Improving Emotion Regulation skills through an Emotional Intelligence Training Course

Abstract

Emotion regulation is the fourth component of emotional intelligence theory introduced by Salovey and Mayer (1990). It has received much interest in recent years due to its significant effect on life qualities such as mental health, social relationship, academic achievement and work performance. However, there were not enough empirical studies to examine whether the training of emotional intelligence can improve emotion regulation skills. This paper describes a quasi-experimental study aimed at answering the question, „Does training in emotional intelligence create more emotionally intelligent behavior, particularly emotion regulation?‟ Emotional intelligent behavior was measured by responses to a written test (FEIS-41) in twice, before and after the training course. The subject participants were 60 and divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group received an emotional intelligence training course, while the control group did not. The training course had six sessions, held once per week for two and a half hours. The results showed that the level of emotion regulation improved in the experimental group after the emotional intelligence training.