Salovey and Mayer named an ability. Goleman’s book and a consulting industry named a product. Emotion science (Darwin, James, later Barrett and Damasio) is older and stricter.
The timeline below follows dated arguments and institutions, not a national myth of genius and not a group ranking.
Origin
1990–1995 · Yale / New Hampshire / global business — Salovey and Mayer named an ability. Goleman’s book and a consulting industry named a product. Emotion science (Darwin, James, later Barrett and Damasio) is older and stricter.
Timeline
- Darwin’s Expression
Comparative emotion as a science ancestor.
- Salovey & Mayer paper
EI as a mental ability with branches.
- Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence
The boom and the broadening.
- Bar-On EQ-i
A mixed inventory that many workplaces bought.
- MSCEIT
An ability-test attempt with scoring debates.
- Damasio’s Descartes’ Error era
Somatic markers — emotion in decision, not a workplace quiz.
- Waterhouse-type critiques of related fashions
Keep EI from becoming another unmeasured school IQ.
- Barrett’s How Emotions Are Made
Constructed emotion as a challenge to simple face-to-feeling tests.
- SEL in schools
A policy export; fidelity and measurement uneven.
- Workplace EQ procurement
HR as the main identification theatre — halo included.
Eras
- Emotion science — Darwin to James — Ancestors.
- Ability coinage — 1990 — Four branches.
- Brand boom — 1995 — Goleman.
- Inventory market — EQ-i / mixed — Workplaces buy traits.
- Constructed-emotion challenge — Barrett — Tests of “the face” get harder.
Shifts
- From paper to product 1995 — A book outran a construct.
- From ability to mixed soup EQ-i era — Personality walked in.
- From universal faces to construction 2010s — Barrett’s challenge to simple scoring.
Emotional intelligence: keep the dates visible. Names of talents are younger than the work they try to capture.