Clinical Perspectives in Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to recognize and express emotions in yourself, and the ability to understand the emotions of others (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Research devoted to EI has now split off into two distinct perspectives. Both perspectives share the idea that cognitive abilities are not the unique predictor of successful adaptation but that emotional competencies have to be taken into consideration. However, these perspectives markedly differ regarding their conceptualization of such emotional competencies and their assessment. On the one hand, ability models (Mayer & Salovey, 1997) conceive EI as an ability encompassing four dimensions: (a) emotions identification; (b) emotions utilization; (c) emotions understanding; and (d) emotions regulation. In this ability perspective, EI is assessed via intelligence-like tests which comprise correct and wrong responses. On the other hand, trait models (Petrides & Furnham, 2001) consider EI as a multifaceted construct encompassing 13–15 (depending on the model) emotion-related behavioral dispositions thought to affect the ways an individual would cope with demands and pressures (e..g, self-control, well-being, emotional sensibility and sociability). In this trait perspective, EI is evaluated via personality-like questionnaires. While ability tests capture maximal performance like intelligence tests, trait tests aim to capture typical performance (Petrides & Furnham, 2003). Therefore, one can say that ability EI assess what an individual could do, and trait EI what he really do.