What is Emotional Intelligence?

EI examines the importance of the emotional facet as a key element in intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence is one of the key concepts to understand the direction to understand the direction that psychology has taken in recent decades.

From a model fundamentally concerned with mental disorders on the one hand and reasoning abilities on the other, we have moved on to another in which emotions are considered to be something intrinsic to our behavior and non-pathological mental activity and, therefore, something that must be studied in order to understand how we are.

Thus, Emotional Intelligence is a construct that helps us to understand how we can influence in an adaptive and intelligent way both our emotions and our interpretation of the emotional states of others. This aspect of the human psychological dimension plays a fundamental role both in the way we socialize and in the strategies we follow to adapt to the environment.

Emotional Intelligence: what does it consist of?

We have always heard that Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is a good indicator of whether a person will be successful in life. The IQ test score, they said, could establish a strong relationship with academic performance and career success. This is not in itself incorrect, but it gives us a biased and incomplete picture of reality.

In fact, researchers and corporations began to detect a few decades ago that the abilities and skills needed to succeed in life were others that went beyond the use of logic and rationality, and these abilities were not assessable by any intelligence test. It is necessary to take into account a broader conception of what basic cognitive skills are, what we understand intelligence to be.

Proof of this is that some theories of intelligence that tried to understand it from different points of view, such as the Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner, began to gain ground. Howard Gardners Theory of Multiple Intelligences, the theory of Raymond Cattell (and others) that explained the differences between Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence, or the Emotional Intelligence popularized by Daniel Goleman.

Emotions play a vital role in our day to day life.

If we think carefully about the importance of our emotions in our daily lives, we will quickly realize that there are many occasions in which they have a decisive influence on our lives, even if we do not realize it. We could ask ourselves: (1) Did I buy my car by making calculations on cost-effectiveness and did I compare it with other models and brands? (2) Did I choose my partner because it was objectively the best option? (3) Is my job the one that offers me the best salary? Most of our decisions are influenced to a greater or lesser degree by emotions..

Given this reality, it is worth noting that some people have a much better command of their emotional facet than others. And it is curious the low correlation between classical intelligence (more linked to logical and analytical performance) and Emotional Intelligence. Here we could exemplify this idea by bringing up the stereotype of the "nerd" student; an intellectual machine capable of memorizing data and arriving at the best logical solutions, but with an empty emotional and sentimental life. On the other hand, we can find people whose intellectual capacities are very limited, but whose emotional and sentimental life is empty.but instead they manage to have a successful life in the sentimental sphere, and even in the professional sphere.

These two examples taken to the extreme are unusual, but they serve to realize that it is necessary to pay more attention to this kind of emotional skills, which can mark our life and our happiness as much or more than our ability to score high on a conventional intelligence test. For that it is important to deepen in Emotional Intelligence.

Elements of Emotional Intelligence

The great theorist of Emotional Intelligence, the American psychologist Daniel Golemanpoints out that the main components that make up Emotional Intelligence are the following:

Emotional self-knowledge (or emotional self-awareness) 2.

It refers to the knowledge of our own feelings and emotions and how they influence us. and how they influence us. It is important to recognize how our moods affect our behavior, what our capabilities are and what our weaknesses are. Many people are surprised at how little they know about themselves.

For example, this aspect can help us not to make decisions when we are in an unbalanced psychological state. Whether we are overly cheerful and excited, or sad and melancholic, the decisions we make will be mediated by poor rationality. Therefore, it is best to wait a few hours, or days, until we return to a relaxed and serene state of mind, with which it will be easier to assess the situation and make much more rational decisions.

2. Emotional self-control (or self-regulation)

The emotional self-control allows us to reflect on and master our feelings or emotions, so that we do not let ourselves be carried away by them blindly. It consists of knowing how to detect emotional dynamics, knowing which are ephemeral and which are lasting, as well as being aware of which aspects of an emotion we can take advantage of and how we can relate to the environment to subtract power from another that harms us more than it benefits us.

To give an example, it is not uncommon for us to get angry with our partner, but if we were slaves to the emotion of the moment we would be continually acting irresponsibly or impulsively, and then regretting it. In a sense, a good part of emotion regulation consists of knowing how to manage our focus of attention so that it does not turn against us and sabotage us.

It has been observed that the capacity for self-control is closely linked to the ability to use language: in many aspects, knowing how to properly manage one's emotions depends on finding narratives that allow us to prioritize long-term goals over others that have to do with giving in to the impulses of the immediate. This fits with the fact that Emotional Intelligence shares much in common with Verbal Intelligence; as has been seen when analyzing the intelligence test scores of many individuals, both psychological constructs overlap a lot.

