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Emotional Intelligence

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Definition

Emotional intelligence has been conceived of in several ways, but this entry will focus on emotional intelligence as a mental ability. The ability model of emotional intelligence defines it as the capacity “to reason validly with emotions and with emotion-related information and to use emotions to enhance thought” (Mayer et al. 2016, p. 295). The approach has several advantages relative to other models, including its conceptual clarity, the validity of its associated measurement procedures, and its predictions of outcomes (Côté 2014; Mayer et al. 2008). There are, however, other meanings of the term. According to the mixed model approach, emotional intelligence is a diverse mixture of self-reported personality traits such as assertiveness, self-regard, independence, and empathy (Bar-On and Parker 2000). Alternatives to the ability model will be discussed in a later section of this entry.

Introduction

Emotional intelligence is a cognitive ability that operates on emotional...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA

    Jayne L. Allen & John D. Mayer

  2. Department of Psychology, Reed College, Portland, OR, USA

    Kateryna M. Sylaska

Authors
  1. Jayne L. Allen
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  2. Kateryna M. Sylaska
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  3. John D. Mayer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jayne L. Allen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of North Carolina-Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Charlie Reeve

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Allen, J.L., Sylaska, K.M., Mayer, J.D. (2016). Emotional Intelligence. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_975-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_975-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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