This paper presents a review of the article Emotional Intelligence and Age by L. Fariselli, M. Ghini, and J. Freedman. The article describes the results of a research carried out in an attempt to identify and calculate the association between emotional intelligence quotient and age of a person.

The research is concerned with both age changes and age differences, though the latter are less widely covered. The study compared certain personal qualities for 405 American people of different age groups and investigated the dynamics of EQ change. Besides, a look at the diagrams provided in the article shows that linear graphs illustrate age changes, while pie charts merely indicate the age and gender structure of the researched group. However, the analysis of the findings also stresses some age difference matters. For instance, the last paragraph of the article gives some recommendations as to the treatment of different age groups at workplace.

As it has already been mentioned, the research described in the article investigates the link between emotional intelligence and age, i.e. whether older people are wiser and have a better control over their emotions through better recognition of them. In prospect, the research deals with measuring the extent to which emotional intelligence (a) can be acquired; (b) relies on personal experience. The research also diversified the findings into three categories: self-awareness, self-management, and self-direction.

Unfortunately, the article does not provide an extensive coverage of previous research on the matter, only mentioning the assumption based on popular literature and “common sense” that older people tend to be wiser and have better self-control. This is, undoubtedly, a weak point of the article. However, it might also suggest that it is a pioneer research and nothing significant had been done in the field.

The research question is Do older people demonstrate higher emotional literacy quotient?

To find the answer, the research team tested 405 Americans of different ages using the Six Seconds’ Emotional Intelligence Assessment. The result showed that the relationship between emotional intelligence and age is very slight: r=.13 (p<.01). It means that while there is a great number of young people with high EQ, there are also older people with lower EQ. Still, the general tendency is to show greater emotional intelligence in the ripe old age. The statistical method of Linear Regression revealed that age can be held responsible for only 1.6% of the Emotional Intelligence variance. Presumably, other factors have a stronger influence on it.

The researches also investigated certain components of emotional intelligence and the way they change during life. The first parameter was self-awareness. Hypothetically, older people have learned from their life experience about emotions and their strength and have become more emotionally literate. However, the findings showed that the rate of self-awareness is only slightly bigger in older people than in younger ones (age is predictive of only 2.8% of self-awareness).

The second major parameter was self-management (the ability to choose yourself, or, in other words, to navigate emotions, be optimistic, use intrinsic motivation and exercise consequential thinking). The study did not reveal any significant relationship between aging and better self-management, which suggests that in most cases self-management is not the ability to be learned during the whole life.