To my viewpoint, the term EI has distorted the traditional classification of virtues. While emotional regulation is a moral value reflecting the virtue of temperance, intelligence is itself part of intellectual virtues. EI is playing with words.
The concept of emotional intelligence (EI) has garnered significant attention in the psychological and organisational literature, primarily focusing on individuals' abilities to perceive, understand, regulate, and express emotions effectively. While emotional intelligence shares some similarities with moral virtues, such as empathy, self-awareness, and social responsibility, it is not typically categorized as a form of moral virtue in the traditional sense. However, there are arguments to be made for considering certain aspects of emotional intelligence as contributing to moral virtues and ethical behaviour.
Emotional intelligence (EI) represents a significant departure from traditional conceptions of intelligence that primarily focus on cognitive abilities such as logical reasoning and problem-solving. Initially popularized by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer in the early 1990s and later mainstreamed by Daniel Goleman, EI encompasses the capacity to perceive, understand, regulate, and express emotions effectively.