Elizabeth J. Austin is Emerita Professor of Individual Differences and Psychometrics at the University of Edinburgh. Her main research interest is emotional intelligence, especially its “dark side.” Other research interests include personality, coping, and test development. She is currently an associate editor for Personality and Individual Differences and British Journal of Psychology, and has served as a member of the board of directors of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (2009‐–2015).

Dr. Craig S. Bailey is an associate research scientist at the Yale Child Study Center and Director of Early Childhood at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. Dr. Bailey and his team facilitate professional development workshops with early childhood educators, develop content for practicing and teaching emotional intelligence, and conduct psychological, educational, and intervention research. Dr. Bailey’s research specializes in children’s social and emotional learning in early childhood classrooms with an emphasis on how teachers support and promote the development of empathy and emotion regulation. With experience as an early childhood educator, Dr. Bailey is passionate about bridging the gap between research and practice.

Luke E. R. Brown is trained as an organizational psychologist, with degrees in psychology from the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is interested in the relationship between EI and job performance, including how emotional states and assessment processes might influence this relationship.

Lorraine Dacre Pool is a Chartered Psychologist, Principal Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She holds a BA in Social Psychology from the University of Sussex, an MSc in Occupational/Organisational Psychology from the University of Manchester and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Central Lancashire. Her work in the field of graduate employability, including the development of the CareerEDGE model, is widely known and she has a particular interest in the role played by Emotional Intelligence. This was the subject of her PhD research, which included the successful design, delivery, and evaluation of a taught module of Emotional Intelligence for students in Higher Education, details of which have been published in the journal Learning and Individual Differences. She delivers workshops on EI for both staff and students and is often invited to speak on the subject at universities throughout the UK.

Dr. Sarah K. Davis is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Psychology at the University of Worcester, UK. Her research focuses on individual differences in development and particularly how emotional intelligence contributes to stressor‐mental health processes.

Dawn Freshwater began her career as a health professional in the UK’s National Health Service in 1980 and became Professor of Mental Health in 2000. She is the former Pro‐Vice Chancellor for Organizational Effectiveness at the University of Leeds and is currently the Vice‐Chancellor at the University of Western Australia. She maintains a strong track record in developing and interrogating methodological approaches that underpin and support research that translates into improved practice in mental health care.

Maria Gallagher interned as a research assistant for Pamela Qualter and worked in geriatric health and social care after graduating with a BSc in Psychology from the University of Central Lancashire in 2015. She assisted Pamela Qualter with her research on adolescent psychology funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Dr. Kateryna V. Keefer is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Trent University, Canada. As an emerging scholar, Dr. Keefer has published over 30 journal articles and book chapters and co‐edited the Handbook of Emotional Intelligence in Education. Dr. Keefer’s research focuses on the development, assessment, and applications of socioemotional competencies in the promotion of wellness and resilience across the lifespan. In addition, Dr. Keefer has a strong background in psychological assessment.

Carolyn MacCann is a senior lecturer at the School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on two main areas: assessment development of emotional intelligence and other noncognitive constructs for selection, training, and diagnostic applications; and examining how emotional intelligence influences the processes underlying emotions and emotion regulation. She has over 60 publications in these areas, and is an associate editor for the European Journal of Psychological Assessment.

Gerald Matthews is a Research Professor at the Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central Florida. His research focuses on the cognitive science of personality, emotion and human performance. He is the author or co‐editor of 19 books and author or co‐author of over 300 scientific papers and chapters. He is a former President of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences.

Dr. James D. A. Parker is a Professor of Psychology at Trent University, Canada, and a former Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Emotion and Health. Dr. Parker has published over 160 journal articles and book chapters on the topics of personality, socioemotional competencies, wellness, and coping. He also co‐developed several widely used measures of these constructs. His most influential books include Disorders of Affect Regulation and the Handbook of Emotional Intelligence.

