The emotionally intelligent marriage

If ever there were a context in which one might expect emotional intelligence to matter it is marriage. Marriage is the source of some of our deepest feelings and emotions, from love, hate, and anger, to fear, sadness, and joy; and the extent to which spouses can understand, communicate, and manage these and other powerful emotions plays a crucial role in their marital happiness. However, although it makes intuitive sense to argue for the importance of emotional intelligence in close relationships, and to speculate that more emotionally intelligent people should have longer and happier marriages, there has actually been very little scientific research specifically examining emotional intelligence in this context. This is particularly surprising given the rapidly growing body of literature emphasizing the central role of feelings and emotions in the initiation, maintenance and dissolution of close relationships [2-3].