Stress and Health
Stress and Health 21: 77–86 (2005)
Published online 3 March 2005 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/smi.1042
Exploring the relationship of
emotional intelligence with
physical and psychological
health functioning
Ioannis Tsaousis1,*,† and Ioannis Nikolaou2
1
Department of Sciences in Preschool Education and Educational Design, University of
the Aegean, Greece
2
Department of Management Science and Technology, Athens University of Economics
and Business, Athens, Greece
Summary
This study investigates the relationship of emotional intelligence (EI) characteristics, such as perception, control, use and understanding of emotions, with physical and psychological health. In
the first study, 365 individuals filled in measures of EI and general health. It was hypothesized
that EI would be negatively associated with poor general health. In the second study, 212 working
adults completed the same measure of EI and another measure, which apart from the standard
information regarding physical and psychological health, provided also information about other
health related behaviours, such as smoking, drinking, and exercising. It was also hypothesized
that EI would negatively correlate with smoking and drinking and positively correlate with exercising. The findings confirmed both hypotheses and provided further support on the claims that
there is a relationship between EI and health functioning. Additionally, in a series of hierarchical
regression analyses the unique contribution of each of the EI scales on the overall health score
were investigated. The findings are discussed in the context of the importance of emotional competences on health and personal lifestyle, while implications for practice and directions for future
research are proposed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Key Words
emotional intelligence; physical health; psychological health; smoking; drinking; exercise
Introduction
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the theoretical development of the
* Correspondence to: Ioannis Tsaousis, Tsakalof 10,
Rd., Maroussi—Athens, 151 26—Greece.
†
E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
concept of emotional intelligence (EI) in an
attempt to identify whether or not this newly
introduced concept accounts for variance not
already accounted for by intelligence and/or personality in various areas of human transactions.
Although the construct of EI is not a new concept
(see Gardner, 1983; Thorndike, 1920) it was
Goleman’s (1995) influential book Emotional
Intelligence, which made the concept widely
popular.
Received 5 April 2004
Revised 9 December 2004
Accepted 15 December 2004
I. Tsaousis and I. Nikolaou
Today, the most acceptable definition for EI,
has been provided by Salovey and Mayer (1990)
who are conceived as the ‘fathers’ of the construct, since they first introduced the term ‘emotional intelligence’. According to them, EI is ‘a
type of emotional information processing that
includes accurate appraisal of emotions in oneself
and others, appropriate expression of emotion,
and adaptive regulation of emotion in such a way
as to enhance living’ (p. 773). More recently, they
amended the above definition (Mayer, Caruso, &
Salovey, 1999) and conceptualized EI as ‘an
ability to recognize the meanings of emotions and
their relationships, and to reason and problemsolve on the basis of them. Emotional intelligence
is involved in the capacity to perceive emotions,
assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand
the information of those emotions, and manage
them’ (p. 267).
The popularity of the concept during the past
decade has led researchers to examine its potency
in various areas of human functioning. Among
the areas with the strongest connections to EI is
developmental, educational, clinical and counselling, industrial and organizational psychology.
Thus, it has been found that trait or ability EI
are related to life success (Bar-On, 2001;
Goleman, 1995), life satisfaction and well-being
(Martinez-Pons, 1997; Palmer, Donaldson, &
Stough, 2002), interpersonal relationships
(Fitness, 2001; Flury & Ickes, 2001), academic
achievement (Parker, Summerfeldt, Hogan, &
Majeski, 2004; Van der Zee, Thijs, & Schakel,
2002), occupational stress (Bar-On, Brown,
Kirkcaldy, & Thome, 2000; Nikolaou & Tsaousis,
2002; Slaski & Cartwright, 2002), work success
and performance (Dulewicz & Higgs, 1998;
Vakola, Tsaousis, & Nikolaou, 2004; Weisinger,
1998), leadership (Cooper & Sawaf, 1997;
Palmer, Walls, Burgess, & Stough, 2000; Rice,
1999), etc.
