emotional Intelligence Scale; USMEQ-I: USM Emotional Quotient Inventory; TEIQue: Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, TEIQue-SF: Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form, TEIQue-360°: Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-360-degree version, TEIQue-AF: Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Adolescent Form, TEIQue-CF: Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Child Form; REIS: Rotterdam Emotional Intelligence Scale, PEC: Profile of Emotional Competence.

3.1. Ability-Based Measures

The first category includes those instruments based on the ability-based model, mainly on that of Mayer and Salovey [ 4 ]. The first instrument created under this conceptualization is the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) [ 30 ], a self-report scale designed to assess people’s beliefs about their own emotional abilities. It measures three key aspects of perceived EI: attention to feelings, emotional clarity and repair of emotions. It presents a very good reliability [ 80 ] and convergent validity with various instruments, although the authors recommend the use of a later version of 30 items. It also presents a widely used 24-item version [ 31 ] that has been validated in many countries.

Three years later, the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence (SSRI) test was developed [ 33 ]. This questionnaire is answered through a five-point Likert scale and is composed of one factor that is divided into three categories: appraisal and expression of emotion in the self and others, regulation of emotion in the self and others and utilization of emotions in solving problems. It shows excellent internal consistency. It presents negative correlations with instruments that measure alexithymia, depression and impulsivity among others, which confirms its convergent validity. There is a modified version [ 34 ] and an abbreviated version [ 35 ], and it has been translated into many languages.

The Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS) [ 37 ] is another tool developed by the authors that originally defined and conceptualized EI. The MEIS is a scale made up of 12 different tasks that contains 402 items and it has been translated into several languages. However, it has strong limitations such as its length and the low internal consistency offered by some of the tasks (e.g., “blends” and “progressions”; α = 0.49 and 0.51, respectively). These authors developed, years later, the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) [ 38 ]. The items developed for the MEIS served as the starting point for the MSCEIT. This measure is composed of a five-point Likert scale and multiple response items with correct and incorrect options, which comprise eight tasks. Each of the four dimensions is assessed through two tasks. It presents an adequate internal consistency. It currently has a revised version by the same authors, and another validated in a young population. In addition, it has been translated into many languages. This instrument has detractors. Its convergent validity has been questioned since no correlation has been found between the emotional perception scale of MSCEIT and other emotional perception tests [ 81 ]. As can be seen in Table 1 , the MSCEIT has two different approaches to construct the score (consensus score and expert score). In the case of EI, it is difficult to classify an answer as correct or incorrect, so if a person responds in a different way to the experts or the average, it might mean that they have low emotional capacity or present a different way of thinking [ 81 ].

In the same year, three more instruments based on this conceptualization were developed in different countries. The first one, the Profile of Emotional Intelligence (PIEMO) [ 40 ] is an inventory developed in Mexico. Their items consist of a statement that represents a paradigmatic behaviour trait of EI with true and false answers. It is composed of eight independent dimensions that together constitute a profile. Its internal consistency is excellent and its validity has been tested by a confirmatory factor analysis and expert consultations on the items.

The second instrument is Wong and Law’s Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) [ 41 ]. It was developed in China to measure EI in a brief way in leadership and management studies. It has an adequate internal consistency and has positive correlations with the TMMS and the EQ-i. Subsequent studies have shown its predictive validity in relation to life satisfaction, happiness or psychological well-being, and its criteria’s validity with respect to personal well-being. Measurement equivalence of scores in different ethnic and gender groups has also been tested [ 82 ]. It has been translated into a multitude of languages and it is currently one of the most widely used instruments.

The third instrument is the Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile-3 (WEIP-3) [ 43 ]. It is a scale designed in Australia as a self-report to measure the EI of people in work teams. It has very good internal consistency and presents correlations with several instruments that prove its convergent validity. The authors made a particularly interesting finding in their study. Teams that scored lower in the WEIP-3 performed at lower levels in their work than those with high EI. This instrument has a short version and has been translated into different languages.

The Multidimensional Emotional Intelligence Assessment (MEIA) [ 45 ] was developed in the USA. The authors state that the test takes only 20 min. It has very good internal consistency. Its validity has been tested in different ways. Content validity was tested by independent experts who considered each element as representative of its target scale. Convergent validity was tested by significant correlations between the scores and personality tests. Finally, the lack of correlation between the MEIA and theoretically unrelated personality tests proved the divergent validity. It has a version for the work context.

The Sojo and Steinkopf Emotional Intelligence Inventory—Revised version (IIESS-R) [ 47 ] was developed in Venezuela to measure the three dimensions that compose it. It presents 34 phrases that describe the reactions of people with high EI, as well as contrary behaviours. It has excellent internal consistency and its content has been validated through expert judgment. It shows correlations with some scales of similar instruments and its internal structure has been tested by exploratory analysis and PCA.

In the original article of the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (EmIn), created for the Russian population [ 46 ], its author proposes his own model of ability-based EI that differs in some aspects from that proposed by Mayer and Salovey. Accordingly, he designed a questionnaire to measure the participants’ beliefs about their emotional abilities under this model. It is composed of two dimensions answered using a 4-point Likert scale. Their scales have a good internal consistency, but their validity has not been tested beyond the factor analysis of its internal structure. Years later, this same author developed the Videotest of Emotion Recognition [ 59 ], an instrument that uses videos as stimuli. It was also designed in Russia to obtain precision indexes in the recognition of the types of emotions, as well as the sensitivity and intensity of the observed emotions. It has 15 scales that measure through a single item each of the emotions recorded by the instrument. Its internal consistency is good. It is correlated with MSCEIT and EmIn, which proves its convergent validity.

Another instrument based on the Mayer and Salovey model is the Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale (SREIS) [ 49 ]. It was developed throughout three studies that used the MSCEIT as a comparison. The first one did not show a very high correlation between the scores of both tools. In the second one, only men’s MSCEIT scores correlated with perceived social competence after personality measures remained constant. Finally, in the third only MSCEIT predicted social competence, but only for males again. Internal consistency was also not consistent throughout the three studies, as the α yielded values were 0.84, 0.77, and 0.66, respectively. Its internal structure was tested by a confirmatory factor analysis and the content of each item was validated by the judgment of students familiar with the Mayer and Salovey model. It has been translated into several languages.

The Emotional Intelligence Self-Description Inventory (EISDI) [ 49 ] is also a short instrument, consisting of four dimensions designed to assess EI in the workplace. It has an excellent internal consistency. It presents correlations with instruments such as the WLEIS and the SREIS and a discriminant validity with the Big Five Personality. The same year, the Greek Emotional Intelligence Scale (GEIS) [ 51 ] was developed in Greek to assess four basic dimensions of EI. Its internal consistency is very good, as well as its test–retest value. Its internal structure was verified by a PCA, and its convergent and divergent validity were tested by a series of studies with 12 different instruments.