Dr. Juan‐Carlos Pérez‐González is Associate Professor of Research Methods and Assessment in Education. He researches assessment of emotional intelligence and evaluation of emotional education across the lifespan. He has published over 30 journal articles and taught more than 60 invited lectures, including universities in the USA, United Kingdom, Ecuador and Brazil. He is a fellow of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID) and of the International Society of Research on Emotion (ISRE) and is an Associate Editor of British Journal of Educational Psychology. He works at the Faculty of Education at the National University of Distance Education (UNED) in Madrid, Spain, where he is Founder and Director of EDUEMO Lab (Emotional Education Laboratory).

Dr. Debbie J. Pope is an Associate Lecturer within the School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire. She works as both an Associate Lecturer and a Disability Needs Assessor for students entering HE. In the past, she has had departmental responsibility for SEN students and the successful transition and retention of students. She currently teaches applied aspects of educational psychology, including the contribution and impact of EI, on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Pamela Qualter is a developmental psychologist researching emotional intelligence in childhood and adolescence. She is also an expert on loneliness across the lifespan. She has published over 50 journal articles and received funding from British funding councils for her work. She is a Professor of Psychology for Education and is an Associate Editor of Personality and Individual Differences, a peer‐reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier and the official journal of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences. She works at The Manchester Institute of Education at The University of Manchester.

Dr. Susan E. Rivers is Executive Director and Chief Scientist of iThrive, a nonprofit organization committed to empowering teens through great games, where she uses her expertise in emotional intelligence to enhance the social and emotional wellbeing of adolescents by accelerating the development and widespread adoption of interactive, evidence‐based digital products. Prior to joining iThrive, Dr. Rivers served on the research faculty at Yale University for a decade in the Department of Psychology, where she co‐founded the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and served as its founding Deputy Director. She devised and co‐developed the RULER framework for teaching emotional intelligence and social and emotional learning, which has reached an estimated 500,000 children in schools across the globe. She also has evaluated the impact of RULER in dozens of schools and published evidence showing its significant positive impacts on students and teachers. Dr. Rivers is a graduate of Skidmore College, earned two master’s degrees and her doctorate in social psychology at Yale University, and was a Visiting Fellow in Human Development at the Department of Human Ecology at Cornell University. She has published and spoken widely on emotional intelligence and social and emotional learning, and the potential for games in promoting positive youth development. Dr. Rivers lives in Newton, MA with her husband and three children, who are avid gamers and burgeoning game developers.

Dr. Donald H. Saklofske is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Dr. Saklofske is also a visiting professor at Beijing Normal University, China, an International Research Associate at the University of Florence, Italy, and an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary and University of Saskatchewan, Canada. His research focuses on personality, intelligence, individual differences, and psychological assessment. Dr. Saklofske’s publication record includes 37 books, 100 book chapters, and more than 170 journal articles. He is also the editor of Personality and Individual Differences and Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment.

Nicola S. Schutte is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of New England, Australia. She teaches motivation and emotion topics. She conducts research in the area of positive psychology, with a focus on emotional self‐efficacy, emotional intelligence, general self‐efficacy, and positive affect.

Theo Stickley is a mental health nurse and academic and has worked at the University of Nottingham for a very long time. As a nurse teacher he has spent years nurturing emotional intelligence amongst student nurses. The main focus of his research in recent years has been the relationship between participatory arts and mental health and wellbeing. In 2012, he helped to set up a community choir in Nottingham, which is going from strength to strength.

Moshe Zeidner is Professor Emeritus at Haifa University and Professor of Psychology in the Psychology Department at Tel‐Hai Academic College, Israel. His main fields of interest are in the area of human emotions, personality, and individual differences. He is the author or co‐editor of 10 books and author or co‐author of over 200 scientific papers and chapters. His co‐authored book, What We Know About Emotional Intelligence, received the 2009 PROSE award for excellence from the Association of American Publishers.