In recent years, there has been an increasing
interest in how emotional reactions and experiences affect both physical as well as psychological health. For example, it has been claimed that
negative emotional states are associated with
unhealthy patterns of physiological functioning,
whereas positive emotional states are associated
with healthier patterns of responding in both cardiovascular activity and immune system (BoothKewley & Friedman, 1987; Herbert & Choen,
1993).
Salovey, Rothman, Detweiler, and Steward
(2000) discussed extensively the importance of
78
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
emotional states on physical health suggesting
that an individual’s emotional status influence
their perception of physical symptoms. Furthermore, extended research in the field of health psychology has demonstrated the effect of negative
mood or unpleasant emotional experiences on
a number of habits or behaviours that have
been accused for unhealthy conditions, such as
smoking (e.g. Brandon, 1994) and drinking (e.g.
Cooper, Frone, Russell, & Mudar, 1995). Several
studies have also revealed a direct connection
between emotional arousal (especially anger) and
cardiovascular consequences (Friedman, 1992;
Kamarck & Jennings, 1991; Smith, 1992).
In another study, Salovey, Bedell, Detweiler,
and Mayer (1999) claim that individuals who can
regulate their emotional states are healthier
because they ‘accurately perceive and appraise
their emotional states, know how and when to
express their feelings, and can effectively regulate
their mood states’ (p. 161). This set of characteristics, dealing with the perception, expression,
and regulation of moods and emotions, suggests
that there must be a direct link between EI and
physical as well as psychological health.
Indeed, Taylor (2001) argues that if you are
emotionally intelligent then you can cope better
with life’s challenges and control your emotions
more effectively, both of which contribute to
good psychological and physical health. Moreover, Bar-On (1997) includes stress management
and adaptability as two major components of EI,
while Matthews and Zeidner (2000) claim that
‘adaptive coping might be conceptualized as emotional intelligence in action, supporting mastery
emotions, emotional growth, and both cognitive
and emotional differentiation, allowing us to
evolve in an ever-changing world’ (p. 460).
Additionally, Salovey (2001) claims that the
failure of emotional self-management leads to
significant negative influences on health, for
example, excessive cardiovascular reactivity. He
suggests that a way of coping for people low on
this dimension of EI is through smoking, drinking and eating fatty foods, which can also lead
to long-term health damage. However, he also
claims that suppressing negative feelings is not a
healthy strategy either, suggesting that emotions’
manifestation has a positive impact on physical
health when people are confident about their abilities to regulate them. He maintains that the best
way of dealing with the expression of our feelings
in terms of our health is through the rule of
‘golden mean’. ‘We may need to express negative
Stress and Health 21: 77–86 (2005)
Emotional intelligence and health
feelings, but in a way that is neither mean spirited nor stifled’ (p. 170).
In another interesting study, Ciarrochi, Deane,
and Anderson (2002) identified the moderating
role of EI in the relationship between stress and
a number of measures of psychological health,
such as depression, hopelessness and suicidal
ideation among young people. These studies, but
mainly the core essence of EI, indicate that a
negative correlation exists between stress, illhealth and EI levels, assuming that people scoring
high in EI are expected to cope effectively with
environmental demands and pressures as those
commonly assessed by occupational stress and
health measures (Nikolaou & Tsaousis, 2002;
Slaski & Cartwright, 2002).
Finally, Dulewicz, Higgs, and Slaski (2003),
using a relatively small sample of retail managers,
examined the role that variables such as stress,
distress, morale and poor quality of working life
play in everyday life. They demonstrated that EI
was strongly correlated with both, physical and
psychological health.
The main goal of the current study is to provide
more evidence regarding the relationship of EI
with physical and psychological health condition.