MacCann and Roberts [ 51 ] developed two instruments to assess EI according to the ability-based model: the Situational Test of Emotion Management (STEM) and the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU). Both are made up of three dimensions and a similar number of items. The first one measures the management of emotions such as anger, sadness and fear, and it can be administered in two formats: multiple choice response and rate-the-extent (i.e., test takers rate the appropriateness, strength, or extent of each alternative, rather than selecting the correct alternative). The STEU presents a series of situations about context-reduced, personal-life context, and workplace-context, which provoke a main emotion that is the correct answer to be chosen by the participant among other incorrect ones. Both instruments have similar internal consistency for the multiple response format, while for the rate-the-extent format it is much higher. Both present criteria and convergent validity and have an abbreviated version.

The Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire (ESCQ) [ 53 ] is an instrument developed in Croatia that measures EI through three basic dimensions using a five-point Likert scale. The subscales have a reliability that varies between good an excellent, and they correlate with other EI and personality instruments. The ESCQ has been translated into several languages.

The Audiovisual Test of Emotional Intelligence (AVEI) [ 55 ] is an Israeli instrument aimed at educational settings related to care-centred professions. Their items are developed from primary and secondary emotions, both positive and negative. Each one consists of short videos generated by researchers with training in psychology and visual arts. People should choose the correct answer among 10 alternatives and it takes between 12 and 18 min to be completed. It requires computers equipped with audio. The internal consistency was calculated using ICC coefficients. It has content validations through expert consultations on the items and criteria since it correlates with measures traditionally related to EI.

The Geneva Emotion Recognition Test (GERT) [ 57 ] is a German test composed of 14 scales. The stimuli are, as in the AVEI, short image and audio videos recorded by five men and five women of different ages. Thus, people must choose which of the 14 emotions is being expressed by the actors, with the responses labelled as correct or incorrect. The reliability of the test is considered excellent, and the ecological and construct validity of the instrument has been tested.

The Test of Emotional Intelligence (TIE) [ 58 ] is developed in Poland. It consists of the same four dimensions as the MSCEIT. After providing participants with different emotional problems, they should indicate which emotion is most likely to occur or choose the most appropriate action. The score is based on expert judgment. It has a very good internal consistency. It has convergent validity since it correlates with the SSEIT and has construct since women scored higher than men.

The Self-Perception of Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (EIQ-SP) [ 60 ] is an instrument designed in Portugal and composed of the four dimensions belonging to the Mayer and Salovey’s ability-based model. Their scales have good internal consistency and are correlated with each other.

The Three-Branch Emotional Intelligence Rating Scale Assessment (TEIRA) [ 61 ] and the Three-Branch Emotional Intelligence Forced-Choice Assessment (TEIFA) [ 61 ] were developed in 2015. The first is made up of three scales and is answered by a six-point Likert scale. It presents internal consistency between good and excellent and convergent validity with STEU-B and STEM-B. On the other hand, TEIFA presents a format of forced choice in order to avoid the problem of social desirability in the rating scales. In this format, participants must choose among several positive statements and therefore they cannot simply rate themselves highly on everything (e.g., “Which one is more like you: I know why my emotions change or I manage my emotions well”). It consists of the same items and dimensions as the TEIRA. The study does not report the reliability of TEIFA, as the reliability of the forced-choice tests is artificially high. It presents convergent validity with the SSRI.

A year later, the North Dakota Emotional Abilities Test (NEAT) [ 62 ] was developed in the USA to assess the ability to perceive, understand and control emotions in the workplace. It contains items that describe scenarios of work environments, in which the person must rate the extent of certain emotions that the protagonist would experience in a certain situation. The internal consistency of its scales varies between good and excellent and its internal structure has been tested by a confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, the predictive validity of the instrument has also been tested.

The Inventory of Perceived Emotional Intelligence (IIEP) [ 63 ] was developed in Argentina. It measures different components of intrapersonal and interpersonal EI. This inventory is answered using a five-point Likert scale and it has reliable dimensions. Its content validity has been tested through consultations with judges to evaluate the items.

The last of the instruments in this category is the Emotional Intelligence Test (EIT) [ 65 ]. It was developed in Russia and has four dimensions that assess EI in the workplace. It has excellent internal consistency and convergent validity tested by correlations with the MSCEIT 2.0. No information regarding the items that compose it has been found.

3.2. Measures Based on the Mixed Model

The second category includes those instruments based on the mixed EI model, mainly the Bar-On model [ 7 ] and the Goleman model [ 8 ]. The first instrument of this model is the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) [ 7 ]. Its author was the first to define EI as a mixed concept between ability and personality trait. It is a self-report measure of behaviour that provides an estimate of EI and social intelligence. Their items are composed of short sentences that are answered using a five-point Likert scale. It takes about 30 min to complete, so other shorter versions have been developed, as well as a 360-degree version and a version for young people. It has been translated into more than 30 languages. It has an internal consistency between good and very good and its construct validity has been tested by correlations with other variables.

Emotional Competence Inventory 2.0 (ECI 2.0) [ 67 ], also called ESCI, is a widely used instrument. It was developed in the USA by another of the authors who conceptualized the mixed model of EI. It was designed in a 360-degree version to assess the emotional competencies of individuals and organizations. The internal consistency of others’ ratings is good, while that of oneself is questionable, and it shows positive correlations with constructs related to the work environment. It has a version for university students and has been translated into several languages.

The Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (EIQ) [ 68 ] is another tool designed to measure EI in the workplace. It has face, content, construct, and predictive validity, although the internal consistency of its scales varies between good and not very acceptable. Years later, the Emotional Intelligence Inventory [ 69 ] was developed in India. It was also designed to measure EI using a mixed concept in the workplace. It is made up of 10 dimensions, which have an internal consistency between acceptable and excellent. It has correlations with several related scales and with the number of promotions achieved and success in employment, which is proof of its predictive validity.

The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal (EIA) [ 70 ] is a set of surveys that measures EI in the workplace using the four main components of the Goleman model. Their items have been evaluated by experts. It has an internal consistency between very good and excellent. It has three versions: an online self-report, an online multi-rater report (which is combined with responses from co-workers), and another one that has anonymous ratings from several people to get an EI score for the whole team. The Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) [ 71 ] is another tool based on the Goleman model. It is composed of three dimensions and it has excellent internal consistency. The content of the items has been validated by expert evaluations.

The USM Emotional Quotient Inventory (USMEQ-i) [ 72 ] is a tool developed in Malaysia. It consists of a total of seven dimensions composed of 46 items. Seven of these items make up the “faking index items”, that measure the tendency of respondents to manifest social desirability and have a very good internal consistency ( α = 0.83). The reliability of the total instrument yields excellent values.

The Indigenous Scale of Emotional Intelligence [ 73 ] is a Pakistani instrument developed in the Urdu language. The final items were selected from an initial set after passing through the judgment of four experts based on the fidelity to the construct: clarity, redundancy, reliability, and compression. It has excellent internal consistency. Additionally, it presents construct validity (as women obtain higher scores than men) and correlations with the EQ-i.

Years later, the Mobile Emotional Intelligence Test (MEIT) was developed [ 64 ]. It is a Spanish instrument used to measure EI online in work contexts. It is made up of seven tasks (perceptive tasks and identification tasks) to assess the emotional perception of both others and oneself, respectively, face task, in which the most appropriate photograph related to the demanded emotion must be chosen, three comprehension tasks (composition, deduction and retrospective), and story task, in which participants must choose the best action to manage feelings in a given story. It presents excellent internal consistency and convergent validity.

