The Emotional Intelligence, Health, and Well-Being Nexus: What Have We Learned and What Have We Missed?

Moshe Zeidner, Gerald Matthews, Richard D. Roberts

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper reviews the claimed pivotal role of emotional intelligence (EI) in well-being and health. Specifically, we examine the utility of EI in predicting health and well-being and point to future research issues that the field might profitably explore. EI is predictive of various indicators of well-being, as well as both physical and psychological health, but existing research has methodological limitations including over-reliance on self-report measures, and neglect of overlap between EI and personality measures. Interventions focusing on emotional perception, understanding and expression, and emotion regulation, seem potentially important for improving health and well-being, but research on EI has not yet made a major contribution to therapeutic practice. Future research, using a finer-grained approach to measurement of both predictors and criteria might most usefully focus on intra- and inter-personal processes that may mediate effects of EI on health. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-30
Number of pages30
JournalApplied Psychology: Health and Well-Being
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2012

Keywords

  • Emotional intelligence
  • Five factor model of personality
  • Health
  • Inter- and intra-personal processes
  • Well-being

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Applied Psychology

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