Person–Situation Interaction in Adaptive Emotional Functioning

Abstract

Two studies applied a person-situation model to examine the effect of emotional affordances of situations. Participants rated their emotional functioning as more extensive in situations classified as being high in emotional affordance than those classified as low in emotional affordance. Participants who scored higher on the individual difference characteristic of emotional intelligence were more interested in entering high emotional affordance situations than were individuals lower in emotional intelligence, and participants who scored higher on emotional intelligence were rated by others as being more successful in high emotional affordance situations than individuals lower in emotional intelligence. These results provide preliminary evidence that the interaction between emotional intelligence and situations may influence emotional functioning.Keywords Emotional intelligence . Adaptive emotional functioning . Situations . Person-situation interactionA recent approach to understanding adaptive emotional functioning has been the development and study of the individual difference characteristic of emotional intelligence. Salovey and Grewal (2005) described emotional intelligence as resulting from interactions between an individual's emotions and cognitions that lead to adaptive functioning. Grounded in this conceptualization of emotional intelligence is a four-branch model (Mayer et al. 2004) positing that emotional intelligence consists of the related abilities of (a) perceiving emotion in the self and others, (b) using emotion to enhance decision making, (c) understanding emotion, and (d) regulating emotion in the self and others. Other models of emotional intelligence, such as Bar-On's (2000) model, have included these functions but

Emotional intelligence as a predictor of employees' career adaptability

“…The results of the present study support the importance of developing individuals' emotional intelligence in order to enhance their career adaptability. The results of the present study corroborate previous studies (Brown et al, 2003;Coetzee & Beukes, 2010;Schutte et al, 2008) which indicate emotional intelligence to be predictive of career decision-making self-efficacy, and vocational exploration and commitment. Overall, the results of the present study provide evidence that high levels of self-efficacious emotional functioning may enhance self-efficacious adaptive functioning in the cognitive-affective behavioral domains of career adaptability.…”

“…Managing one's own emotions refers to a sense of emotional self-efficacy, including confidence in the ability to control one's personal emotions, using positive mood to persevere in spite of obstacles and motivate the self to achieve success (Schutte et al, 2009). Emotional self-efficacious functioning has been shown to be important for engaging in problem-solving behaviors and dealing positively with career-related challenges (Brown et al, 2003;Coetzee & Beukes, 2010;Schutte et al, 2008). The results of the present study also indicated the ability of managing one's own emotions and having high levels of career concern as two important psychosocial career metacapacities in predicting career adaptability.…”

“…According to Caruso, Mayer, and Salovey (2002), emotional functioning forms an integral part of individual's thinking and reasoning (cognitive) functioning and intelligence. However, in contrast to cognitive and social intelligences, Schutte et al (2008) argue that emotional intelligence can be seen as a latent trait, competency or skill within the individual that may or may not be displayed in the individual's everyday functioning. The underlying assumption is that emotional intelligence provides the potential for performance, rather than performance itself; how individuals would use this latent potential is a matter of personal choice (Jain, 2012).…”

“…Emotion is thought to energize, control and regulate action (Young, Paseluikho, & Valach, 1997) and therefore needs to be considered in the career self-management and decision-making process (Brown et al, 2003;Schutte et al, 2009). The ability to use emotions to guide one's thinking and actions appears to relate to perceptions and feelings of efficacy in planning and managing career-related actions and tasks (Brown et al, 2003), cognitive task performance (Schutte, Schuettpelz, & Malouff, 2001) and greater adaptability and emotional functioning (Schutte et al, 2008).…”

“…Emotional intelligence is seen to provide the potential for performance (Schutte et al, 2008). As a latent trait, individuals may or may not display emotional intelligence in their everyday functioning (Jain, 2012).…”