Zadorozhny, Bogdan S.; (2025) Trait Emotional Intelligence: A Center-Stage Role in Success, Leadership, and Overall Human Personality. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis explores the structure and nature of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) including its role in individual differences, its connection with cognitive ability, and its temporal stability. Trait EI's predictive capacity is also examined regarding leadership emergence. First, a meta-meta-analysis (harmonic mean n = 10,319) investigated trait EI's position within differential psychology. Analysis of meta-analytic correlations amongst emotional intelligence, personality, cognitive ability, and creativity measures, indicated support for a common latent factor of individual differences closely aligned with trait EI, suggesting trait EI's central importance in the field. However, the latent factor's loading onto cognitive ability was negligible, likely due to an overrepresentation of personality measures within the model. Given the complexity of linking cognitive ability with a multitude of differential psychology measures, its relationship with trait EI was examined instead, justified by the close relationship between the latent factor and trait EI. Network analysis consequently indicated that trait EI and cognitive ability are interconnected, with the facet of emotion management playing a crucial connecting role. Similarly, as assessing the temporal stability of the emergent common factor of individual differences was infeasible, the validity of trait EI was validated in a large professional sample (n = 1,490), confirming the construct's stability up to four years, and indicating that trait EI constitutes an affective and stable aspect of differential psychology. Finally, the practical application of trait EI was evaluated in predicting leadership emergence in the consulting context (n = 6,247) using modern methodologies, including Machine learning. Results revealed trait EI reliably predicted leadership emergence, surpassing cognitive ability and demographic factors. Overall, the thesis demonstrates trait EI's central position within differential psychology, its superior temporal stability, and illustrates its significance in attaining important life outcomes.

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