3.3. Trait-Based Measures

This category is composed of trait-based instruments. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) [ 6 ] is the main instrument of this model. It is a tool widely used in many countries. It has excellent internal consistency and it shows significant correlations with the Big Five Personality. It has a short version, a 360-degree version, a version for children and another one for teenagers. It has been translated into many languages.

Years later, the Rotterdam Emotional Intelligence Scale (REIS) [ 75 ] was developed, the other instrument belonging to this category. It is a self-report instrument designed in Dutch. It has a very good internal consistency and it presents correlations with WEIS, TEIQue and PEC and its validity criterion has also been tested.

3.4. Measures Based on Other Models

Some instruments cannot be included within these categories since they have been conceptualized under different models. The first one is the Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory [ 76 ], previously known as SUEIT. It is based on an original model. It was specifically designed for use in the workplace, but it does not measure EI per se, but rather the frequency with which people display a variety of emotionally intelligent behaviours in the workplace. It presents very good reliability and convergent and predictive validity. In addition, it has two reduced versions.

The Profile of Emotional Competence (PEC) [ 77 ] is based on the model of Mikolajczak [ 83 ], which replicates the four dimensions proposed by Mayer and Salovey but separates the identification from the expression of the emotions and distinguishes the intrapersonal aspect from the interpersonal aspect of each dimension. It contains two main scales, and has excellent internal consistency and convergent, divergent and criterion validity. The original one was developed in French, but it has been translated into several languages.

The last of the instruments identified is the Group-level Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire [ 79 ]. It was designed in the USA to assess EI in work groups under Ghuman’s theoretical model [ 79 ]. This model conceives EI as a two-component construct: group relationship capability (GRC) and group emotional capability (GEC). All of them have very good internal consistency.

Regarding the framework of the Standards, differences were found among them, resulting in an unequal distribution throughout the articles. The percentages of each type of validity can be seen in Table 2 .

Number of studies and percentages for each validity test.

The instruments whose original sources could not be retrieved are cited in Table 3 . The main reasons were that they were articles from books to which the authors did not have access, unpublished documents or documents with restricted access.

Information of the non-accessible instruments.

4. Discussion

The main aim of this study is to offer an updated systematic review of EI instruments in order to provide researchers and professionals with a list of tools that can be applied in the professional field with their characteristics, psychometric properties and versions, as well as a brief description of the instrument. For this purpose, a systematic review of the scientific literature on EI has been carried out using the WoS database through a search of all articles published between 1900 and the present.

The number of instruments developed has been increasing in recent years. In the 1990s barely any instruments were developed and their production was limited to approximately one per year and to practically one country (i.e., the USA). This may be due to the recent conceptualisation of EI, as well as to the difficulty that researchers found in constructing emotion-centred questions with objective criteria [ 15 ]. However, over the years, the production of instruments to measure EI has been increasing and, in addition, it has been extended to other geographical areas. This may be due to the importance that EI has reached over the years in multiple areas (e.g., health, organizational, educational, etc.). With the passage of time, and the introduction of new technologies, multimedia platforms have begun to be used to present stimuli to participants. Recent research in EI has determined that emotions are expressed and perceived through visual and auditory signals (i.e., the tone of voice and the dynamic movements of the face and body) [ 94 ]. Thus, a meta-analysis revealed that video-based tests tend to have a higher criterion-related validity than text-based stimuli [ 95 ].

Regarding the results, a total of 40 instruments produced from 1995 to 2020 have been located. The instruments registered in a greater number of studies, and that have been most used over the years are EQ-i, SSRI, MSCEIT 2.0, TMMS, WLEIS, and TEIQue. These tools have the largest number of versions (e.g., reduced or for different ages or contexts) and are the ones that have been validated in more languages. The most recent instruments hardly have translations apart from their original version, and they have been tested on very few occasions. Most of the articles have not been developed for a specific context.

On the other hand, as can be seen in the results, most of the instruments are grouped under the three main conceptual models described in the introduction (ability, trait and mixed). These models are vertebrated around the construct of EI. However, they present differences in the way of conceptualizing it and, therefore, also of measuring it. For example, the ability-based concept of EI is measured by maximum performance tests while trait-based EI is measured by self-report questionnaires. This may, in itself, lead to different outcomes, even if the underlying model used is the same [ 96 , 97 ].

The ability model, introduced by Mayer and Salovey, is composed of other hierarchically ordered abilities, in which the understanding and management dimensions involve higher-order cognitive processes (strategic), and are based on perception and facilitation, which involve instantaneous processing of emotional information (experiential) [ 4 ]. This model has received wide recognition and has served as a basis for the development of other models. However, it has been questioned through factor analysis that does not support a hierarchical model with an underlying global EI factor. Furthermore, emotional thought facilitation (second dimension) did not arise as a separate factor and was found to be empirically redundant with the other branches [ 96 ].

Intelligence and personality researchers have questioned the very existence of ability EI, and they suggest that it is nothing more than intelligence. This fact is supported by the high correlations found between ability-based EI and the intellectual quotient [ 15 , 96 ]. On the other hand, there is the possibility of falsifying the results by responding strategically for the purpose of social desirability. However, one of the advantages of the ability model is that, through the maximum performance tests, it is not possible to adulterate them. This is because participants must choose the answer they think is correct to get the highest possible score. Another advantage is that these types of instruments tend to be more attractive because they are made up of tests in which it is required to resolve problems, solve puzzles, perform comprehension tasks or choose images [ 15 ].

The Petrides and Furnham model [ 5 ] emerged as an alternative to the ability-based model and is related to dispositional tendencies, personality traits, or self-efficacy beliefs that are measured by self-report tests. The tools based on this model are not exempt from criticism. These instruments present a number of disadvantages, the most frequently cited are being vulnerability to counterfeiting and social desirability [ 96 ]. The participant can obtain a high EI profile by responding in a strategically and socially desirable way, especially when they are examined in work contexts by supervisors or in job interviews. People are not always good judges of their emotional abilities [ 98 ], and may tend to unintentionally underestimate or overestimate their EI. Another criticism of self-report tools is their ecological validity (i.e., external validity that analyses the test environment and determines how much it influences the results) [ 96 ].

On the contrary, the fact that such tools do not present correct or incorrect answers can be advantageous in certain cases. High EI trait scores are not necessarily adaptive or low maladaptive. That is, self-report tools give rise to emotional profiles that simply fit better and are more advantageous in some contexts than in others [ 97 ]. On the other hand, trait-based tools have demonstrated good incremental validity over cognitive intelligence and personality compared to ability-based EI tests [ 99 ]. Furthermore, they tend to have very good psychometric properties, have no questionable theoretical basis, and are moderately and significantly correlate with a large set of outcome variables [ 15 ].