The subject of emotional intelligence (EI) continues to receive a good deal of attention around the world, particularly in the areas of education, healthcare, and business. This interest has grown exponentially since Jack Mayer, Peter Salovey, and colleagues published the first academic articles in the early 1990s. In addition to the many academic articles and books now available, we hear and read about it in the popular media all the time. However, a good deal of the information out there is of a dubious quality and is not based on rigorous research. At the other end of the spectrum, there are a good many books and articles that are based on academic research, but which are aimed purely at an academic audience and remain inaccessible to most people. This book focuses on providing a scholarly introduction to the topic of EI, detailing what we know about it from the research evidence; however, is written in an accessible way so everyone can understand what EI is, why it is important, and how we can measure it. The book brings together authors from across the world, all with experience of research and teaching in this area, and they present research evidence in a way that we hope is accessible to educators and university students at all levels, including those already working in professions and undergoing Continuing Professional Development activities.

Throughout each chapter any potentially tricky words or concepts are highlighted and explained. At the end of most of the chapters the reader will find activities that encourage reflection on what has just been read and the application of this new knowledge to solve various questions or problems.

Each chapter has been written so it can be read independently of the others or, you can read the chapters in the order they are presented. We recommend that Chapters 1, 2 , 3 , and 4 are read first because they provide a helpful overview of the key issues in relation to EI.

In Chapter 1, Moshe Zeidner and Gerald Matthews provide a brief historical introduction to the subject of EI, which helps to set the scene for the chapters that follow. They discuss how the concept has its roots in past psychological thinking dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century and examine some of the reasons for its widespread popularity in contemporary times. Importantly, they also put forward a convincing argument for supporting a scientific approach to the subject based on valid theory, measurement, and meaningful applications. They conclude their chapter with an honest summary of the current issues in the field and leave the reader with some thought‐provoking comments.

One of the major issues surrounding EI has always been its different conceptualizations, in particular the question of whether it should be considered an ability or a personality trait. In Chapter 2, Elizabeth J. Austin provides a detailed overview of research into the two constructs of ability EI and trait EI, examining their validity in relation to health, wellbeing, social relationships, and academic and work performance. She concludes with a summary of unresolved issues and future research directions, including questions that a number of researchers have started to examine, such as “Does EI have a ‘dark‐side’?” and “Are high levels of EI always a good thing?”

In Chapter 3, Nicola S. Schutte introduces the reader to a concept closely related to EI, emotional self‐efficacy (ESE), which is concerned with people’s confidence that they function well emotionally; ESE is about having confidence in one’s own EI. The reader will gain a good understanding of the concept of ESE and its importance in a number of different realms such as health, wellbeing, and other work‐related outcomes. Additionally, the chapter discusses how ESE can be improved through training and how it develops through other mechanisms, including the effects of observing positive role‐models.

Chapter 4 provides the reader with a comprehensive summary of research into measuring EI. Luke E. R. Brown, Pamela Qualter, and Carolyn MacCann take a look at the different types of EI tests available and summarize reliability and validity evidence for each. They include most tests currently available that are appropriate for children, adolescents, and adults and provide information on some promising new approaches. Additionally, they offer some useful guidelines for anyone considering using EI tests for research purposes or other applications.

Chapters 5, 6 , 7 , and 8 take a developmental approach and consider EI from birth, through childhood, into adolescence, early adulthood, and transition into the workplace. In Chapter 5, Craig S. Bailey and Susan E. Rivers provide an overview of EI research in relation to early childhood. They consider how EI develops in infants, toddlers, and young children up to the age of five or six years old, when many begin formal schooling and individual differences in EI become clearly apparent. Because EI, at this stage, is predictive of academic and social success throughout childhood, its development is of some importance. The authors argue strongly for the inclusion of social and emotional learning in early education and discuss how these education opportunities can help young children acquire the emotional knowledge and skills that will make them better learners and develop more successful relationships throughout the school years that follow.

A critical discussion around teaching for the development of EI and socioemotional competence in schools, is presented by Juan‐Carlos Pérez‐González and Pamela Qualter in Chapter 6. They begin with arguments to support the necessity of developing emotional competence in young people followed by a brief historical overview of developments in this area. They provide some detailed evaluations of the various programs available, together with guidelines for designing, implementing, and evaluating appropriate educational interventions. This chapter will be of significant benefit to anyone with an interest in developing emotional competence in children within an educational setting.

