About this Research Topic

Background

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a construct of special interest for both Personality and Social Psychology and Emotion Science areas. After the first 25 years of EI as a scientific construct, as is clear from recent meta-analyses in the literature, EI is positively correlated with relevant life outcomes such as physical and mental health, well-being, social effectiveness, leadership, job performance, job satisfaction, and academic performance, while it is also a construct susceptible to be moderately improved through proper training. Notwithstanding, on the one hand the average correlation (higher validity coefficients) with those life outcomes is almost double for trait EI than for ability EI, which has undeniable implications for practice. On the other hand, the accumulated evidence on the effectiveness of training seems to be bigger for the former than for the latter.

This Frontiers Research Topic is focused on trait EI, which represents a constellation of emotional perceptions and dispositions assessed via questionnaires (self-reports: e.g., TEIQue, EQ-i, PEC, AES, WLEIS, GENOS, ESES, TMMS) and rating scales (e.g., WEIP).

The aim of this Research Topic is to present recent advances in the field of trait EI, through the expansion of its nomological network, updates, alterations and criticisms to the theory, analysis of reliability and validity of established and new assessment instruments, and review of implications for applied settings like the workplace, psychotherapy, and education. In the arena of constructs of social and emotional effectiveness, terminological complexity goes beyond the simple distinction between ability EI vs. trait EI, extending this double conceptualization with terms such as emotional self-efficacy and emotional competence. But in addition to this, some authors, especially in the fields of both human resources management and education, warn that they conceptualize EI not as a cognitive ability or as a personality trait, not even as emotional competence, but as a set of social and emotional competencies and/or skills. This scenario leads to the recognition that it is time to review how these different perspectives may be integrated under the trait EI theory. This state-of-the-art Research Topic brings together leading authorities to analyse different facets of this polyhedral reality.

We welcome articles from researchers and clinicians in the field, covering original research and reviews articles, as well as guidelines for research-based interventions. Coverage includes the assessment of trait EI in children and adolescents, as well as in the workplace, the criterion validity of comprehensive (broad bandwidth) or partial (narrow bandwidth) measures of trait EI in any context, the theoretical integration of trait EI with personality or emotion models, the evaluation of EI trainings across the life span, the analysis of clinical or medical applications, and the biological foundations of trait EI.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, emotional competence, EI training, emotional self-efficacy, emotional education, trait EI

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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