Emotional Intelligence in Conducting Research

The conduction of research has been characterised as an intellectually and emotionally demanding process, which is heavily laden with emotions from inception through to completion. When emotions have an inextricable place in the construction of knowledge, a deep awareness of how to manage emotions throughout the research processes would facilitate not only the research quality but also the whole research journey. For this reason, emotional intelligence or the capability to perceive, monitor, and regulate both positive and negative emotions in one‘s self and in others is a fundamental competence for researchers across disciplines. This chapter aims to address this paucity in the field by examining how emotional intelligence contributes to effective research and discussing its role in some major stages of research. It is believed that the cleverness in integrating emotional intelligence into doing research will enhance the research processes and outcomes.