In the book Emotion, Disclosure, and Health edited by James W. Pennebaker, a chapter on emotional intelligence research yields some valuable insights–and ways of assessing emotional intelligence. The chapter, written by Peter Salovey and colleagues, describes the Trait Meta-Mood Scale and its development as a research tool.

The authors report that emotional intelligence is composed of several interrelated capacities:

1) Attention – The degree to which people pay attention to their feelings and value them as sources of information;

2) Clarity – The degree to which people accurately identify and understand their feelings;

3) Mood Repair – The degree to which people can control and shift their emotional experience. (more…)