The Science of Emotional Intelligence: Knowns And Unknowns

During the past decade, emotional intelligence has been subjected to both scientific and public scrutiny. Numerous articles have been published on the topic in both academic journals and the popular press, testifying to the potential usefulness of emotional intelligence in psychology, business, education, the home, and the workplace. However, until now, there has been no systematic synthesis that grounds emotional intelligence in contemporary theory, while simultaneously sorting scientific approaches from popular fads and pseudoscience.

Bringing together leading international experts from a variety of sub-disciplines, this volume aims to integrate recent research on emotional intelligence. The contributors address a set of focused questions concerning theory, measures, and applications: How does emotional intelligence relate to personality? What is the optimal approach to testing emotional intelligence? How can emotional intelligence be trained? In the final section of the book, the volume editors distill and synthesize the main points made by these experts and set forth an agenda for building a science of emotional intelligence in the future.

Science of Emotional Intelligence will be an invaluable resource for researchers and professionals in psychology, education, the health sciences, and business.

Gerald Matthews, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. His research focuses on the use of cognitive science models to understand the interplay between personality, emotion, and information-processing. He is the coauthor or coeditor of seven books, and he has published over 200 articles and book chapters.

Moshe Zeidner, Ph.D., is Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the Center for the Interdisciplinary Research on Emotion at the University of Haifa, Israel. He has conducted research in the area of personality and individual differences and is the author or co-editor of 10 books and author or co-author of about 200 scientific papers.

Richard D. Roberts, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist, in the Center for New Constructs at the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. His area of specialization is applied psychology, with a special emphasis on educational and psychological assessment. He has published over 100 scientific papers in areas as diverse as wind engineering, sensory processes, human cognitive abilities, emotions, personality, cognitive enhancement, and diurnal preference.