Discuss whether emotional intelligence has any additional value to offer psychology over and above personal (big 5 or FFM) and general intelligence

This essay will describe and analyse what unique factors Emotional Intelligence brings to psychology in comparison to Personal and General Intelligence.

What is emotional intelligence?

Salovey and Mayer (1990) define Emotional intelligence as; “the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions”. Salovey and Mayer (1990) further state that “the construct of EI refers to individual differences in the ability to process and use emotional information to promote effective functioning in everyday life”. This statement goes against Bar-on’s (1997) definition of emotional intelligence as “An array of non-cognitive capabilities”. This is because generally when people monitor and process information and interoperate other’s emotions a certain element of cognition is required. .i.e. the cognitive system must monitor these emotions.

The variation between the definitions of emotional Intelligence show that there is still a lot of disagreement as to what exactly emotional intelligence is. This point is one reason to question the additional value of emotional intelligence; how can it benefit psychology if no one can accurately describe what it is? The answer is that although an absolute definition of emotion is elusive, measures of something closely related exist. Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey and palfai (1995), Cited in Curtis (2005), developed a scale which they claimed tested components of the emotional intelligence construct. The Trait Meta Mood scale measures “three cognitive components of the Emotional intelligence construct: attention to feelings, clarity and repair. Attention to feeling relates to the attention a person gives to their inner feelings, clarity refers to the ability to distinguish between feelings and repair refers to the regulate moods and “bounce-back-ability” or the ability to recover from negative emotions.

Trait EI and Ability EI

In The Emotional Intelligence a Literature Review (2007), Carolynn Kohn, states that there are two types of emotional intelligence; Trait emotional intelligence and ability emotional intelligence. It is further stated that Trait EI correlates with personality measurements, whereas ability EI is related to “coping skills and emotional regulation” and that both types of EI are only slightly correlated with each other.

However its doubters insist that EI overlaps too closely with personality to distinguish it as its own construct, Carretta et al (2003). In particular it overlaps with the main constructs of ...

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Trait EI and Ability EI

However its doubters insist that EI overlaps too closely with personality to distinguish it as its own construct, Carretta et al (2003). In particular it overlaps with the main constructs of the five factor model: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Meaning that when the five factor model is observed within any test a further test on emotional intelligence will reveal the same information.

Emotional intelligence and personality

Robins (1994), States that the five factor model of personality, provides only a “measure of personality structure”. Further more it doesn’t portray “a model of personality dynamics or personality development.” Robins further states that Pervin believes that traits are “purely descriptive” and basically don’t account for the “dynamic processes” that he feels are essential in the control and generation of behaviour. The dynamic processes mentioned include moods, emotions, affects and motivation. Therefore emotional intelligence may have psychological significance in identifying how a person’s dynamics affect their traits to produce personality.

Derksen et al (2002) compared Bar-On's “Emotional Quotient (EQ)” to the General Adult Mental Ability (GAMA) scale. GAMA tests for fluid intelligence. The study found that EQ and GAMA scores did not significantly correlate. Meaning that the EQ tested for something different from the GAMA, I.e. fluid intelligence bears no relation to the intelligence that EQ test for. The study also found that there were “small age related changes in the correlations” between GAMA and EQ. This promotes the idea that although both Emotional intelligence and Fluid intelligence are directly unrelated, they both have the ability to improve with age.

Psychosocial behaviour

A differentiation between Emotional intelligence and General intelligence occurs in psychosocial people. found that psychopathic people; despite their more than adequate general intelligence were unable to socially adjust. Through case studies Cleckley exemplified that even people with exceptional cognitive abilities could not satisfactory decision-make or socially adjust. Cited in: , Hare’s (Psychopathy Checklist-Revised) PCL-R, does not correlate with general intelligence, however it does reveal the “maladaptive antisocial behaviors that result in high incarnation rates and other negative consequences” that are common in psychopaths. Further more Malterers (2007) research found that psychopaths had significantly lower scores on repair and attention measures of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) than the controls. The above studies promote the idea that

Predicting academic ability:

There is a vast amount of literature on the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic success. Parker et al (2004) found that certain “dimensions” of emotional intelligence were related to academic success. However Austin et al study (2005) found that there was little or no relation between Emotional intelligence and academic success. Various other studies have yielded the same contrasting results. As a result of this it is considerably hard to come to a conclusion about whether or not emotional intelligence effect academic ability. However it seems quite obvious to say, that a person who scores high on the trait meta mood scale in particular the repair section would be less likely to suffer from depressive traits meaning that they are more inclined to be able to motivate themselves to do academic work.

Emotional intelligence

Certain studies have identified that emotional intelligence is related to a wide variety of phenomena including “Leadership (Ashforth asnd Humphrey, 1995) and group performance (Williams & Sternbserg, 1988)

Against the further use of emotional intelligence in psychology

In their study; “Emotional intelligence: not much more than g and personality” Carretta et al (2003), aim to debunk emotional intelligence as a “valid construct”. They examined the relations between emotional intelligence, G and big 5 personality dimensions. Based on their findings they stated “we question the uniqueness of EI as a construct and conclude that its potential for advancing our understanding of human performance may be limited”. I.e. Emotional intelligence doesn’t offer much on top of the personality tests that already exist.

Conclusion

In order for psychology to further benefit from emotional psychology it is necessary for psychologist as a whole to find a common generally agreed definition as to what emotional intelligence is and then find a precise way of measuring it.

References

Carretta, T., Ree, M., Shilte, M. (2004).emotional intelligence: not much more than g and personality. Journal of personality and individual differences. [Electronic Journal]. 5,39-40

Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Furnham, A. Personality traits and academic exam performance, European Journal of Personality 17 (2003), pp. 237–250.

, J., Kramer, I. and Datzko, M., (2002) Does a self-report measure for emotional intelligence assess something different than general intelligence?. Personality and Individual Differences 32, pp. 37–48.

Jensen, s., Kohn, C. Emotional Intelligence A Literature Review Howells University of the Pacific Department of Psychology July 15, 2007 1, 12-13

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.

H.M. Cleckley, The mask of sanity, Mosby, St. Louis, MO (1976). 4, 23-32

Austin, E., Evans, P. (2004) A preliminary study of emotional intelligence, empathy and exam performance in first year medical students. Journal of personality and individual differences. 3,12-13

. ,

Bar-On, R. (1997). The Emotional Intelligence Inventory (EQ-i): Technical manual.

Toronto, Canada: Multi-Health Systems.

J.D.A. Parker, L.J. Summerfeldt, M.J. Hogan and S.A. Majeski, Emotional intelligence and academic success: examining the transition from high school to university, Personality and Individual Differences 36 (2004), pp. 163–172. | | | |

Oliver, J., Robins, R. (1994) Traits and Types, Dynamics and Development: No Doors Should Be Closed in the Study of Personality. [Electronic Journal] Psychological Inquiry. 7, 137 .

Melanie B. Malterer, , , Samantha J. Glass and Joseph P. Newman
aUniversity of Wisconsin Madison, Counseling Psychology, 321 Education Building, 1000 Bascom Mall, Madison, WI 53706, United States
Received 7 July 2007; revised 3 October 2007; accepted 8 October 2007. Available online 28 November 2007.

Moriarty, N Stough, C. Tidmarsh, P D. Eger and S. Dennison, Deficits in emotional intelligence underlying adolescent sex offending, Journal of Adolescence 24 (2001), pp. 743–751.

Psychopathy and trait emotional intelligence