Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the capacity to perceive, understand, use, and manage one’s own emotions and those of others in order to guide thinking, relationships, and behavior. The term was introduced by Peter Salovey and John Mayer, who defined it as a set of abilities including perceiving, facilitating, understanding, and regulating emotion, and it was popularized by Daniel Goleman’s bestseller, which linked it to leadership and success. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, particularly interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence, provided an intellectual precedent, and Edward Thorndike earlier described social intelligence. Sociologists have approached the concept critically. Arlie Hochschild’s analysis of emotional labor shows how organizations commodify emotional skills, and Eva Illouz argued in Cold Intimacies that therapeutic discourse and emotional competence have become forms of cultural capital in modern capitalism. Pierre Bourdieu’s framework helps explain why emotional styles are unequally valued across classes and genders. Critics question the measurement validity of emotional intelligence tests and note that it can individualize problems of workplace stress and inequality. Applications span education, management, health care, and social work. Emotional intelligence remains central to research on work, education, gender, culture, and the sociology of emotions.