Emotional intelligence: Popular but elusive construct

Abstract

There is a growing interest in the concept of emotional intelligence (El), as a result of a new Zeitgeist that embraces nontraditional views of intelligence, and a belief promulgated in the popular press that El holds the promise for solving many of society's most pressing problems. Two important bodies of writing on El, the work of Daniel Goleman and Peter Salovey & John Mayer, are discussed as illustrative of recent theorizing on El. The article discusses conceptual and measurement problems that presently challenge the usefulness of the El construct. It is suggested that El be tentatively viewed as a possible kind of intelligence, awaiting further theory development and validation.