One aspect observed in this systematic review is that the main measure of the estimated reliability in the analysed studies has been internal consistency. However, this estimate is not interchangeable with other measurement error estimates. This coefficient gives a photographic picture of the measurement error and does not include variability over time. There are other reliability indicators (e.g., stability or test–retest) that are more relevant for social intervention purposes [ 100 ], and that according to the estimation design, can differentiate into trait variability or state variability, that is, respectively stability and dependability [ 101 ]. It has been found that the use of stability measures as a reliability parameter is not frequent. In methodological and substantive contexts, reproducibility is essential for the advancement of knowledge. For this reason, it is necessary to identify measures that can be used as parameters to compare the results of different studies [ 102 ]. On the other hand, the standard coefficient of internal consistency has been coefficient α [ 103 ]. This measure has been questioned in relation to its apparent misinformed use of its restrictions [ 104 , 105 , 106 ], of which Cronbach himself highlighted its limited applications [ 104 ]. Other reliability measures have been recommended (e.g., ω) [ 107 ], and the reliability estimation practice in the creation of EI measurements needs to be updated. Usually, ω estimation is integrated into the modelling-based estimation, where SEM or IRT methodology is required to corroborate the internal structure of the score [ 108 , 109 , 110 ] and extract the parameters used to calculate reliability (i.e., factorial loads).

Another methodological aspect to highlight is that predominantly, the construction of EI measures was based on linear modelling or classical test theory. In contrast, the least used approach was item response theory (IRT), which provides other descriptive and evaluative parameters of the quality of the score measurement, such as the information function or the characteristic curves of the options, among others.

On the other hand, it is striking that some of the articles found prove the construct validity of their instruments by obtaining higher EI scores by women than men [ 56 , 58 , 73 ]. This has also been seen in the scientific literature and in research such as that of Fischer et al. [ 111 ], in which it was found that women tend to score higher in EI tests or empathy tests than men, especially, but not only, if it is measured through self-report. Additionally, striking is the study by Molero et al. [ 112 ], in which significant differences were observed among the various EI components between men and women. However, this is not the case in all the articles analysed in this study, nor in all the most current scientific literature. This fact has led to the development of different hypotheses about how far, why, and under what circumstances women could outperform men. There are several theories that have emerged around it. There is one that claims that these differences could be related to different modes of emotional processing in the brain [ 113 , 114 ]. Another theory points to possible differences in emotional perception that suggest that women are more accurate than men in this process when facial manifestations of emotion are subtle, but not when stimuli are highly expressive [ 115 ]. Additionally, another one points out that the expression of emotions is consistent with sex, which may be influenced by contextual factors, including the immediate social context and broader cultural contexts [ 116 ]. However, other variables such as age or years of experience in the position should also be taken into account. For example, the study by Miguel-Torres et al. [ 117 ] showed a better ability to feel, express, and understand emotional states in younger nurses, while the ability to regulate emotions was greater in those who had worked for more years. For this reason, nowadays firm conclusions cannot be drawn and it must be taken into account that the differences found are generally small. Thus, more research is needed on the differences that may exist between men and women in the processes of perception, expression and emotional management before establishing possible social implications of these findings.

4.1. Limitations

This study is not without limitations. Some are inherent in this type of studies, such as publication bias (i.e., the non-publication of studies with results that do not show significant differences) that could have resulted in a loss of articles that have not been published and that used instruments other than those found. In addition, instruments that could not be accessed from their original manuscript could not be included in the systematic review. On the other hand, despite the advantages of WoS, the fact that the search was conducted in a single database may lead to some loss of literature. Furthermore, the systematic review was restricted to peer-reviewed publications and thus different studies may be presented in other information sources, such as books or grey literature. Articles that were in the press and those that may have been published in the course of the compilation of this study have not been collected either. Additionally, the entire process of searching for references was carried out by only one investigator, so an estimate of inter-judge reliability cannot be made, as well as data extraction. There are many aspects of the PRISMA statement that, due to the purpose of our research, our study does not include (visible as NA in Table A1 ). However, it is necessary to develop a protocol for recording the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the primary studies to prevent bias (e.g., bias in the selection process). There are also some methodological aspects to be improved, such as the lack of methods used to assess the risk of bias in the included studies, the preparation or synthesis of the data, or the certainty in the body of evidence of a result. In future research it is necessary to take into account and develop these aspects in order to improve the replicability and methodological validity of the study, and to facilitate the transparency of the research process. In contrast to the above, one of the strengths of this study was to minimize the presence of biases that could alter the results. To minimize language bias, articles submitted in any language were searched for and accepted to avoid over-presentation of studies in one language, and under-presentation in others [ 20 ]. In addition, this study takes into account and exposes five sources of evidence of validity of the instruments through the Standards: content, response processes, internal structure, relationship with other variables and the consequences of testing. Other aspects to be improved in the future include performing the same search in other databases such as EBSCO and Scopus to obtain possible articles not covered in WoS. A manual search for additional articles would also be useful, for example, in the references of other articles or in the grey literature.

4.2. Practical Implication

The relationship between EI and personal development has been of great interest in psychological research over time [ 8 ]. A good study of the instruments that measure constructs such as EI can be of great help both in the field of prevention and psychological intervention in social settings. The revision of EI instruments is intended to contribute to facilitating work in the general population in a way that the development of EI is promoted and antisocial behaviours are reduced. In addition, since it correlates with variables that serve as protectors against psychological distress, this work also contributes to improving, in some cases, the general level of health.

Through this systematic review, we can see the great effort that has been made by researchers not only to improve existing EI measurement instruments, but also in the construction of new instruments that help professionals in the educational, business and health fields, as well as the general population. However, given the rapid changes that society is experiencing, partly due to the effects of modernization and technology, there is a demand to go beyond measurement. For example, from educational and business institutions and from family and community organizations it is necessary to promote activities, support and commitment towards actions oriented to EI under the consideration that this construct can be improved at any age and that it increases with experience.

5. Conclusions

From the results obtained in this study, numerous instruments have been found that can be used to measure EI in professionals. Over the years, the production of instruments to measure EI has been increasing and, moreover, has spread to other geographical areas. The most recent instruments have hardly been translated beyond their original version and have been tested very rarely. In order for future research to benefit from these new instruments, a greater number of uses in larger samples and in other contexts would be desirable.

In addition, most of the instruments are grouped under the three main conceptual models described in the introduction (ability, trait and mixed). Each model has a number of advantages and disadvantages. In the ability model it is not possible to adulterate the results by strategic responses and they tend to be more attractive tests; however, factor analyses do not support a hierarchical model with an underlying global EI factor. The trait-based model, on the other hand, employs measures that have no right or wrong answers, so they result in emotional profiles that are more advantageous in some contexts than others, and they tend to have very good psychometric properties. However, they are susceptible to falsification and social desirability.

On the other hand, it is necessary to identify measures that can be used as parameters to compare the results of different studies. In addition, the standard coefficient of internal consistency has been the α coefficient, which has been questioned in relation to its apparent misinformed use of its restrictions. It would be advisable to use other reliability measures and to update the reliability estimation practice in the creation of EI measures.

Finally, some of the articles found test the construct validity of their instruments by obtaining higher EI scores from women than from men. Different hypotheses have been developed about to what extent, why and under what circumstances women would outperform men; differences may be related to different modes of emotional processing in the brain or possible differences in emotional perception or to the influence of contextual factors. However, it would be interesting to further investigate the differences that may exist between men and women or to take into account other factors such as age or number of years of experience before establishing possible practical implications.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the casual helpers for their aid with information processing and searching.

PRISMA 2020 checklist.

NA = Not applicable.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, L.M.B.-L. and M.M.-V.; methodology, L.M.B.-L.; validation, L.M.B.-L.; formal analysis, L.M.B.-L.; investigation, L.M.B.-L.; data curation, L.M.B.-L.; writing—original draft preparation, L.M.B.-L.; writing—review and editing, L.M.B.-L., M.M.-V., C.M.-S. and J.L.C.-S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Essay on Emotional Intelligence

Students are often asked to write an essay on Emotional Intelligence in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Emotional Intelligence

What is emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is knowing and managing your feelings. It’s like being the boss of your emotions. You understand what you feel, why you feel it, and how your feelings can affect other people.

Why It’s Important

When you’re good at emotional intelligence, you can handle friendship problems better and not get too upset. It helps you deal with tough times without losing control and makes you a kinder person.

Learning About Feelings

You can grow your emotional intelligence by paying attention to your feelings and figuring out what causes them. Talking about emotions with friends or family can also help you understand them better.

Being a Good Friend

Emotional intelligence also means noticing how others feel. By seeing if a friend is sad or happy, you can decide the best way to help them or make them feel better.

Emotional Intelligence at School

In school, this skill can make learning easier. You stay calm during tests and work well with classmates on projects. Teachers and students get along better when everyone uses emotional intelligence.

250 Words Essay on Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence, or EI, is the ability to understand and manage your own feelings, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you. Imagine it like a superpower that helps you get along with friends and deal with challenges calmly.

Knowing Your Feelings

The first part of EI is being aware of your own emotions. This means noticing what you’re feeling and why. It’s like being a detective of your own heart. When you know you’re feeling sad because you lost a game, that’s emotional intelligence at work.

Controlling Emotions

After you know what you’re feeling, the next step is handling those emotions without letting them get the best of you. For example, if you’re angry, instead of yelling, you might take deep breaths or count to ten. This keeps you in charge of your feelings.

Understanding Others

Emotional Intelligence also involves figuring out how others are feeling. This could mean noticing if a friend is upset even if they haven’t said anything. When you can tell how someone else is feeling, you can be a better friend and help them.

Influencing Emotions

Lastly, EI helps you help others with their feelings. If your friend is sad, you might try to cheer them up. By doing this, you’re using your EI to make a positive change in someone else’s day.

To sum up, Emotional Intelligence is like being a heart-smart person. It’s not just about being smart with books and numbers, but also with feelings. And the more you practice, the better you get at it!

500 Words Essay on Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions. It also involves noticing and influencing the feelings of others. Imagine it as a skill that helps us deal with the world of emotions just like we use our mind to solve math problems.

The first part of emotional intelligence is about being aware of your own emotions. It’s like having a little voice inside your head that tells you, “Hey, you’re feeling really happy because you scored well on a test!” or “You’re sad because you missed your friend.” Knowing what we feel helps us handle our emotions better.

Managing Emotions

Once we understand our emotions, the next step is to control them. This doesn’t mean hiding our feelings but rather not letting them control us. For example, if you’re angry, instead of yelling, you might take deep breaths or count to ten. This way, you’re in charge, not your anger.

Empathy: Feeling with Others

Emotional intelligence also means understanding how others feel. This is called empathy. When a friend is sad, and you understand and feel for them, that’s empathy. It’s like putting yourself in their shoes and seeing the world from their eyes.

Friendship Skills

Knowing about emotions helps us make and keep friends. It’s important in sharing, taking turns, and listening. When we can tell how our friends feel, we can be better friends. We can cheer them up when they’re down or enjoy happy times together.

Solving Problems

Emotions can sometimes create problems. Maybe two friends are fighting, or you’re nervous about a test. Emotional intelligence helps us solve these problems. It teaches us to talk about our feelings, not fight, and to face our fears instead of running away.

Learning and School

Believe it or not, emotional intelligence can even help with learning. When we’re calm and happy, we can focus better on our schoolwork. Also, by understanding our feelings, we can handle stress and not let it get in the way of homework or tests.

In the end, emotional intelligence is a key part of growing up and dealing with life. It’s not just about being smart in the head but also smart with the heart. When we understand and manage our emotions, we can make better choices, be good friends, and do well in school. It’s a skill that we keep improving all our lives, and it helps us become the best we can be.

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Emotional Intelligence and ELT

The theory of Emotional Intelligence and its measurement, the Emotional Quotient (EQ) were developed in the 1970s and 80s but popularised by Daniel Goleman in the mid-90s.

EQ is one of many concepts and models originating in psychology which are being incorporated into language teaching. Goleman defines EQ as ‘the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.’

The theory has been applied extensively in the business world, but has also become a focus of attention in education as the result of research which shows that successive generations are becoming less emotionally aware. Changes in family structure, the reduced role of parents in education, mobility and technology are seen as contributing factors leading to the necessity to develop EQ at all levels of education and across the curriculum.

• Teaching techniques

The language of EQ

• Classroom activities

EQ Theory EQ theory argues that conventional measurements of intelligence ignore behaviour and character and that success in education or the business world requires academic ability but also equivalent social skills. EQ might be seen as a complement to Multiple Intelligence theory, while there are very strong links between EQ and behavioural models and theories such as Transactional Analysis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. Daniel Goleman identifies five ‘domains’ of EQ:

• Self-awareness - Recognising and being able to name our feelings.
• Motivation - The ability to keep going despite failures.
• Self-regulation - The way we handle our emotions to avoid negative effects.
• Empathy - The ability to read the emotions of others.
• Adeptness - Being sensitive to the feelings of others and handling them appropriately to build positive relationships.

EQ and ELT Because EQ is about understanding and assessing behaviour patterns it is relevant to the development of both the individual and the organisation. In education, it applies to the institution, teachers and students through promoting academic success while reducing anxiety and negative feelings during the learning process. At the same time, patterns for future life are established while skills are developed that are in demand by employers.

At an institutional level, the emphasis is on creating an environment conducive to raising students’ EQ. Much of this involves creating a sense of identity, safety and value. In this way, institutions and teachers are responsible for fostering:

• Attachment – A sense of belonging to the school or university.
• Reassurance – That others experience difficulties.
• Bonding – Facilitating the formation of friendships.
• Induction – Informing students of what is available.
• Training – In study skills, time management and stress reduction.
• Holism – Balancing academic learning with physical and social activities.

In the language classroom, all the above apply and are the responsibility of the teacher, but attention to EQ faces the additional considerations of emotional literacy (the ability to express emotions) in L2, and the necessity for good group dynamics and student interaction.

In the days of rote-learning and the teacher-centre classroom, interrelationships among the group were not vital, but in communicative language teaching, where pair and groupwork are the norm, support and co-operation between learners is essential.

