What We Know About Emotional Intelligence: How It Affects Learning, Work, Relationships, and Our Mental Health

Emotional intelligence (or EI)--the ability to perceive, regulate, and communicateemotions, to understand emotions in ourselves and others--has been the subject of best-sellingbooks, magazine cover stories, and countless media mentions. It has been touted as a solution forproblems ranging from relationship issues to the inadequacies of local schools. But the media hypehas far outpaced the scientific research on emotional intelligence. In What We Know aboutEmotional Intelligence, three experts who are actively involved in research into EI offera state-of-the-art account of EI in theory and practice. They tell us what we know about EI basednot on anecdote or wishful thinking but on science. What We Know about EmotionalIntelligence looks at current knowledge about EI with the goal of translating it intopractical recommendations in work, school, social, and psychological contexts.

Moshe Zeidner is Professor of Educational Psychology and Human Development at the University of Haifa. Gerald Matthews is Professor of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. Richard D. Roberts is Principal Research Scientist at the Center for Academic and Workforce Readiness and Success, Educational Testing Service. They are also the coauthors of Emotional Intelligence: Science and Myth, published by the MIT Press (2002).