Emotional intelligence and emotion regulation in self-induced emotional states: Physiological evidence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is associated, both theoretically and empirically, with the ability to manage and regulate one's own emotions. Most evidence in this venue, however, comes from self-report measures. We tested the hypothesis that EI will associate with effective performance in an emotional regulation task in which participants were asked to self-induce emotional arousal and then to relax (modulation). One hundred twenty-seven young adults performed the task while we monitored their heart rate as an indicator of emotional responsiveness, and blood pressure as an indicator of long-term emotion regulation. They took tests of trait EI, ability EI, and trait anxiety. Structural equation modeling path analysis showed that ability EI, trait anxiety, and gender were associated with a factorial score of heart-rate variability, representing emotional regulation (arousal and modulation) indicators. The associations suggested that people with higher ability-EI scores more effectively regulated their emotional responses when asked to do so. The results also showed negative associations between ability EI and baseline blood pressure indicators. Results are discussed in light of theory and existing evidence on the link between EI and emotional regulation.