Teenage learners in particular are often reluctant to co-operate, often as a result of repressed fear, anxiety and anger rather than linguistic inability, and are unlikely to learn much in a student-centred classroom. Thus, the teacher needs to focus on areas of language used to express emotions, and on classroom techniques which will reduce tension and produce better group dynamics.

Teaching techniques EI is developed through activities which promote the sharing of ideas and communication in the classroom. Techniques which are already part of the teacher’s repertoire of confidence-building activities are emphasised:

• A variety of activities maintains interest and allows for different approaches to learning and individual learning styles.
• Ice breakers, warmers and mingle activities help students get to know each other and promote interest in lessons if they are related to the topic area.
• Brainstorming and discussion encourages the sharing of knowledge and opinions.
• For some learners, it is easier to reveal themselves through a fictitious role. However, role-plays and simulations should be carefully set up and related to the real world. Guided fantasy and drama techniques are useful tools in guiding learners into their roles.
• Group work encourages cooperation. Group composition should be changed often since there is a tendency for high EQ students to work together, but EQ can be also learned by example. Tasks should be designed so that all members have to contribute and have the same outcome. Collaborative reading and writing activities as well as group speaking activities may be utilised.
• Project work. Students are often competitive. Group completion of assessed and unassessed projects also encourages cooperation.
• Giving feedback on performance and making clear what is expected. Feedback should be specific, objective and focused on an aspect of performance that the student is able to change.
• Getting feedback on tasks and how students felt during the task.
• Continuous assessment allows all positive aspects of a student’s performance to be assessed and rewarded including their contribution to the group.

The most difficult task for the teacher in teaching the language of emotions is persuading learners to state their feelings directly, since we all have a tendency to over-complicate how we feel and / or blame another person. A frightened passenger in a car is more likely to say ‘You’re driving a bit too fast, aren’t you?’ (meaning please slow down) or ‘You’re driving like a maniac’ (blaming the driver) rather than ‘I’m scared’ . The language teacher, however, has the advantage of being able to encourage learners to use the simple language of emotions before they have the range of language to complicate matters. The language itself consists mainly of a few main verbs, a variety of adjectives, and the use of modals, but is best seen in terms of functions:

There is also language to be avoided, mainly to do with the functions of giving commands and strong advice (I / you should), obligation (I / you must) and blaming (you’re insensitive, you’re making me jealous).

Classroom activities Language practice materials designed for the global market are often criticised for being too general, not relevant to individual learning groups and unnatural.

Teachers are encouraged to adapt materials to suit local needs. EQ development requires that teachers also adapt materials to enable learners to find out about each other’s interests, habits, preferences and characters, both to stimulate discussion and to strengthen intra-group relationships. Some standard activities already encourage learners to reveal something about themselves (If I found a wallet in the street I’d.....), but many are impersonal, ‘closed’, in that follow-up questions are not required, or tend to produce unnatural responses. A good example is the kind of questions often used to practise frequency adverbs. Questions such as ‘How often do you watch television / play football with your friends / play computer games / go shopping?’ are unlikely to produce responses which are revealing, unpredictable or interesting enough to follow up.

The questions in the above table require responses which say something about the speaker and provide opportunities for further questions and for the teacher to feed in some extra useful language. In this case, students fill in the table before asking and answering questions, allowing time to think of ‘real’ responses and recall actual incidents from their own lives. ‘Personalised grammar’ promotes meaningful interaction.

Conclusion Developing EQ and good communicative language teaching go hand in hand, however the group dynamics necessary for meaningful interaction in the classroom do not occur automatically, but need to be fostered through techniques which build confidence, create a positive classroom atmosphere and encourage co-operation. Personalised language practice is affective in that it encourages learners to talk about themselves and their feelings while making the use of the language relevant, interesting and therefore memorable.

Further reading Antidote (an organisation devoted to emotional literacy) http://www.antidote.org.uk/ Goleman, D. Emotional Intelligence . Bantam 1995 Goleman, D. Working with Emotional Intelligence . Bantam 2000 Lynn, A. The Emotional Intelligence Activity Book . AMACOM 2001 Schilling, D. 50 Activities for Teaching Emotional Intelligence . Innerchoice 1999

Written by Steve Darn, Freelance Trainer, Izmir, Turkey  

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Essays on Emotional Intelligence

Do you have an emotional intelligence essay to write? Once you analyze our emotional intelligence essay samples you will be equipped to take on any essay with no problem! But what is emotional intelligence? In some essays on emotional intelligence, it is defined as the ability to understand feelings of yourself and other people, as well as the ability to assess mood, temperament, and intentions while communicating with other people, regardless of whether they are old friends or strangers. An important part of emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and control your own and other people’s emotions. Many emotional intelligence essays recognize how important emotional intelligence is for social situations, especially at work. If you need some insight on the matter, feel free to take a peek at the samples of intelligence essays below!

Review of Research Article: Sociocultural Context of Emotional Intelligence Development of 5-7 Year 0ld ChildrenUnderstanding Emotional Intelligence in ChildrenThis research article written by Silakova Marina Mikhailovna and Zakharova Larisa Mikhailovna discusses the sociocultural development of the emotional intelligence of children who are aged between five and seven years old. The...

According to Bradberry (2009), emotional intelligence is the skill and capacity to construe other people’s emotions, as well as being able to read and understand them appropriately. The sole purpose of emotional intelligence is to enable people to acknowledge their emotions and those of other individuals. Furthermore, the four main...

Organizational Leaders With a Secure Attachment Style and Emotional Intelligence Organizational leaders with a secure attachment style will have higher levels of emotional intelligence and transformational leadership skills. The reason behind this allegation is due to the manner in which these individuals conduct themselves amidst challenges that face their organizations. Emotional...

This is a good research topic since currently, there exists a debate between the skeptics and proponents of emotional intelligence (EI) with reference to its contribution to the effectiveness of leadership within the organizational setting (Matthews, Zeidner " Roberts, 2007). A majority of the literature available has not aimed at...

Emotional intelligence, commonly abbreviated as EQ, refers to the ability of an individual to recognize, comprehend and manage their own emotions and those of others. also, it includes the ability to understand the effect that their own emotions have towards others. Emotional Intelligence can be understood through tests and undertaking...

Words: 1820

Emotional Intelligence and Effective Communication Emotional intelligence and effective communication are key topics of concern to many organizations in the world (Jorfi et al. 82). The relation between the duo plays a vital role in the success and growth of organizations. Goleman defines emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize and...

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Communication and Organizational Change Communication is one of the factors that influence organizational change and has a significant contribution to the prosperity of projects carried out by a team of workers. There are numerous styles of communication that an organization can employ in its setup. Every method has its suitability and...

Words: 1048

The emotional building blocks that constitute the base of intelligence capability determine a person's level of emotional intelligence (Sallie-Dosunmu, 2016). Because they aim to ensure an increase in job happiness, emotional intelligence blocks substantially influence management's capacity to manage personnel. Emotional self-awareness, self-perception, leadership, self-actualization, and self-regard are the fundamental...

Words: 1400

A meta-analysis of job attitudes and emotional intelligence In the study, a meta-analysis of job attitudes and emotional intelligence is discussed. The title of the journal is the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, which was released in 2006 by Humphrey, Miao, and Qian. Emotional Intelligence According to Humphrey et al. (2016) s...

Emotion Elicitation and Assessment in Films Emotion elicitation by the use of films is one of the concepts which stood out after reading Coan and Allen (2007). The authors found out that rage, criticism, laughter, complaining, surprise, belligerence, sorrow, scorn, fear, disgust, stonewalling, satire, validation, apprehension, superiority, threats, defensiveness, curiosity, and...

Emotional intelligence plays an important role in our lives, which basically means that our bodies are in a certain state at any given time, and we aim to either preserve or change that state. Feelings are a reflection of what is going on in our heads. Feelings are described by...

Words: 1740

Emotional Intelligence: My Personal Experience "If you can change your mind, you can change your life," American philosopher William James once said. A lack of personal self-awareness marked my teenage years. Indeed, as a teenager, I've found myself in positions where I've had to decide whether or not what I'm doing...

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Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership Essay

Introduction, emotional intelligence, decision-making, biases and becoming effective leader and decision-maker.

Nowadays, there are various psychological tools and instruments that help measure one’s emotional intelligence, evaluate one’s decision-making skills, and describe the decision-making mechanisms and principles. Business practitioners and HR managers view these components as highly important since they help understand the abilities of the employees and their potentials of becoming leaders and managers in future (Batool, 2013). To understand the importance of these aspects I have completed a series of tests to discover the main features of an effective leader. Assessing their ability to evaluate personality and their connection with the role in organization and leadership are the main goals of this paper. Simultaneously, it is critical to underline biases and determine the main qualities of a leader and decision-maker. In the end, the conclusions are drawn to summarize the main findings of the paper.

In this case, one of the first aspects to be considered is emotional intelligence. Nowadays, this social term pertains to being able to take into account emotions of other individuals, interpret them correctly, and use them as a basis for decision-making in different contexts (Batool, 2013). To understand its working principles, I have completed Emotional Intelligence Test. MEIT test helps assess and reflects the spheres such as emotions, goals setting, autonomy in decision-making, self-evaluation, making decisions under pressure, and relationships with others. According to the main features of emotional intelligence, the leader has to be independent of external opinions, empathetic, optimistic, and socially responsible (Batool, 2013). It could be said that these matters are the main definers of one’s level of emotional intelligence. In terms of the assessment of my personality, it portrays that a have to pay critical attention to the emotions and feelings of other individuals, as disregarding them will question my leadership and abilities to build trusting relationships and networks with the subordinates in the recent future.

Based on the factors depicted above, it could be said that emotional intelligence is a complex phenomenon and its main features are the main definers of effective leadership (Batool, 2013). Nowadays, it is critical to consider this component. The organizational structure continues to evolve, and it is important to become closer to the subordinates, understand their ideas and emotions, and encourage them to participate in the decision-making process (Batool, 2013). In this case, it fulfills the existence gap in power distance between managers and employees and makes a leader not only an autocratic ruler of the company but also helps develop trusting relationships with the employees. Simultaneously, the principles of emotional intelligence can enhance decision-making and improve communication within a group (Hess & Bacigulapo, 2011). These concepts change the organizational structure by increasing the freedom of choice and expression inside the company.

Despite a substantial importance of emotional intelligence, leadership is one of the critical aspects that have to be taken into account by the modern managers. In this case, I have completed Leadership Assessment Questionnaire. This test attempts to reflect and cover the attitudes towards risk-taking, goal-setting, alignment with the company’s strategy, the effectiveness of decisions, ability to inspire, motivate, and provide continuous feedback and distributing resources effectively. It remains apparent that complying with these characteristics refers to being an effective and recognized leader, and these matters are main definers of the company’s success and financial prosperity. In this instance, this test helps highlight the main areas that require improvement. For example, my test reflected that I have average scores, and this result implies that I should continue developing my leadership skills and changes my attitudes towards interpersonal relationships for the company’s success.

The factors depicted above could be discovered as critical for the company’s development and survival. Nowadays, being a leader is vehemently important, as it not only helps increase the efficiency of the employees but also assists in cultivating change (Ikinci, 2014). At the same time, it motivates and inspires employees to continue training, as they understand their contribution to the company’s prosperity and profitability (Ikinci, 2014). Alternatively, the leader has to be interested in the dynamic environment and adapt to the constantly changing trends ( Center for Creative Leadership , 2012). Overall, along with emotional intelligence, one cannot underestimate the significance of leadership since it helps find a rapport with the employees and creates an interference between company’s mission and personal goals.

Another matter that has a clear connection with the organizational effectiveness is the principles of decision-making. In this case, the test How Good Is Your Decision-Making helped me understand my personal traits and competences. In the first place, this test tends to cover topics such as principles of decision-making and potential sources of bias such as emotionality. This assessment has a clear connection with the main features of the effective decision-maker that may include rationality, critical thinking, strong support by facts, a reasonable involvement of intuition, and risk assessment. As for my personal assessment, the score indicated that I tend to rely on rational decision-making. The primary benefit of this approach is its strong focus on logic and factual support (Walter, Kellermanns, & Lechner, 2010). Nonetheless, I have to focus on the development of my intuitive skills, as the business environment may experience unpredictable changes and require making decisions quickly.

The main features of the concept mentioned above emphasize that it could be considered as equally important as leadership and emotional intelligence. It could be said that this aspect helps the organization select only rational and logical options that may have a beneficial influence on the firm’s stability and financial performance (Walter et al., 2010). At the same time, it assists in avoiding external risks and modifying the organizational culture to comply with the external trends and fluctuations of the economic cycles. Underestimating this matter may lead to failure and a substantial financial loss.

Despite the clarity of the decision-making and its well-balanced intuitive and logical components, there are various external factors that affect the effectiveness of selecting a particular option. The assessment presented above attempted to cover some types of biases. One of them is emotionality, as they leaders tend to rely on intuition while overconfident that particular event will take place (Murata, Nakamura, & Karwowski, 2015). Apart from the cognitive biases that tend to underestimate the possibility of the social influence, there are various phenomena such as groupthink (Murata et al. 2015). In this case, the inability to discover issue from dissimilar angles minimizes the effectiveness of decision-making and may be discovered as a potential cause of failure or financial loss. It remains evident that different biases and external factors have to be considered at the same time since underestimating them will question the effectiveness of the leadership style and selected decision-making strategy.

Based on the assessments mentioned above, it could be said that effective leader and decision-maker has to combine various emotional traits that include the main features of emotional intelligence, leadership, and the key principles of decision-making mechanisms. In this case, the leader has to pay attention to the emotions of other individuals and take them into account when making particular decisions (Batool, 2013). At the same time, one cannot underestimate the importance of social responsibility and ensuring alignment with the personal and group goals with the company’s mission. Using a well-balanced combination of intuition and rationality will also boost the efficiency of decision-making and have a positive impact on the development of the company. Being able to combine these features will contribute to being a motivating and inspiring role model to the employees and effective problem-solver.

