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What is emotional intelligence?
[61] Salovey and Mayer (1990) first established the term "emotional intelligence"(EI). They hypothesized a framework describing a set of skills:
... relevant to the accurate appraisal and expression of emotion in oneself and in others, the effective regulation of emotion in self and others, and the use of feeling to motivate, plan, and achieve in one's life ([61] Salovey and Mayer, 1990, p. 185).
Thus, they implied that the two distinct mental processes, thinking and feeling, actually work together. Their theory of EI focuses on the extent to which people's cognitive capabilities are informed by emotions and the extent to which emotions are cognitively managed ([23] George, 2000). Since, [61] Salovey and Mayer's (1990) conceptualization of EI the field has become inundated with a deluge of different tests all purporting to be effective assessments of an individual's EI.
The main models of EI currently available include the multifactor emotional intelligence scale (MEIS; [37] Mayer et al. , 1999), the Mayer Salovey Caruso emotional intelligence test (MSCEIT; [42] Mayer et al. , 2000) the emotional competency inventory (ECI; [24] Goleman, 1998), the emotion-quotient inventory (EQ-i; [3] Bar-On, 1997), the emotional intelligence quotient (EIQ; [19] Dulewicz and Higgs, 1999), the emotional quotient map (EQ-MAP; [11] Cooper and Sawaf, 1997), the self-report emotional intelligence test (SREIT; [64] Schutte et al. , 1998), the Swinburne emotional intelligence test (SUEIT/Genos EI Assessment; [52] Palmer and Stough, 2001), the trait meta mood scale (TMMS; [63] Salovey et al. , 1995), and the workgroup emotional intelligence profile (WEIP; [30] Jordan et al. , 2002).
The more established categorization of EI models involves the segregation of current models into mixed and ability camps ([9] Caruso et al. , 2002; [15] Day and Carroll, 2004; [26] Hedlund and Sternberg, 2000). Models that focus exclusively on cognitive aptitudes, referring to EI as a form of intelligence reflecting the ability to process emotional information, are classified as ability models of EI ([9] Caruso et al. , 2002; [15] Day and Carroll, 2004). Models that incorporate a diverse range of abilities, behaviours, and personality traits within their EI framework are classified as mixed models of EI ([38] Mayer et al. , 2000a). [13] Daus and Ashkanasy (2005) further refine the different models...