It also aims to explore the relationship between
specific EI dimensions and health-related behaviours, such as drinking, smoking and exercising,
in order to further ‘open up’ the construct of EI,
and probably to provide one mechanism by
which emotional management may influence
physical as well as psychological health. Based on
the earlier studies, the hypothesis has been made
that high EI is related to better physical and psychological health functioning (Study 1). This
hypothesis has been set, because we are actually
interested in examining whether the findings
reported from other research attempts—mainly in
the U.S.A.—are replicated in a different cultural
context. The unique contribution of this study,
however, is the investigation of the hypothesis
that EI will correlate negatively with frequency
of smoking and drinking, and positively with
improved quality of life, as expressed by relaxation and planned exercising (Study 2).
that define EI and general health. In particular, it
is examined whether EI affects both the physical
and the psychological aspect of health functioning. This study constitutes the first step in the
elaboration of the main hypothesis.
Method
Participants. The sample of this study consisted
of 365 individuals. One-hundred and twenty-six
(34.5 per cent) of them were males and 239 (65.5
per cent) were females. One-hundred and ninetyone (52.3 per cent) were students and 174 (47.7
per cent) were employees from various organizations. This group of participants had an average
age of 25.23 years (standard deviation, SD =
9.51). Students filled out the questionnaires as
partial fulfilment of the research participation
option in their psychometrics course. The administration of the tests took place in the classroom,
and the response rate was 100 per cent. All participants were debriefed later by post. The rest of
the data were obtained from individuals attending a 2-day conference on EI. Participants were
asked to complete anonymously a questionnaire
booklet containing a number of different measures. The task took between 40 and 50 min.
There was a 78 per cent response rate and again
respondents were debriefed by post.
Measures. The Traits Emotional Intelligence
Questionnaire—TEIQ1 (Tsaousis, 2003). This
self-report questionnaire comprises of 91 selfreferencing statements and requires individuals to
rate the extent to which each statement is representative to them on a five-point scale (1 = not
representative at all . . . 5 = very representative).
The TEIQ is based on the theoretical model proposed by Mayer and his associates (Mayer &
Salovey, 1997; Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 1999;
Salovey & Mayer, 1990) and measures four
independent dimensions of EI: perception and
appraisal of emotions, control of emotions,
understanding and reasoning of emotions, and
use of emotion for problem solving. TEIQ provides also an overall EI score based on the sum
of responses from all subscales. TEIQ demon-
Study 1
Research design
The aim of the first study was to explore whether
there is a relationship between the characteristics
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
1
The original copyrighted title of the test is TEXASYN.
The English translation of TEXASYN is Traits Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQ).
Stress and Health 21: 77–86 (2005)
79
I. Tsaousis and I. Nikolaou
strates very good internal consistency and
test–retest reliability indices, while validation
studies with other EI tests as well as other theoretically related constructs (e.g. empathy, alexithymia, mood, etc.) justifies its ability to
measures what it claims it measures (Tsaousis,
2003).
General Health Questionnaire—GHQ 28
(Goldberg & Hillier, 1979; Goldberg & Williams,
1998; Greek standardization by Moutzoukis,
Adamopoulou, Garifallos, & Karastergiou,
1990). General health was measured using
the 28-item General Health Questionnaire.
Responses are invited on a four-point scale
ranging from ‘less than usual’ to ‘much more than
usual’. Of the four possible ways of scoring this
instrument (Goldberg & Williams, 1998), for this
study the simple Likert method (0–1–2–3) was
chosen. The measure yields an overall health
score (range 0–84) and is composed of four subscales described as somatic symptoms, anxiety
and insomnia, social dysfunction and depression.
High scores indicate high levels of psychological
strain. The measure was found to have an acceptable level of internal consistency reliability (alpha
= 0.92). High score on this scale indicate poor
general health.
Procedure. All participants were asked to complete both the TEIQ and the GHQ-28 instruments. Students were asked to fill out the two
questionnaires as partial fulfilment of their third
year research project course. The employees had
completed the questionnaires as part of a seminar
requirement on EI. All employee participants
from the second sample were later debriefed by
post. All participants were informed that the data
would be treated as confidential, and that they
had the right to withdraw from the study at any
time and any stage.
Study 2
Research design
The aim of the second study was to further
explore the relationship between EI and health
functioning. Based on the results of the first study,
it was interesting to examine how EI dimensions
are related to habits that research has demonstrated are closely related to health functioning.