In Chapter 7 Sarah K. Davis considers the importance of EI in adolescence and early adulthood, a period of significant change and challenge for young people as they become increasingly independent. She includes a review of the research evidence which suggests that EI may provide some protection against many of the stressors young people experience at this stage in their lives and help to improve their resilience, enabling them to maintain good mental health and succeed in their academic endeavors. The chapter concludes with a summary of the current position in relation to research together with suggestions for the direction of future research in this area.

The role of EI within higher education (HE) is explored in Chapter 8. Debbie J. Pope and Lorraine Dacre Pool discuss research examining the use of EI measures to improve the outcomes of selecting students for courses, with a view to improving quality and satisfaction for HE students and staff. They also consider the possible role of EI in relation to successful transition into HE and the experience of vulnerable students who have difficulties with EI competencies. The potential of HE staff to influence the student experience is widely acknowledged, suggesting that good levels of EI in staff could be an important factor in ensuring this experience is a positive one. The chapter considers the ways EI may be helpful to staff as they manage the various demands of their roles, including the ways they interact with the students they have contact with. The authors also argue that EI is an essential aspect of graduate employability, which will help in the transition from HE into the workplace, and as such should be included in HE curricula.

The subject of EI and the workplace often appears in the popular media and has been researched across the world. Lorraine Dacre Pool provides an overview of that research in Chapter 9, including areas such as the influence of EI on leadership, job performance, teamworking, conflict resolution, job satisfaction, and work engagement. As EI has an impact on a number of job‐related outcomes, it is important to establish if it can be improved through training interventions. Although there is not a great deal of good quality empirical research in this area, some studies are starting to emerge which provide support for the effectiveness of well‐designed EI workplace interventions. These studies are discussed in the chapter.

Theo Stickley and Dawn Freshwater, who are both registered nurses, therapeutic practitioners, and academics, authored Chapter 10. Their unique experience enables them to provide a well‐informed perspective on the importance of EI for health care professionals, particularly in relation to the provision of compassionate care. The chapter also introduces the reader to a new concept – professional compathy – which the authors define as a measured approach of compassion and empathy, demonstrated by health care professionals who carry out their roles in often difficult and demanding situations. They argue that this emotionally intelligent approach to health care practice is essential for the protection of patients and staff from the effects of burnout and compassion fatigue.

A comprehensive review of EI, and its associations with mental and physical health, is included in Chapter 11. Kateryna V. Keefer, Donald H. Saklofske and James D. A. Parker take a detailed look at EI as a potentially protective factor against the damaging effects of stress on health and wellbeing. They consider the theory and evaluate the research evidence, looking at direct relationships between EI and physical/mental health together with the pathways through which EI may impact various health outcomes (for example, people with higher levels of EI may use more effective coping mechanisms, which result in better health outcomes). The chapter also includes details of interventions designed to improve EI and, ultimately, health and wellbeing. Finally, the evidence is summarized to formulate some conclusions on the current state of knowledge regarding EI, stress, and health.

Chapter 12 completes the book with a review of research into EI and the later chapters of life itself. Pamela Qualter and Maria Gallagher discuss how much of the work on EI has concentrated on children and young adults and, therefore, how we are missing sufficient empirical evidence for the developmental trajectory of EI over the full human lifespan into old age. The authors summarize the available research that has examined age differences in EI, together with the relationship between EI and health (mental and physical) in elderly populations, proposing EI may be an important factor for dealing with loneliness in old age. There is some discussion on the effects of dementia on EI and the authors suggest some ideas for possible intervention work with older people.

We hope you will agree that the book offers the reader a comprehensive, critical, and accessible introduction to current EI theory and research. We also hope you find it a thought‐ provoking, informative, and enjoyable read.

From Lorraine: For Steve and Nathan, with thanks for all the love and support.

From Pamela: For Leaon, with thanks for your continued support and guidance.