Emotional Intelligence and the Intelligence of Emotions: A Developmental Perspective on Mixed EI Models
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Abstract
In their article Zeidner, Matthews, Roberts and MacCann [2002] provide a thought-provoking model of the emergence and differentiation of children’s emotional intelligence (EI) by focusing on different levels of children’s emotion regulation. Their model is part of a general explosion of research and theory on children’s and adults’ emotional functioning, a proliferation that has important if sometimes ignored roots in functionalist, psychoevolutionary theories [e.g., Ekman, 1993; Izard, 1990]. This brief commentary will address some of the connections between mixed EI models and existing developmental research and theory, with an emphasis both on how Zeidner et al.’s model can help to clarify implicit confusions in the developmental literature regarding children’s emotional functioning, and on how a better understanding of the developmental literature can correct misconceptions about adult EI.