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Emotional Intelligence As A Therapeutic Setting

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Emotional Intelligence Role in a Therapeutic Setting
Emotional intelligence or as others call it, emotional quotient, is a relatively new and controversial topic in the world of psychology. Emotional intelligence abbreviated EI or EQ, was first theorized in 1990 by Peter Salovey a social psychologist hailing from Standford University and John Mayer a personality psychologist from Case Western University. These two researchers began by looking at intelligence quotients (IQ) and creating a hypothesis as to why some people, despite lower scores on intelligence tests held high positions in career settings, had a high rapport with many individuals from all walks of life and overall were seen to be more empathetic and understanding in nature. Salovey and Mayer proposed that IQ scores do not measure factors that may contribute to a successful, happy life, such as how a person interprets their own emotions such as anger or sadness and how one deals with these emotions. Salovey and Mayer believed if such skills existed they could be broken off into subsets and tested on their own. In turn, Salovey and Mayer created the revolution known as emotional intelligence.
Soon after Salovey and Mayer’s research began, self-help books relating to emotional intelligence quickly took bookstores by storm, as many buyers saw emotional intelligence as a new way to improve their life. Dr. Daniel Goleman a psychologist and researcher specializing in anthropology published a book about emotional

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