The Construct Emotional Intelligence

The book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, provides an alternative approach to how a person achieves success. This book does not focus on the conventional determinant of success, such as formal education and training, experience, and intelligence level (IQ). Although all these components contribute greatly to ones achievement of success, these factors are not the only factors to be considered in whether a person will be successful or not. This book focuses on the concept that it refers to as emotional intelligence (EQ), which is one’s ability to recognize and effectively understand his/her emotions in a productive and rational manner.

Emotional intelligence is the ability of a person to recognize and assess their, and others’ emotions. It enables an individual to distinguish between the different sentiments they exhibit and being able to label them. The theory of Emotional Intelligence (EI) was originally developed by psychologists Howard Gardner, Peter Salovey and John Mayer. Later, a science journalist, Daniel Goleman identified and came up with five domains of emotional intelligence:

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).

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

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to manage emotions of yourself or others. It is very useful in any situations and having a lot of it is very good but there is a dark side. That is because EQ is like a double-edged sword. For instance, a person is crying and someone comes over and helps. The person that came is able to recognize and determine what to do. Furthermore, during an interview with Dan Goleman, “Godfather of Emotional Intelligence”, there was a highschool reunion and out of the group the most successful man wasn’t the smartest but the best one that

Emotional intelligence was described formally by (Salovey & Mayer). They defined it as ‘the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions’. They also provided an initial empirical demonstration of how an aspect of emotional

“Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage our emotions and those around us, therefore, this quality gives individuals a variety of skills, such as the ability to manage relationships, navigate social networks, influence and inspire others. Every individual possesses different level, but in order for individuals to become effective leaders, they will need a high level of emotional intelligence. In today’s workplace, it has become a highly important

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

There are also limitations of how useful emotional intelligence is in the modern organisation. Morris and Feldman (1996) suggest that emotional facilitation could lead to increased levels of stress and cognitive dissonance in the workplace. This could arise from conflicting emotions or complex, contradictory ideas that would otherwise not cause any distress. It should also be considered that somebody who is emotionally intelligent in the aspect of recognising emotions would not necessarily be able to implement any behavioural changes. An understanding of complex emotions, the transition of emotions and mixed emotions can be considered as emotional intelligence (reference). On the other hand, this can also be seen as theoretical knowledge with no practical application; i.e. it does not necessarily mean that the individual would be able to effectively regulate his or her emotions, even though

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

The general concept of emotional intelligence (EI) is partly rooted in Thorndike’s (1920) idea of ‘social intelligence’ and Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences (especially ‘intrapersonal’ and ‘interpersonal’ intelligence). In the current context, EI asa construct was discussed in a dissertation by Payne (1986), even though as a term it had appeared in the literature much earlier (Leuner, 1966). Salovey and Mayer (1990) put forward a theoretical model that viewed the construct as a subset of social intelligence and Goleman (1995) provided a broad and highly influential account that has nonetheless attracted concerted criticism for its unsubstantiated claims about the vital importance of EI in people’s personal, social and professional lives. The fact that the field still lacks a universally accepted operational definition has contributed significantly to the emergence of inconsistent and sometimes, contradictory findings that have often been discussed in the scientific literature (e.g. Davies, Stankov, & Roberts, 1998; Epstein, 1998; Mathews, Zeidner, & Roberts, 2002).

     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.

To begin, the basics of emotional intelligence are crucial to understanding the foundation from which humans refer to on a daily basis for interacting in society. Emotional intelligence suggests that humans hold the capability to identify, interpret, understand, manage, and response to emotions in ways to enforce positive relationships, establish good communication, empathize, and address conflict within social networks. Humans begin learning this upon entering life, as emotional intelligence determines the ways that humans behave and intermingle with the environment. The degree of intelligence varies among people: those with a high emotional intelligence are able to recognize their own emotions and other emotions in addition to a sort of magnetic draw that pulls others toward them. This is because people with high emotional intelligence know how to better relate to, understand, and help others. Consider a group

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

For decades, a lot of emphasis has been put on certain aspects of intelligence such as logical reasoning, math skills, spatial skills, understanding analogies, verbal skills etc. Researchers were puzzled by the fact that while IQ could predict to a significant degree the academic performance and, to some degree, professional and personal success, there was something missing in the equation. Some of those with fabulous IQ scores were doing poorly in life; one could say that they were wasting their potential by thinking, behaving and communicating in a way that hindered their chances to succeed. One of the major missing parts in the success equation is emotional intelligence, a