For this purpose, a different measure was used,
80
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
which apart from the standard information
regarding psychical and psychological health,
provides also information about health related
behaviours, such as smoking, drinking, and exercising. Additionally, it was interesting to examine
the robustness of the findings of the first study,
using a new independent sample.
Method
Sample. The sample for this study consisted of
212 employees from a mental health institution.
Fifty-seven participants of the total sample (26.9
per cent) were males and 155 (73.1 per cent) were
females. The majority of the participants were
married females, with a university degree working in paraprofessional positions (e.g. social
workers, nurses, etc.). The mean age for this
sample was 36.14 years (SD = 7.76). Participants
completed a self-report questionnaire pack (containing the measures of EI and occupational stress
variables) as part of an EI training programme
run by the two authors. Half individuals completed the EI measure first and half second, in
order to control for order effect. Researchers
informed the participants about confidentiality
issues and that they had the right to withdraw
from the administration at any time and any
stage. There was a 91 per cent response rate and
respondents were debriefed during the second day
of the training programme.
Measures. The Traits Emotional Intelligence
Questionnaire—TEIQ (Tsaousis, 2003). This
questionnaire was described in Study 1.
ASSET (Cartwright & Cooper, 2002). ASSET is
an effective tool in diagnosing occupational
stress, combining both the sources and the effects
of stress. ASSET conceptualizes occupational
stress as influenced by a variety of sources, such
as work relationships, work-life balance, overload, job security, etc. It also provides scores for
physical and psychological health, since these
measures, according to the model, are recognized
to be affected by occupational stress. The psychometric properties of ASSET have been well
established in previous studies (Johnson &
Cooper, 2003; Nikolaou & Tsaousis, 2002). Both
physical and psychological health demonstrated
acceptable internal consistency coefficients (0.75
and 0.90 respectively). High scores on these scales
indicate poor physical or psychological health.
Stress and Health 21: 77–86 (2005)
Emotional intelligence and health
ASSET also includes a section on participants’
lifestyle, including questions on smoking, drinking and exercising frequency, since the aspects of
an individual’s lifestyle can affect or be affected
by the levels of stress an individual may experience (Cartwright & Cooper, 2002). The participants are asked to indicate on a six-point scale (1
= never . . . 6 = always) the frequency of planned
exercise, and on a four-point scale (1 = usually
not . . . 4 = always) whether they find time to ‘relax
and wind down’. They are also asked to note the
average daily number of cigarettes, and the
average weekly number of alcohol units.
Procedure. Employees from this group had
completed both questionnaires voluntarily as they
had agreed to participate in this research project,
but were not debriefed since the questionnaires
were completed anonymously. However, they
were informed that the data would be treated
as confidential, and that they had the right to
withdraw from the study at any time and any
stage.
Results
Table I presents the descriptive characteristics of
the studies’ variables. The EI subscales and the
total EI scores demonstrated acceptable internal
consistency reliabilities (ranging from 0.77 to
0.95), as was the case for the health measures in
both studies. Internal consistency indices are not
available for the lifestyle questions since these
were single items.
Further, a mean comparison of the EI scores
between the two studies showed that in Study 2
these were significantly higher than the respective
scores of Study 1, a fact which can be attributed to the composition of the sample (i.e. professionals from a mental health institution) as
opposed to the mixed sample (including students)
of Study 1.
The intercorrelation matrix shown in Table II
reveals the negative relationship between poor
health functioning and EI. The total EI score is
correlated with each sub-dimension of health and
life style, in both studies, with the exception of
the consumption of alcohol in Study 2; the results
showed that their relationship is to the expected
direction. Similarly to findings from other studies,
EI is negatively correlated with poor physical and
psychological health and positively to the frequency of planned exercise and to the time dedicated by participants to relax (Ciarrochi et al.,
2002; Salovey, 2001; Salovey et al., 2000; Slaski
& Cartwright, 2002). The most consistent relationship comes from the dimensions of ‘Control
of emotions’ and ‘Use of emotions’.
