Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence as a term was originally explored by researchers at Universities in New Hampshire and Yale in the US, and popularized by author/journalist Daniel Goleman in his book Emotional Intelligence (Bantam 1995). Both the researchers and Goleman argued that there is a lot more to human intelligence than the limited ‘intelligence quotient’ (IQ) generally accepted as the measure of intellectual – and other – success. Goleman pointed out that there was no substantial evidence that demonstrates IQ to be a determining factor for success at all, and referring to a number of studies, showed that the newly identified emotional intelligence (or EQ) appeared to be the key ingredient in determining how well a person does in life. Since then, countless further studies have corroborated these findings, and it is now more or less an accepted fact that a well developed EQ is critical to success. So what is a well-developed EQ?

Goleman and others identified emotional intelligence as the combined qualities of;  a) the aptitude for self-awareness, b) the ability for self-control and emotional management, c) the capacity for impulse control, and d) the ability to empathize and cooperate with other people.

Years before, educator Howard Gardner carried out extensive studies on learning at Harvard University, and in 1983 published the now well-known model of multiple intelligences. These multiple intelligences that Gardner documented consisted of seven specific intelligences he identified as being present to differing degrees in all humans. He claimed that the consideration of these intelligences in the educational process was critical if effective learning was to take place. These intelligences include inter-personal intelligence (the ability to understand, empathize and cooperate with other people) and intra-personal intelligence (the ability to be self-aware, aware of one’s own emotions and use that awareness to function effectively in life), both central to the concept of emotional intelligence.

Dr. Gardner also brought our attention to the fact that countless people with high IQ’s but low levels of intra-personal intelligence are in our society employed by people who have a considerably lower IQ, but a higher intra-personal intelligence. His studies concluded that in everyday life, the most important intelligence is inter-personal, the level of which determines who we befriend, who we decide to have relationships with, which jobs we choose and how we generally interact with others.

As with the other elements of emotional intelligence, both inter-personal and intra-personal intelligence are now identified as qualities that – as opposed to IQ – are actually skills that can be learnt.

This was a relatively revolutionary discovery, particularly for education, for it offered the opportunity to address some core reasons why children don’t learn in traditional schooling, and also to address the increasing levels of conflict and behavioral issues present amongst young people. Generally, the EQ information places education in perspective within the bigger picture of what we really want to achieve for our children and if utilized well, could have a transformational effect on education and the way children are raised in our society today. And much has been done to integrate the concepts of EQ into schools; Social and Emotional Learning and Emotional Literacy are two of the many terms for such integration that have become widespread within schools on both sides of the Atlantic.

However, most of the work done in this area, although admirable and of value, has had limited impact, at least when one considers the potential of such groundbreaking information. Although many children have been positively affected by learning conflict resolution skills for example, or using role-play to understand someone else’s experience, teachers, schools, and education authorities generally are not seeing the resulting improvements in students’ learning that would cause them to take an in-depth look at the effects of emotions on learning, far less to re-look at the effectiveness of their current educational methodology.

In many schools the EQ work has had to give way to pressures for more academic focus to increase SAT scores. Teachers see it as yet one more thing to increase their workload, and even where it has been practiced extensively, overall results in schools have not been transformational. It is my experience that much of the Emotional Literacy and Social and Emotional Learning that has been implemented in schools has been implemented through the use of cognitive skills only, in other words, the human experience that is on the feeling or emotional level is being addressed through the thinking or cognitive level. This, I believe, is the reason for the limited success.

Addressing an emotional experience through behavioral strategies (trying to control behavior) or through the ‘logical’ thinking process (cognitively) only is unlikely to have a lasting effect, because emotions are considerably more powerful than thinking, and behavior is a result of both.  If the cognitive strategy does work, it is because we inadvertently have struck a chord within the emotional being.

Applied Emotional Mastery attempts to improve this by working towards increasing emotional intelligence through addressing the emotions directly, and the physiology underlying the emotions, and developing practical skills to apply awareness, management and mastery of emotions.

For more information about AEM, read other articles on this web site.

For information about personal, professional or parent coaching to build or increase your (and your children’s) emotional intelligence,

contact Jennifer Day on the contact us page.