Glossary

Ability emotional intelligence

Συναισθηματική νοημοσύνη ως ικανότητα

Emotional intelligence understood as mental abilities that can be scored against better and worse answers, kept separate from emotional intelligence understood as a bundle of agreeable traits such as optimism. An ability says nothing about the purpose it serves, which is the whole point of this level.

Also known asability model, four branch model
Named byJohn Mayer & Peter Salovey (1997)
Belongs to the skillEmotional Intelligence
Level4

How to spot it

Before you use what you know about somebody, ask whether you would be comfortable if they saw afterwards why you chose that sentence.

The research behind the term

The term is not our invention. It comes from published research, and what follows is what that research found — our own synthesis of the published abstract, not a translation of the original.

Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D. R., & Salovey, P. (2008). Emotional Intelligence: New Ability or Eclectic Traits? — doi:10.1037/0003-066X.63.6.503

What it found

  • Some individuals process emotion-related information in more complex ways than others and use that information to guide their thinking and behaviour.
  • A rift has opened in the field: some study emotional intelligence as a distinct set of mental abilities and others as a heterogeneous mix of positive traits such as happiness, self-esteem and optimism.
  • As an ability, emotional intelligence shows incremental validity in predicting socially significant outcomes.

How it found it

Conceptual review that clarifies the boundaries of the construct and contrasts the two research approaches in terms of their theoretical and empirical adequacy.

What it means for emotional intelligence

The distinction has practical significance: if emotional intelligence is an ability, it can be trained and measured; if it is taken as a mix of traits, it is wrongly treated as a fixed feature of character.

Practised in

The term does not stay a definition. It appears inside missions where the pattern happens in real time and you have to recognise it as it happens to you.

  • You Know What Works On Them

    Level 4

  • The Room Where You Know Too Much

    Level 5

Related terms

Sources

Every claim on this page maps to published research. The citations link to the original source.

  1. Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D. R., & Salovey, P. (2008). Emotional Intelligence: New Ability or Eclectic Traits? — doi:10.1037/0003-066X.63.6.503