Study of Emotional Intelligence as Stress Controller for City Guards

The Emotional intelligence supposedly is a mediator variable in the stress control although there is no sufficient empirical evidence supporting this relationship. The purpose of the present research was to study the correlation between emotional intelligence and stress. The participants were 24 city guards who answered the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Tests V2.0 (MSCEIT) and the Lipp’s Inventory of Stress Symptoms for Adults (ISSL). The results showed no significant correlation between stress and the general score of emotional intelligence. However, analyzing the subtasks scores (Faces, Pictures, Facilitation, Sensations, Changes, Blends, Emotional management and Emotional relations), which compose MSCEIT general score, it was observed a significant subtask by group interaction showing that the stressed group showed higher scores in tasks Sensations and Emotional relations and lower scores in the other subtests. In general, it seems that stressed persons are more susceptible to experiencing emotions with less interference from reasoning.