3. Self-motivation

Focusing emotions towards objectives and goals allows us to maintain motivation and to set our attention on goals instead of obstacles. A certain degree of optimism and initiative is essential in this factor.So we have to value being proactive and act with tenacity and in a positive way in the face of unforeseen events.

Thanks to the ability to motivate ourselves to reach the goals that we rationally know will benefit us, we can leave behind those obstacles that are only based on habit or unjustified fear of what might happen.

In addition, Emotional Intelligence includes our ability not to give in to short-term goals that may overshadow long-term objectives, even though the latter would be much more important than the former if they were also offered to us in the short term (ambitious projects, plans to gain a lot of experience, etc.).

4. Recognition of emotions in others (or empathy)

Interpersonal relationships are based on the correct interpretation of the signals that others express unconsciously, and which they often emit non-verbally. Detecting other people's emotions and their feelings, which they may express through signs that are not strictly linguistic (a gesture, a physiological reaction, a tic), can help us to establish closer and more lasting bonds with them. can help us to establish closer and more lasting bonds with the people with whom we relate..

In addition, recognizing the emotions and feelings of others is the first step to understanding and identifying with the people who express them. Empathic people are those who, in general, have greater skills and competencies related to EI.

5. Interpersonal relationships (or social skills)

A good relationship with others is an essential source for our personal happiness and even, in many cases, for a good job performance. And this involves knowing how to deal and communicate with those people who are nice or close to us, but also with people who do not suggest very good vibes; one of the keys to Emotional Intelligence.

This type of intelligence is closely related to Verbal Intelligence, so that, in part, they overlap each other. This may be because part of the way in which we experience emotions is mediated by our social relationships, and by our way of understanding what others say.

Thus, thanks to Emotional Intelligence we go beyond thinking about how others make us feel, to thinking about how we feel.We also take into account that any interaction between human beings takes place in a certain context: perhaps if someone has made a derogatory comment about us it is because they are envious, or because they simply need to base their social influence on this type of behavior. In short, Emotional Intelligence helps us to think about the causes that have triggered others to behave in a way that makes us feel a certain way, instead of starting by thinking about how we feel and then deciding how we will react to what others say or do.

Why do companies need this kind of intelligence?

Today, many corporations are investing there are many corporations that invest large sums of money in training their employees in Emotional Intelligence. The reason for this commitment lies in the fact that companies have realized that one of the keys to commercial success and the sale of their products lies in the degree to which their employees are capable of recognizing and controlling their emotions, as well as those of their customers.

It is almost unthinkable to conceive of a salesperson who lacks skills in dealing with customers, a businessman without motivation for the management of his company or a negotiator who does not know how to control his impulses and emotions. All the technical knowledge based on the best relation between academic studies and experience will be no guarantee for these people, because sooner or later they will fail in economic operations due to a deficient knowledge of their emotions.

Employees with EI, the most in demand

It is worth noting that in the personnel selection process of companies, the trend is to put the candidate in situations of strong stress or discomfort in order to examine their reaction and their ability to deal with their emotions.

Organizational psychologist Jonathan Garcia-Allen explains: "The time when personnel selection processes were based on work experience and technical knowledge is over. Today, the method has evolved and the aspects related to Emotional Intelligence, such as interpersonal interpersonal skills and the management of emotionshave gained a key role. This increasing relevance of the emotional aspect in the workplace is motivated by the trend towards the outsourcing of the economy in Western countries, where economic exchange is mediated by trust between the two agents".

It follows, according to García-Allen, that employees with high EQ are much more productive for corporations. Basically, it is normal: the management of emotions plays a very important role both in the ability to self-motivate and in the ability to avoid conflicts and to communicate adequately with the rest of the team members.

Is there empirical evidence to support it?

The concept of Emotional Intelligence has two types of empirical evidence. On the one hand, it has been detected the parts of the brain that intervene in its emergence and not so much in that of other types of mental processes. On the other hand, by using standardized tests for its measurement and analyzing the data obtained, it has been seen that EQ has its own factorial structure, so that it correlates positively with general IQ scores, but statistically it does not behave exactly the same as these.

In other words, the psychological construct of EQ is based both on observation of brain functioning and on information obtained through psychometrics.

Of course, the same problems in defining general intelligence remain in explaining what EQ is. It is neither a part of the brain nor a specific way of processing information, but basically its existence is established by observing how one acts in certain conditions and how this leads to advantages or disadvantages in a situation. The nature of what EQ is remains largely a mystery.

A report to better understand EI

Eduard Punset, Elsa Punset and Televisión Española bring us closer to Emotional Intelligence in this small but interesting report: