EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN DIVERSE POPULATIONS: THEORY TO INTERVENTION

Emotional Intelligence (EI) has gain lots of interesting in the last decade or so. The current book explores EI in two diverse populations and whether it can be enhanced or not. The research was divided into three Phases. Phase 1 and 2 investigated mood states prior to performance and EI among a sample of UK wheelchair basketball players and Ghanaian footballers (soccer). In phase 3 interventions were used to enhance EI in a sample of UK wheelchair basketball players and Ghanaian football players. Phase 1 results indicated that optimism and utilisation of emotions contributed significantly to variation in mood by performance. Phase 2, results indicated that emotion regulation and appraisal of other’s emotions contributed significantly to variations in mood by performance. When seen collectively, results of phase 1 and 2 indicate that there were cultural differences between the two populations. Phase 3 indicated that in both populations EI could be enhanced for some of the participants. Results suggest that culture could play a role in EI and needs to be further explored.