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Source: Abhijit Bhaduri/Flickr/Creative Commons License

Three recent studies (2009 and later) on emotional intelligence give an insight to the
following questions:

A) How do general intelligence and emotional intelligence impact college students'

academic and social abilities?

B) Do subjects with schizophrenia show impaired emotional intelligence compared to a

control group? If so, in which emotional intelligence areas do they show the most
impairment?

C) Can emotional intelligence be taught? If so, does that information get retained over
time?

First, Song et al. (2010), studied the impact of general mental ability (GMA) and
emotional intelligence (EI) on college students' academic and social performance. While
GMA and EI both had an influence on academic performance, GMA was found to be a
stronger predictor of academic performance than EI. However, only EI, not GMA, was
related to the quality of social interactions with peers.
Subjects with schizophrenia were compared to a control group on a measure of EI, the
Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Subjects with
schizophrenia performed significantly worse than controls on the total MSCEIT score.
They also performed significantly worse than controls on three out of four MSCEIT
subtests: Identifying, Understanding, and Managing Emotions. In addition, there was a
significant increase in negative and disorganized symptoms in schizophrenic subjects
with lower MSCEIT scores. Lower MSCEIT scores were also significantly correlated
with more difficulties in community functioning (Kee, et al. 2009).

In a study by Nelis et al. (2009), study participants were divided into two groups. One
group received an EI training of four group sessions of 2-1/2 hours each. The other group
did not receive any training. After the treatment was completed, the training group
showed a significant increase in emotion identification and emotion management
compared to the control group. Six months later, the training group still had the same
improvement on emotion identification and emotion management. The control group
showed no change.

www.stephaniesarkis.com

Copyright 2011 Sarkis Media LLC

References:

Kee, et al. (2009). Emotional intelligence in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research

107(1):61-68.

Nelis, et al. (2009). Increasing emotional intelligence: (How) is it possible? Personality

and Individual Differences 47(1):36-41.

Song, et al. (2010). The differential effects of general mental ability and emotional
intelligence on academic performance and social interactions. Intelligence 38(1):137-
143.