Explain emotional intelligence. Trace the historical development of emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a set of emotional and social skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves. develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way. Several definitions of emotional intelligence have been proposed over the years.

 One of the most popular definitions is “Emotional intelligence is the capacity for  recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for  managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships” (Goleman, 1998). This definition emphasises that knowledge about emotions can be used to make sense of our internal and social worlds and arrive at decisions accordingly. Others like Reuven Bar-On (2002) have emphasised the adaptive function by El by defining it as “an array of non-cognitive abilities, competencies and skills that influence one’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures”.

 

Salovey & Mayer (1990) initially defined emotional intelligence as a sub-set of social intelligence - “ 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”. Later, this definition was revised to make it more comprehensive. Mayer, Salovey & Caruso (2004) define it as “the capacity to reason about emotions, and of emotions to enhance thinking. It includes the abilities to accurately perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth.” This perspective emphasises the synthesis of emotions and intelligence and is shared by other theoretical frameworks as well.

Just as intelligence is quantified and measured through Intelligence Quotient (IQ) emotional intelligence is indicated by Emotional Quotient or EQ. Bradberry & Greaves (2009) consider EI as the ‘missing piece’ in conceptualising a complete, whole person; personality and intelligence comprising the other two key components. Over decades of research, it has been established that El is a distinct ability that docs not share attributes with cither personality or intelligence. Having certain personality traits does not automatically predispose one to have high or low emotional intelligence. For example, while extroverts may feel energized by interacting with people and introverts share a preference for solitude, it does not automatically imply that extroverts are more emotionally intelligent than introverts. Similarly, having an ability to process information cognitively or intelligence, does not indivate one’s level of El. In addition, while personality and intelligence are relatively stable and resistant to change after the age of 18-20 years, El comprises a dynamic component that has the potential to evolve and grow over time, as well as with targeted interventions.

 

Glossop and Mitchell (2005) highlighted this as: “Emotional intelligence is learned. Unlike IQ, which is essentially fixed within narrow parameters at birth, EQ can be developed and enhanced. In other words, temperament is not destiny. Empathy and the capacity to understand the emotions of others can be nurtured.” In fact, several studies have shown that older participants tend to score higher on El measures and may indicate that EQ increases with age and maturation (Bar-On, 2000).

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The concept of emotional intelligence has its roots in early psychologists’ conceptualisation of intelligence. Thomdike in [920 proposed that intelligence is comprised of three distinct domains or classes: (i) Abstract, analytic or verbal; (ii) Mechanical, performance and visuo-spatial; (iii) Social or practical. Thorndike, thus. expanded on the traditional view of ‘intelligence’ as being purely cognitive by identifying several other kinds of intelligences. Specifically, his social/practical intelligence component indicates emotional intelligence aspect. Howard Gardner (1983) further identified eight different abilitics; musicalerhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal- linguistic, bodily- kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, intrapersonal, interpersonal and naturalistic. Here, the intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences are related to aspectsof emotional intelligence, Another psychologist, Sternberg (1985) talked about three types of intelligence such as analytical, creative and practical intelligence. In all these notions of intelligence, we can see the building blocks of emotional intelligence - social intelligence, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences, and practical intelligence can all be said to reflect emotional intelligence abilities.

 

Gardner’s description of personal intelligences intra and interpersonal focuses directly on feelings:

“The core capacity at work here ix access to ones own feeling life- one’s range of affects or emotions: the capacity instantly to effect discriminations among these feelings and, eventually, to label them, to enmesh them in svinbolic codes, to draw upon them as a means of understanding and guiding ones behaviour [nits most primitive form, the intrapersonal intelligence amounts to little more than the capacity to distinguish a feeling of pleasure from one of pain...At its most advanced level, intrapersonal knowledge allows one to detect and to symbolise complex and highly differentiated sets of feelings.....to attain a deep knowledge of.... feeling life”.

Salovey & Mayer are widely credited with first using the term ‘emotional intelligence’ in 1990. However, they themselves acknowledge that the term was used much earlier in passing in the 1960s in literary criticism and psychiatry and eventually in a dissertation by Payne in 1986 (Mayer, Salovey & Caruso, 2004). The construct remained largely unknown until it attained popularity when Daniel Goleman published his book on the subject in 1995  and argued that ‘people with the highest levels of intelligence (IQ) outperform  those with average IQs just 20 percent of the time, while people with average IQs outperform those with high IQs 70 percent of the time’. His assertion that El could predict job performance and success held intuitive appeal and since then, the concept has become extremely mainstream and received international attention among several domains such as mentat health, business, education etc.

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