Overall, this essay helped see that personal assessments are not only completed for pleasure and entertainment, but they also identify the areas for improvement. They tend to take into account the characteristics that one has to have a high level of emotional intelligence and be effective leader and decision-maker. These tests helped understand the significance of individual traits and emotional features in the organizational structure and success of the company.

At the same time, this essay tends to underline that these concepts are vehemently important for the organizational performance and have to be considered as the main components of the effective leadership and decision-making. Using their combination will have a positive impact on establishing internal and external relationships and change the principles of the decision-making style. Following these new tendencies will assist the leader in establishing trusting relationships with the employees and creating a suitable environment for encouraging employees to share their opinions. It could be said that these factors will not only optimize the working processes of the company but also enhance company’s competitive edge.

Batool, B. (2013). Emotional intelligence and effective leadership. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 4 (3), 84-94.

Center for Creative Leadership : Leadership image. (2012). Web.

Hess, J., & Bacigulapo, A. (2011). Enhancing decisions and decision-making processes through the application of emotional intelligence. Management Decisions, 49 (5), 720-721.

Ikinci, S. (2014). Organizational change: Importance of leadership style and training. Management and Organizational Studies, 1 (2), 122-128.

Murata, A., Nakamura, T., & Karwowski, W. (2015). Influence of cognitive biases on distortive decision-making and leading to critical unfavorable incidents. Safety, 1 (1), 44-58.

Walter, J., Kellermanns, F., & Lechner, C. (2012). Decision making within and between organizations: Rationality, politics, and alliance performance. Journal of Management, 38 (5), 1582-1610.

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IvyPanda. (2020, October 21). Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership. https://ivypanda.com/essays/emotional-intelligence-and-effective-leadership/

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1. IvyPanda . "Emotional Intelligence and Effective Leadership." October 21, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/emotional-intelligence-and-effective-leadership/.

Bibliography

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Understanding emotional and social intelligence among English language teachers

Emotions and social relationships are at the centre of all human behaviour. Teaching in particular requires the careful handling of students’ and teachers’ own emotions as well as the sensitive promotion of positive social relationships between the teacher and students and among students. These emotional and social competences are key components of effective classroom management and teacher competences. However, there has been surprisingly little research on how these competences function in actual classrooms and how best they can be fostered. Language teaching in particular depends on these competences given the intercultural, social and interpersonal character of communication in a foreign language. In what follows, we review the literature on emotional intelligence (EI) and social intelligence (SI) within psychology and education, and argue for the relevance and importance of both constructs specifically within English language teaching (ELT). We report on the findings of a mixed-methods empirical study on the EI and SI of English language teachers across the globe, and then examine in more detail the beliefs and practices of highly emotionally and socially intelligent teachers in the UK and Austria. We conclude the paper by reflecting on the implications of the findings for language teaching and language teacher education.

Related Papers

Ebrahim Khodadady

This paper studied the responses of 1704 learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to the Persian Characteristics of Effective English Language Teachers (CEELT) questionnaire and their 95 teachers’ self report on Persian Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I) in order to replicate Ghanizadeh and Moafian’s (2009) study with a more homogeneous sample. In contrast to the significant and positive correlation found between teacher effectiveness as measured by the CEELT and emotional intelligence as measured by the EQ-I (r = .39, p < .05) in their study, a significant but negative relationship was found between the two measures in this study (r = -.05, p < .05). However, the findings of this study showed that among the five competencies comprising the EQ-I, i.e., Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Stress Management, Adaptability, and General Mood, only Interpersonal relates significantly not only to teacher effectiveness but also to its five underlying factors, i.e., Rapport, Fairness, Qualification, Facilitation and Examination as does its Empathy component. Similarly, out of the remaining 14 components, Social Responsibility of Interpersonal competence correlates positively and significantly with the CEELT and its Rapport, Fairness and Examination factors. The implications of the study are discussed and suggestions are made for future research.

Second Language Learning and Teaching

lana hiasat

Abant Izzet Baysal University Graduate School of Social Sciences

Amanda Yeşilbursa

Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching

Sharona Moskowitz , Jean-Marc Dewaele

The aim of this study is to examine how students perceive teacher trait emotional intelligence (TEI) and how those perceptions relate to students' own self-reported attitudes and motivation. Adult students of ESL/EFL were given an online questionnaire consisting of two parts: one to provide observer-reported data on their teacher's trait emotional intelligence and the second to measure students' own attitudes and motivation. In total, 129 participants of 28 nationalities took part. The results showed that the perceived teacher TEI domains of teacher sociability and teacher self-control were significant predictors of student positive feelings and attitudes towards the teacher. With this paper, we make the case that observer reports of teacher TEI by students could be a valuable tool in L2 instruction by offering teachers unique insight into their own classroom behavior, thereby increasing teacher self-awareness which could lead to improved classroom practices.

Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research

Ogholgol Nazari

Journal of Language Research

ONUR KARASU

بحوث فى تدریس اللغات

Asmaa Gheith

Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics

Jean-Marc Dewaele

This paper reports an investigation into the relationships between global trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI), as well as the four factors that constitute it (well-being, emotionality, self-control, and sociability), and quantitative data from 513 experienced ESL/EFL teachers from around the world about their love of English, their attitudes towards their students and institution, their self-reported classroom practices, their enjoyment, unpredictability and creativity. The results showed significant positive correlations. The analyses revealed that global Trait EI, well-being and sociability were significantly positively correlated with most dependent variables while emotionality and self-control were significantly correlated with a number of dependent variables. Global Trait EI and emotionality were significantly positively linked to the English proficiency of English foreign language users but not to that of the English L1 users. The pedagogical implication is that having a sufficient level of Trait EI helps teachers deal effectively with their own and their students’ emotions.

BRAIN. Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience

Academia EduSoft

The present study was an attempt to investigate the interplay among Iranian EFL teachers' emotional intelligence, classroom management, and their general English language proficiency. The result of the data analysis showed that: 1) there was a statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the classroom management of Iranian EFL teachers, 2) there was a statistically significant relationship between the emotional intelligence and the language proficiency of Iranian EFL teachers, and 3) there was a statistically significant relationship between the classroom management and the language proficiency of Iranian EFL teachers. Teacher trainers, researchers in teacher education, and language teachers may benefit from the findings of the present research.

Multidisciplinary Journal of Educational Research

Karim Shabani

The study was designed to investigate the differences among Iranian EFL teachers in terms of emotional intelligence (EI) and their use of speaking strategies. To this end, 90 EFL male and female teachers teaching English at 9 institutes in Behshahr, Sari, and Amol cities in Mazandaran Province (north of Iran) were randomly selected. The research data were collected through the Bar-On EQ-I scale and teachers&#39; use of speaking strategies questionnaire. Results on Independent Sample t-test reported significant differences in teachers&#39; EI across gender. One-way ANOVA revealed differences in teachers&#39; EI across years of teaching experience. Furthermore, results on Kruskal Wallis Test indicated differences in teachers&#39; use of each speaking strategy regarding their level of EI. Based on the findings, teachers with a higher level of EI preferred to focus on both accuracy and fluency and apply story-telling activities to create more successful interaction. While teachers with...

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