What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence (EI), formalized by Peter Salovey and John Mayer, is a set of abilities for perceiving, understanding, and managing emotions in oneself and others.
| EI ability | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Perceiving emotions | Accurately reading emotional cues in faces, tone, or context |
| Understanding emotions | Grasping causes, consequences, and how emotions change |
| Using emotions | Harnessing emotional states to support reasoning or creativity |
| Managing emotions | Regulating one's own and others' emotional responses |
Popularized by Daniel Goleman, EI provides a framework for navigating social and personal life effectively.
Reappraisal vs. Suppression
Emotion regulation was studied by James Gross, who compared two key strategies with very different long-term outcomes.
| Strategy | When it acts | Typical effectiveness |
|---|---|---|
| Reappraisal | Before the emotional response fully forms | Better psychological and physiological outcomes |
| Suppression | After the emotion has already arisen | Leaves internal arousal intact while adding effort |
Common pitfall: Assuming suppression is healthy self-control. Suppression only masks outward expression, whereas reappraisal intervenes early by cognitively reframing the situation.