emotional intelligence

n. Emotional intelligence (EI) was formally defined by Peter Salovey and Jack Mayer in 1990 as a member of an emerging group of mental abilities alongside social and practical intelligence. EI refers to the processes involved in perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions to solve emotion-laden problems and to regulate behavior. Perceiving emotion refers to the ability to identify emotions in oneself and others, as well as in other stimuli, including voices, stories, music, and works of art. Using emotion refers to the ability to harness feelings to assist in certain cognitive activities such as problem solving, decision making, creative thinking, and interpersonal communication. Understanding emotions involves knowledge of both emotion-related terms and the manner in which emotions combine, progress, and transition from one to the other. Managing emotions includes the ability to employ strategies that alter feelings, and the assessment of the effectiveness of these regulation strategies.

The public and academia were mostly unaware of EI until 1995, when Daniel Gole- man, psychologist and science writer for the New York Times, popularized the construct in his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Emotional intelligence quickly captured the attention of the media, general public, educators, and researchers. Goleman, however, made extraordinary and difficult-to-substan- tiate claims about the importance of EI. The definition of EI in the book was not confined to the abilities described in Salovey and Mayer’s original ability model of EI; it now encompassed a broad array of personal attributes, including self-confidence, optimism, and selfmotivation, among other desirable personality attributes.

Research on EI is only in its incipient stages: the theory was published just 15 years ago, and performance measures of the construct have been used in scientific investigations for only about 4 years. The theory of EI will certainly be expanded upon in the coming years, and new tasks to measure different aspects of EI also are under way. There is much to be learned about EI theory and measurement, and its application at home, school, and the workplace.

- MAB