Relationships Among Emotional and Intellectual Overexcitability, Emotional IQ, and Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

This study focuses on intellectual and emotional overexcitabilities and their relationship to emotional intelligence and subjective well-being. Dabrowski’s (1964) theory of positive disintegration (TPD), which proposes that optimum personality development involves the breaking down of current psychological structures, in which individuals consciously investigate their values, emotions, behaviors, and personalities, provided the framework for this study. Emotional intelligence was examined as a possible mediational factor in the relationship between emotional and intellectual overexcitability and subjective well-being in undergraduate students. Participants were 144 undergraduate college students who completed surveys that included demographic information and measures of overexcitability, emotional intelligence, and subjective well-being. Path analysis results indicated that all fit indices supported that the overall model was an adequate fit for the data. In addition, all paths in the model were positive and significant, indicating that greater emotional and intellectual overexcitability were significantly and positively related to higher emotional intelligence and that higher emotional intelligence was significantly positively related to higher subjective well-being. These results provided support for the mediational role of emotional intelligence between emotional and intellectual overexcitability and subjective well-being.