Emotional Intelligence?
To understand Emotional Intelligence, first we need to understand the mind, or should I say minds.
The conscious, intelligent mind is believed to be based in our latest evolutionary addition, the prefrontal cortex. The part of the brain which is responsible for our higher brain functions, such as language, speech, planning, decision making, abstract thinking, and more. This part is you, the one who's reading these words and translating them into thoughts; the part that thinks about what was said, judges it, and decides what to do with it.
The second part is the unconscious (and subconscious), emotional mind. This part of our mind includes everything that we aren't entirely conscious of. These things that we do or want, but have no idea why. It's based in our older, more primitive, areas of the brain and central nervous system. The parts which have slowly evolved throughout millions of years to make us feel happy, satisfy our needs, and keep us safe. It is the part of us that has been here from the start and has taken us through the long process of evolution, so we can finally end up becoming the conscious and intelligent beings that we are today.
But these two parts of ourselves are very different, and although they live together, they don't seem to get along very well. Consequently, making it incredibly difficult for them to understand each other, and work together.
Quantifying Mental Abilities
The term IQ (Intelligence Quotient), a term coined by the German Psychologist William Stern just a little over 100 years ago. IQ strictly measures the conscious, intelligent, mind and still serves us today as the leading measurement of human intelligence.
But IQ score are not as reliable as we might hope. A person with a high IQ score isn't necessarily more successful than a person with a lower IQ score, so this measurement fails to reliably predict one's ability to perform. In this case, to get a more comprehensive measurement of one's mental abilities, we must also measure their emotional capacities.
This is where John Mayer and Peter Salovey comes to our assistance. In 1990, Dr. Peter Salovey from Yale University and John D. Mayer from the University of New Hampshire came up with a new method for measuring a wider range of brain function. This method received the name Emotional Intelligence (aka EI or EQ), and it comes to measure the quality of the relationship between the Intelligent mind and the Emotional mind.
This measurement relies on 4 key elements which are:
1. Perceiving Emotions - The ability to identify emotions, label them correctly and express them.
2. Understanding Emotions - The ability to understand the emotional language and interpret emotional messages.
3. Using Emotions - The ability to make use of emotions and integrate them in thinking and decision-making processes.
4. Managing Emotions - The ability to stay open to both pleasant and unpleasant emotions, and engage or detach from them at will.
All of these elements are measured both in the internal world, when processing one's own emotions, as well as in the external world, when working with emotions in others.
The Benefits of Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence has proven itself in being a significantly more accurate measurement than IQ as it provides significantly better predictability of one's overall chances of success. Various other researches show that people with a higher EQ are generally more successful in life, experience lower stress levels, have increased confidence and self-esteem, communicate more clearly, show more compassion to others, and enjoy in more meaningful relationships. Making Emotional Intelligence a valuable skill not just for work, but for well-being in general.
Another major benefit of increased Emotional Intelligence is the ability to stay open to both pleasant and unpleasant emotions. As you learn to manage your emotions correctly, they will no longer surprise, overwhelm, or control you. You won't feel like you have to spend money to make yourself happy, and you won't feel that you have to avoid certain situations just because of the emotion they might trigger. Consequently, making life more fulfilling and increasing your sense of worth, self-esteem, and self-confidence.
And most important, emotional Intelligence offers is the ability to make better decisions. Understanding your own emotions and the emotions of others increases your awareness, and the more things you're aware of, the more variables you can take into account when making decisions. In turn, helping you to make your way through life with ease and get to wherever it is you want to be with minimum effort.
The simplicity of emotions is also their downfall
Emotions are primitive ways of communication, they are present in infants and even in animals, and therefore, we are all expected to know how to handle them on our own. So we put all of our time and efforts into perceiving the world in language and math, and end up completely neglecting the simple things. But as nowadays we come to realize, emotions play a fundamental role in our ability to function in the world.