Next, mean differences between the various
groups within the two studies were explored, in
order to investigate further the concept of EI and
health functioning (see Table III). In Study 1,
males demonstrated significantly higher ‘Control
of emotions’ and ‘Use of emotions’s than females
but the latter scored higher than males in
Table I. Means, standard deviations (SDs) and alphas of main EI and health variables.
Measure
EI measures
Perception and appraisal
Control of emotions
Use of emotions
Understanding and reasoning
Total EI
Physical health—ASSET
Psychological health—ASSET
General evaluation of health—GHQ 28
Anxiety—GHQ 28
Social dissatisfaction—GHQ 28
Depression—GHQ 28
Overall health score
Study 1 (N = 365)
Study 2 (N = 212)
Mean
SD
Alpha
Mean
SD
Alpha
45.81
84.38
79.90
92.47
302.63
—
—
13.44
14.24
13.82
10.40
51.92
9.28
17.13
17.25
13.22
38.77
—
—
4.04
4.17
3.67
4.17
13.07
0.77
0.87
0.91
0.85
0.92
—
—
0.79
0.78
0.79
0.87
0.92
50.05**
93.10**
83.87**
99.70**
326.73**
13
24
—
—
—
—
36.97
9.44
22.13
20.24
13.25
46.54
4.13
7.72
—
—
—
—
10.87
0.81
0.94
0.95
0.90
0.95
0.75
0.90
—
—
—
—
0.91
** p < 0.00.
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Stress and Health 21: 77–86 (2005)
81
82
-0.32**
-0.20**
-0.27**
-0.21**
-0.18**
1
-0.42**
-0.20**
-0.42**
-0.27**
-0.17**
2
-0.38**
-0.25**
-0.18**
-0.30**
-0.31**
3
4
-0.48**
-0.28**
-0.40**
-0.37**
-0.19**
Study 1 (N = 365)
-0.49**
-0.29**
-0.39**
-0.35**
-0.26**
5
-0.44**
-0.01
-0.49**
-0.44**
-0.04
6
-0.65**
-0.06
-0.67**
-0.64**
-0.15**
7
-0.63**
-0.05
-0.66**
-0.62**
-0.12
8
0.33**
0.08
0.34**
0.30**
0.08
9
10
0.43**
0.16*
0.42**
0.39**
0.09
Study 2 (N = 212)
-0.16*
-0.06
-0.20**
-0.05
-0.11
11
-0.07
-0.04
-0.05
0.01
-0.15*
12
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.00.
EI measures
Perception and appraisal
Control of emotions
Use of emotions
Understanding and reasoning
Total EI
Physical Health—ASSET
Psychological health—ASSET
General evaluation of health—GHQ 28
Anxiety—GHQ 28
Social dissatisfaction—GHQ 28
Depression—GHQ 28
Overall health score
Measures
43.13
87.80
85.90
91.27
308.10
—
—
12.93
13.85
13.97
10.12
50.88
Mean
8.95
16.22
15.26
14.10
36.89
—
—
4.25
4.02
3.95
3.97
13.48
SD
Males (N = 126)
47.23
82.60
76.70
93.11
299.73
—
—
13.71
14.44
13.74
10.55
52.47
Mean
9.15
16.22
17.44
12.72
39.49
—
—
3.90
4.24
3.52
4.26
12.84
SD
Females (N = 239)
Study 1 (N = 365)
Table III. Mean comparisons of main EI and health variables for both studies.
-4.10**
2.78**
4.92**
-1.26
1.96*
—
—
-1.74
-1.27
0.57
-0.94
-1.09
t
46.53
93.88
85.51
96.74
322.65
11.51
22.18
—
—
—
—
33.68
Mean
9.73
22.97
21.89
16.06
55.67
3.60
7.29
—
—
—
—
10.04
SD
Males (N = 57)
51.48
93.07
83.14
100.81
328.50
13.54
24.72
—
—
—
—
38.25
Mean
8.89
21.72
19.63
11.96
42.81
4.19
7.78
—
—
—
—
10.93
SD
Females (N = 155)
Study 2 (N = 212)
-3.50**
0.23
0.75
-1.74
-0.81
-3.23**
-2.14*
—
—
—
—
-2.75**
t
Note: 1, General evaluation of health; 2, Anxiety; 3, Social dissatisfaction; 4, Depression; 5, Overall health score—GHQ, 28; 6, Physical health; 7, Psychological health; 8,
Overall health score—ASSET; 9, Frequency of planned exercise; 10, Time to relax; 11, Average daily number of cigarettes; 12, Average weekly number of alcohol units.
* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01.
Total EI
Perception and appraisal
Control of emotions
Use of emotions
Understanding and reasoning
TEIQ scales
Table II. Intercorrelation matrix of EI, health and lifestyle variables.
I. Tsaousis and I. Nikolaou
Stress and Health 21: 77–86 (2005)
Emotional intelligence and health
‘Perception and Appraisal’. Nevertheless, males
scored significantly higher than females in overall
EI scores. Females also demonstrated higher
‘Perception and Appraisal’ in Study 2, as well, but
this was the only statistically significant difference
in terms of the EI scales. However, the male
employees of Study 2 exhibited better physical,
psychological and overall health compared to
females. No health differences were identified in
Study 1. Lastly, no gender differences were identified in Study 2, regarding health-related behaviours (i.e. frequency of planned exercise, time to
relax, average daily number of cigarettes, and
average weekly number of alcohol units.)
Differences between students and employees of
Study 1 were also explored, both as far as EI is
concerned and health. Out of the four EI dimensions, only in ‘Use of emotions’ employees exhibited statistically higher levels than students
(employees mean, M = 82.93, SD = 16.97; students M = 77.18, SD = 17.08; t(361) = -3.21, p
= 0.001). However, it was very interesting to note
that the students of the sample showed evidence
of poorer health across all dimensions of the
GHQ 28, compared to the employees participating in the study.
Finally, a series of hierarchical regression
analyses were carried out in order to investigate
the unique contribution of each of the EI scales
on the overall health score, controlling for the
demographic characteristics of the participants
(i.e. education, gender and age). It is worth noting
that in both studies the contribution of the block
of the EI scales is statistically significant. The
results further reveal that, for the participants in
the first study, all four EI dimensions are statistically related to health conditions, whereas for the
participants of the second study, only the dimensions of ‘Control of emotions’ and ‘Use of
emotions’ contribute significantly to the health
variance, above the effect of health-related behaviours (Table IV).
Discussion
The findings of the current study provide further
support on the claims that there is a negative rela-
Table IV. Hierarchical regression analysis, regressing the EI scales on health.
Criterion variable
Study 1 (N = 365)
General evaluation
of health
Study 2 (N = 212)
Overall health score
Predictors
Step 1
Gender
Age
Education
Step 2
Perception and appraisal
Control of emotions
Use of emotions
Understanding and Reasoning
Step 1
Gender
Age
Education
Step 2
Frequency of planned exercise
Time to relax
Average daily number of
cigarettes
Step 3
Perception and Appraisal
Control of emotions
Use of emotions
Understanding and Reasoning
R
R2 Change
F Change
0.16
0.03
3.03*
0.51
0.24
27.77**
0.39
0.15
11.46**
0.15**
0.00
-0.09
0.58
0.18
12.60**
0.05
-0.20**
0.00
0.76
0.25
27.41**
b
0.02
-0.06
-0.06
-0.19**
-0.25**
-0.17**
-0.12**
0.00
-0.45**
-0.21**
0.02
Note: p values are from the final equation.
* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01.
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Stress and Health 21: 77–86 (2005)
83
I. Tsaousis and I. Nikolaou
tionship between increased levels of EI and low
physical and psychological health, although the
nature of the research design used in the present
study does not allow affirmative conclusions on
the causality of the relationship. The results are
encouraging in that increased levels of EI have an
important role on health functioning. It is interesting that Goldman, Kraemer, and Salovey
(1996) identified quite early the moderating role
of emotions’ regulation on the relationship
between stress and physical health.
