Emotional intelligence and health: relationships, pathways and interventions

Mikolajczak, Moïra [UCL]

Although everyone experiences emotions, people markedly differ in the extent to which they identify, express, understand, regulate and use their own and others' emotions. The concept of "Emotional Intelligence" (EI) (also called "Emotional Competence" (EC)) has been proposed to account for this idea. An impressive body of evidence indicates that the level of EI has a significant impact on psychological, social and work adjustment. In this presentation, we will focus on the impact of EI on health and discuss the biological and behavioral mechanisms that are responsible for this effect. We will conclude by presenting the training we have developed to increase Emotional Intelligence and its effects on psychological, somatic and social adjustment.