Trait emotional intelligence (“trait EI”) concerns our perceptions of our emotional abilities, that is, how good we believe we are in terms of understanding, regulating, and expressing emotions in order to adapt to our environment and maintain well-being. In this article, we present succinct summaries of selected findings from research on (a) the location of trait EI in personality factor space, (b) the biological underpinnings of the construct, (c) indicative applications in the areas of clinical, health, social, educational, organizational, and developmental psychology, and (d) trait EI training. Findings to date suggest that individual differences in trait EI are a consistent predictor of human behavior across the life span.

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of the criterion and incremental validity of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy), which is defined as a constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions and dispositions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies (Petrides & Furnham, 2001 Petrides, K. V. and Furnham, A. 2001. Trait emotional intelligence: Psychometric investigation with reference to established trait taxonomies. European Journal of Personality, 15: 425–448. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] ). In Studies 1 and 2 (N=166 and 354, respectively) trait EI is shown to be related to measures of rumination, life satisfaction, depression, dysfunctional attitudes, and coping. Most relationships remained statistically significant even after controlling for Big Five variance. In Study 3 (N=212) trait EI is shown to be related to depression and nine distinct personality disorders. Most relationships remained significant, even after controlling for positive and negative affectivity (mood). It is concluded that trait EI has a role to play in personality, clinical, and social psychology, often with effects that are incremental over the basic dimensions of personality and mood.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder, with an onset in childhood, that accompanies the person throughout their life, with prevalence between 3 and 5% in adults. Recent studies point towards a fourth core symptom of the disorder related to the emotional information processing that would explain the repercussions that ADHD has on the social, academic, and professional life of the people affected. This review aims to describe emotion dysregulation features as well as the brain activity associated in adults with ADHD. A search of the scientific literature was launched in specialized databases: PsycInfo, Medline, Eric, PsycArticle, Psicodoc and Scopus, following PRISMA guidelines. Twenty-two articles met the inclusion criteria: (a) an ADHD clinical diagnosis, (b) participants over 18 years old, (c) emotion regulation measurement, (d) empirical studies, and (c) in English. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies included, they were classified into three sections: measures and features of emotion regulation (ER) in people with ADHD, neurological and psychophysiological activity related to ER, and treatments. The studies found that meet the selection criteria are scarce and very heterogeneous both in aims and in sample features. Adults with ADHD show a more frequent use of non-adaptive emotion regulation strategies compared to people without ADHD symptoms. Moreover, emotion dysregulation was associated with symptom severity, executive functioning, psychiatric comorbidities, and even with criminal conviction. Different patterns of brain activity were observed when people with and without ADHD were compared. These results may suggest that psychopharmacological treatments as well as behavioral therapies could be useful tools for improving emotional difficulties in adult ADHD.