Studies in Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence plays a very critical role in the overall quality of our personal and professional lives. In fact, many people feel that emotional intelligence (EQ) is more important than one’s intelligence quotient (IQ) when it comes to attaining success in their lives and careers.

As suggested in Salovey and Mayer’s theory of emotional intelligence (1990), the instrument has three categories: the appraisal and expression of emotion assessed by 13 items; the regulation of emotion assessed by 10 items; and the utilisation of emotion assessed by 10 items.

Emotional Intelligence is defined as a ‘type of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and other’s emotions, to discriminate among them and to use the information to guide one’s thinking and actions’ (Salovey and Mayer, 1990: 189). According to Goleman (2001), ‘emotional intelligence comprises of 4 key components which are, Self

The author states, “Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships” (p. 17). EQ lays the foundation for many skills, such as, time management, communication, assertiveness, customer service, anger management, stress tolerance, and many other aspects of our life each day. Although our emotions will play an eminent role in our daily life, improved EQ skills will teach us to better control our emotions and keep our emotions from controlling our actions or behaviors. Additionally, we will learn how to better interact with others and build better and stronger relationships.

Although intelligence has been studied for over a century, the study of emotional intelligence is relatively new in comparison. One commonly used definition of EI is ‘the ability to understand your own emotions and those of people around you’ (Maltby et al., 2010, p. 392). There are four main models are: The Salovey Mayer, and Caruso model (Mayer & Salovey,

With the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence in 1995, the business world got an answer to a question that had been plaguing it for decades: “Why did some people of a high IQ struggle at managing teams while other leaders of lower IQ excel at it”? Goleman asserted that the traditional measurement of IQ (intelligence quotient) was not enough to determine a good leader. Schools and universities concentrated on developing the cognitive and analytical part of the brain, while the teaching of how the emotional side of the brain worked was ignored. Goleman defined this “emotional intelligence” of a human being as a set of competencies that distinguish how one manages

Abraham, R. (1999). Emotional Intelligence in associations: a conceptualization. Hereditary Social and General Psychology Monographs, 125(2), 209-224.

distinguished between ability models and mixed models of EI. They focused their research on the

The book “Working with Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman deals with the emotional assets and liabilities of individuals in organizations. Emotional intelligence is traits that go beyond academic achievement or IQ. As a matter of fact he points out that high academic intelligence can sometimes stand in the way of emotional intelligence. Broadly speaking, emotional intelligence determines how well we handle difficult situation, which cannot be solved by logic, but more by a “feel” for the situation. These attributes are very hard to measure, which is why many standardized tests, whether academic or for employment, fail to measure these attributes, even though these are the one which determine

     In the book Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, the central thesis that he tries to point out is that emotional intelligence may be more important than I.Q. in determining a person’s well being and success in life. At first I didn’t know what Goleman was talking about when he said emotional intelligence, but after reading the book I have to say that I agree completely with Goleman. One reason for my acceptance of Goleman's theory is that academic intelligence has little to do with emotional life. To me, emotions can be just as intelligent as your I.Q. In this essay I hope to provide sufficient evidence to show why I agree with Goleman’s thesis on emotional intelligence.

Brackett, & J. D. Mayer, (Eds.), (2004). Emotional intelligence: Key readings on the Mayer and

…good old street smarts-knowing when to share sensitive information with colleagues, laugh at the boss’s jokes, or speak up in a meeting. In more scientific terms, … [emotional intelligence] can be defined as an array of noncognitive skills, capabilities, and competencies that influence a person’s ability to cope with environmental demands and pressures.1

Two psychologists, John Mayer and Peter Salovey, first introduced the concept of “emotional intelligence”, or EI, in a journal article in 1990 (Goleman, 2005). It was then popularized in 1995, with the book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman. Goleman posited that EI is as important, if not more important, than IQ in terms of success in academics, business, and interpersonal relationships (2005).

The parameters for assessing one’s own emotional intelligence are mainly pegged on the ability to accurately interpret other people’s emotions and being able to design suitable responses. More importantly, emotional intelligence hinges on our ability to read

To some persons, emotional intelligence is defined as study which looks for human cognitive abilities beyond traditional academic intelligence, (Zeidner et al., 2004). Researchers have categorized their definition based on the either an ability model or mixed model. Based on the Mandell and Phewanti (2003)’s ability model, “emotional intelligence is defined as a set of abilities that involves perceiving and reasoning abstractly with information that emerges from feelings” (p. 389). Studies of John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey (1997) have supported this model stating that emotional intelligence is defined as “the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth” (p. 35). In addition, Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (2004) gave the definition of the emotional intelligence as “the capacity to