Theoretical and Methodological Problems of Emotional Intelligence Research in Children of Senior Preschool Age

Abstract

The research features various theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of emotional intelligence in children aged 5–7. The relevance of the issue can be explained by the current social mandate and the federal state standard of modern pre-school education. The paper focuses on an analysis of foreign and domestic approaches to the study of the psychological phenomenon in question. The authors come to a conclusion that emotional intelligence regulates the integral state of the human psyche and manifests itself at the physiological, psychological, and personal levels of its functioning. The article also includes a description of the study methods applied to senior preschoolers. The authors give a critical review of the methodological tools for emotional intelligence assessment in children aged 5–7, the results of which indicate the problem areas in the existing methods for diagnosing emotional intelligence. The paper describes the matters of criteria selection for evaluation and selection of adequate methods for studying. In conclusion, the authors point to the insufficientlystudied aspects of emotional intelligence and designate the theoretical and methodological problems of researching emotional intelligence in children of senior preschool age. Based on the results of the theoretical analysis, the authors propose to consider emotional intelligence as a dynamic system functioning at all levels of one’s mental life and justify the need to develop a comprehensive approach to its study from the standpoint of general, age and pedagogical psychology, psychophysiology, preschool pedagogy.