The idea of life satisfaction is oftentimes linked to fulfilling goals, scoring well on exams, excelling at college, getting a high-paying job, and so on. But are these accomplishments enough?
Finding ways to achieve life satisfaction has been receiving a lot of attention for many years. While all factors mentioned earlier, in addition to others definitely, are essential to fulfillment, perceived emotional intelligence (PEI) is proved to be key to contentment.
According to Salovey & Mayer’s definition, PEI is a “continuous, reflective process linked to beliefs about the attention to one’s feelings, mood clarity and perceived ability to repair one’s emotional state” (as cited in Ramos-Diaz et al., 2018).
Ramos-Diaz et al., who scrutinized the link between PEI and life satisfaction, mentioned that the former is directly related to better psychological adjustment in teen undergrads. Besides, emotional skills can play an important role in boosting satisfaction in life.
The writers identified three PEI dimension; they are: emotional attention, emotional clarity, and emotional repair. These dimensions, however, have cause a lot of controversy among academics.
For instance, the authors have reported that many researchers believe that fulfillment in student’s life is related to all of the three dimensions. Nonetheless, others argued it is either emotional clarity, alone, or emotional repair alone that might affect satisfaction.
In addition to that, Ramos-Diaz et al. stated that the scholars who linked higher levels of emotional clarity to better life satisfaction believe that the latter decreases negative thoughts. At the same time, it increases one’s understanding of his/her mood. This will consequently promote fluid thinking and psychological adaptation.
Contrastingly, other academics found out that good psychological functioning is related to emotional repair. The reason is that a person with high emotional repair is able to maintain a positive mood.
Regardless of that dilemma, what remains indisputable is the fact that “high perceived emotional intelligence scores are closely associated with a better capacity to maintain positive mental states.” This, in general, can guarantee achieving a greater sense of life satisfaction among adolescent students.
Source
Ramos-Diaz, E., Rodríguez‑Fernández, a., Axpe, I., & Ferrara, M. (2018). Perceived Emotional Intelligence and Life Satisfaction Among Adolescent Students: The Mediating Role of Resilience. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(8), 2489-2506. Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/docview/2137397259?accountid=28281&pq-origsite=summon
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