Life space research examines the traits of the systems that surround personality. This is important because it allows researchers to connect inner personality to outer life.
Life-report data is a special kind of data that involves personal reports of the information surrounding the individual (what is in his or her refrigerater/closet, what groups he or she belongs to, and so forth).
To date, several large studies have been carried out with the life space. Here are some reprints:
Mayer, J. D., Carlsmith, K. M., & Chabot, H. F. (1998). Defining the person's external environment: Defining and describing the life space. Journal of Research in Personality, 32 (3), 253-296.
Brackett, M. A., & Mayer, J. D. (2006-2007). The life space: A framework and method to describe the individuals external traits. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 26 (1-2), 3-41.
(Annotation for the second entry is in Key Reprints Related to the Framework (1998-2007).)
Personality Self-Descriptions
Another way the Systems Framework (and, more specifically, the Systems Set) has been applied is in regard to personality self-descriptions. One article is here:
Ivcevic, Z., Mayer, J. D., & Brackett, M. A. (2002-2003). Exploring personality the natural way: An inquiry into open-ended self-descriptions. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 22 (3), 211-238.
Emotional Intelligence and Personality
Emotional intelligence research concerns the capacity to reason with emotion, and of emotions to enhance thought. Emotional intelligence, from this perspective, is an intelligence analogous to verbal intelligence, spatial intelligence, or perceptual organizational intelligence. The difference is that emotional intelligence concerns the emotions.
The popular models of emotional intelligence, however, often broaden the idea of emotional intelligence to cover much or all of the personality system itself.
Here are two articles which clarify the "intelligence" versus "personality" interpretation of emotional intelligence:
Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. (2000). Models of emotional intelligence. In R. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of intelligence (pp. 396-420). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Mayer, J. D. (2001). A field guide to emotional intelligence. In J. Ciarrochi, J. P. Forgas, & J. D. Mayer (Eds.), Emotional intelligence in everyday life (pp. 3-24). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
For more on emotional intelligence, including the latest information on the ability model of emotional intelligence, MSCEIT tests, and recent publications...
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