Emotional intelligence and life satisfaction

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Abstract

This study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and life satisfaction. To determine the nature of this relationship, personality constructs known to predict life satisfaction were also assessed (positive and negative affect). Emotional intelligence was assessed in 107 participants using a modified version of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale [TMMS; Salovey, P, Mayer, J., Goldman, S., Turvey, C. & Palfai, T.1995. Emotional attention, clarity and repair: exploring emotional intelligence using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale. In J. W. Pennebaker (Ed), pp. 125–154. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association] and the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale [TAS-20; J. Psychosom Res, 38 (1994) 26]. Life satisfaction was assessed using the Satisfaction With Life Scale [SWLS; J. Pers. Social Psycol., 69 (1985) 71]. Only the Clarity sub-scale of the TMMS (which indexes perceived ability to understand and discriminate between moods and emotions), and the Difficulty Identifying Feelings sub-scale of the TAS-20 were found to significantly correlate with life satisfaction. Subsequent analyses revealed that only the Clarity sub-scale accounted for further variance in life satisfaction not accounted for by positive and negative affect. This finding provides further evidence that components of the EI construct account for variance in this important human value not accounted for by personality. Implications and directions for further research are discussed.

Section snippets

Participants

The sample comprised 107 participants (47 males and 59 females, 1 unreported) ranging in age from 16 to 64 years with a mean age of 35.44 years (SD=12.22). The participants were recruited from the general community via advertisements in local newspapers.

The 20 item Toronto TAS-20 Bagby et al., 1994

The TAS-20 is a 20 item self-report measure comprising a five point rating scale (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree) and three sub-scales based on factor analysis by Bagby et al. (1994); Difficulty Identifying Feelings; Difficulty

Results

The means, standard deviations and internal consistency reliabilities (coefficient alpha) for all measured variables and sub-tests are presented in Table 1.

In general, the means, standard deviations and reliabilities of each of the measures were similar to those reported previously. The Pearson correlations between the measures are shown in Table 2.

As shown in Table 2 both the personality variables and EI abilities measured, were found to correlate with life satisfaction. The SWLS correlated

Discussion

The findings of the present study provide further support for the notion that EI accounts for individual differences in life satisfaction. Consistent with previous research, positive affect was found to be the strongest predictor of life satisfaction accounting for the majority of the variance in SWLS scores. However, one component of EI, Clarity, was found to add a statistically significant increase (around 5.5%) in the prediction of life satisfaction over and above both positive and negative

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