Emotional intelligence relates to emotions, emotion dynamics, and emotion complexity: A meta-analysis and experience sampling study.

Emotional intelligence (EI) should relate to people’s emotional experiences. We meta-analytically summarize associations of felt affect with ability EI branches (perception, facilitation, understanding, and management) and total scores (k = 7–14; N = 1,584–2,813). We then use experience sampling (N = 122 undergraduates over 5 days, 24 beeps) to test whether EI predicts emotion dynamics and complexity. Meta-analyses show that EI correlates significantly with lower negative affect (NA; ρ = −.21) but not higher positive affect (PA; ρ = .05). PA (but not NA) shows a significantly stronger relationship with emotion management (ρ = .23) versus other EI branches (ρ = −.01 to .07). In the experience sampling study, only management significantly related to higher PA, whereas lower NA was significantly related to total EI, perception, facilitation, and management. After controlling for mean affect: (a) only understanding significantly predicted NA dynamics whereas only management and facilitation significantly predicted PA dynamics; (b) management and facilitation predicted lower PA differentiation (EI was unrelated to NA differentiation); and (c) perception and facilitation predicted greater bipolarity. Results show that EI predicts affect, emotion dynamics, and emotion complexity. We discuss the importance of distinguishing between different branches of ability EI. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Source: European Journal of Psychological Assessment - July 2, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research