Emotionally intelligent people are defined in part as those who regulate their emotions according to a logically consistent model of emotional functioning. Several models of emotion regulation are identified and compared; for example, one internally consistent model includes tenets such as "happiness should be optimized over the lifetime." That internally consistent model is applied to the way a person can intervene in mood construction and regulation at non-, low-, and high-conscious levels of experience. Research related to the construction and regulation of emotion at each of these levels is reviewed. Finally, a connection is made between the concept of emotionally intelligent regulation and its potential applications to personality and clinical psychology. (A)
Abstract