One could now argue that the findings regarding this relationship are now conclusive, since
they have been replicated across different studies
and cultures, using different EI instruments. The
current research further supports this argument
since the findings in both studies were similar
although two different health measures (GHQ 28
and ASSET) were used, across two different
samples (students versus employees) using the
same instrument as the basis for the measurement
of EI.
The employees participating in the second
study seem to be quite vigilant of the importance
of EI, as demonstrated by their higher EI levels
compared to the cross-sectional sample of Study
1. They have also acknowledged the significance
of spending personal time on relaxing, something
that is also clearly related to their EI levels, as
demonstrated in the results of the hierarchical
regression analysis. This part of the EI research,
although not as popular and widely investigated
as others in the field, has considerable practical
implications nowadays, where work–life balance
is considered a ‘hot’ topic for most employees and
organizations. In that manner, employees with
high EI levels will benefit the most when they are
able to demonstrate effective time management or
engage themselves in planned exercise and personal relaxation time, but also reduce or even
abolish smoking with positive outcomes for their
health and stress. Similar findings, regarding the
negative relationship between EI and tobacco use
were obtained by Trinidad and Johnson (2002)
using a sample of young adolescents.
Gender differences were also identified in both
studies regarding one of the dimensions of EI,
namely ‘Perception and appraisal’ of emotions.
Females scored significantly higher than males,
similarly to the findings from other studies
(Ciarrochi, Chan, & Caputi, 2000; Wertlieb,
Weigel, & Feldstein, 1987; Wierzbicki, 1989). Pugh
(2002) claims that ‘male–female differences in
expressiveness are well established’ (p. 172) with
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Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
women demonstrating increased ability to perceive and express their emotions successfully.
Further, an examination of the intercorrelation
matrix (Table II) demonstrates a number of differences between the two samples. Firstly, all of
the pairs between the EI scales and the GHQ-28
subscales are statistically significant for the crosssectional sample of Study 1, whereas in Study 2
only two dimensions—control and use of emotions—show consistent relationships between
physical, psychological and overall health, as
assessed by ASSET.
These two dimensions showed the most consistent relationships with health functioning
across both samples, based on the results of the
hierarchical regression analyses. The former
describes a cold-blooded person, with high selfcontrol and positive thinking, whereas the latter
describes an energetic, optimistic individual, who
uses his/her emotions successfully in increasing
his/her personal effectiveness. In that sense it is
no surprise that these two dimensions are also
related to personal lifestyle activities, such as
planned exercising, relaxation time and smoking.
People with high control of emotions will not
resort to unhealthy solutions when facing difficulties, but on the contrary, they will proactively
seek for techniques to cope with distressed situations, that might cause them health difficulties.
Gardner and Stough (2003), in a similar study,
also identified a negative relationship between
control of emotions and both physical and psychological health in a sample of employees. Likewise, an individual’s physical and psychological
life is related to the effective use of emotions since
the person carries a positive outlook in life being
a self-confident and insecure individual.
A limitation of the study is that since the data
were collected through the use of a single survey
at a single point in time, the results may be influenced by common method bias. The different
pattern and direction of results observed across
the variables of the study suggest though that
common method bias is an unlikely explanation
for the results. Nevertheless, even if it exists, there
is no reason to expect that the differences in correlations among EI, health and lifestyle variables
are due to the effect of common method variance,
since its presence would not be expected to exert
differential bias on the observed relationships.
Summing up, the current study further demonstrates the significance of the newly established
construct of EI, in the field of physical and psychological health. Especially if, as the literature
Stress and Health 21: 77–86 (2005)
Emotional intelligence and health
indicates, EI can be developed (e.g. Dulewicz &
Higgs, 2004; Dulewicz et al., 2003) the consequences for the individual might be remarkable.
However, longitudinal research designs are necessary in order to explore the long-term effects of
EI development on health and personal lifestyle.
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