Workplace stress is an insidious, pervasive, and increasing problem that contributes to psychological, psychosocial, and physiological declines to workers’ health. This thesis focuses on the effect of emotional intelligence (EI) as a moderator of workplace stress, measured using biomarkers. EI is beneficial to workers because individuals with higher EI have stronger coping abilities, engender more trust, and perform cognitive tasks with less effort, resulting in greater life satisfaction and wellbeing. For these reasons, I argue that EI reduces workplace stress. However, research on EI and stress has long been hindered by subjective measures of both EI and stress. Physiological evidence that EI or EI training moderates the effects of work stress is lacking, and thus I investigate the relationship between EI, measured by the ability-based MSCEIT (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002), and physiological stress, measured using salivary cortisol, in two contexts—in a lab using university students, and in the field with Special Forces military personnel. A common source of workplace stress is incivility. In the two lab studies, I assess the moderating effect of EI on participants who experienced stress during online interactions with supportive or uncivil supervisors (Study 1: N= 328,) and supportive, neutral, or uncivil supervisors (Study 2: N= 350). A 2x2x2 sampling model was developed in which subjects completed a business-like task with support or incivility from an online supervisor. EI and stress were recorded using a Mayer-Salovey-Caruso EI ability test and salivary cortisol. Based on COR theory, I hypothesised that EI associates with reduced stress and …
Emotional intelligence and its effects on biomarkers of workplace stress
