Quiet Ego and Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Mindfulness

The quiet ego refers to a self-identity that is balanced and growth-oriented in its stance toward the self and others. As a relatively new construct, its validity has been examined in domains related to balance, compassion, and self-control, it has not been examined in other domains that appear to have conceptual overlap such as emotional intelligence (EI), a construct entailing both ability EI (construed as cognitive ability) and trait EI (construed as self-perception). This pre-registered study (N = 300) first examined the quiet ego’s construct validity in the domain of EI using a confirmatory factor analysis approach, and then investigated its associations with subjective well-being and psychological stress from the angle of EI using path models. Results showed that the quiet ego was positively associated with both ability and trait EI, thereby establishing its validity in this domain. Mediation analyses revealed trait EI mediated the relationship between the quiet ego and increased subjective well-being and decreased stress. Serial mediation analyses further revealed that the link between the quiet ego and trait EI was mediated by mindfulness such that the quiet ego transmitted its effects to subjective well-being and stress first via mindfulness and then trait EI. In contrast, there was no evidence that ability EI mediated the relationship between the quiet ego and subjective well-being or stress.