Emotional Intelligence is one of the key concepts to understand the direction that psychology has taken in recent decades.
From a model fundamentally concerned with mental disorders on the one hand and with reasoning abilities on the other, we have moved on to another in which it is considered that emotions are something intrinsic to our behavior and non-pathological mental activity and that, therefore, Therefore, they are something that must be studied to understand what we are like.
Thus, Emotional Intelligence is a construct that helps us 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 It has a fundamental role both in our way of socializing and in the adaptation strategies to the environment we follow.
We have always heard that Intellectual Quotient (IQ) is a good indicator of whether a person will be successful in life. The intelligence test score, they said, could establish a strong relationship with academic performance and professional success. This is not wrong in itself, 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 capabilities and skills necessary to be successful in life were others that went beyond the use of logic and rationality, and these capabilities were not evaluable by any test. Intelligence. It is necessary take into account a broader conception of what basic cognitive skills are what we understand to be intelligence.
Proof of this is that some theories of intelligence that attempted to understand it from different perspectives began to gain ground, such as the Theory of Multiple Intelligences of Howard Gardner the theory of Raymond Cattell (and others) that explained the differences between fluid and crystallized Intelligence, or the Emotional Intelligence a concept developed by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer and popularized by Daniel Goleman.
Ultimately, our ability to adapt to the environment only involves understanding what is happening around us from a logical-mathematical perspective; we must also be able to understand ourselves and others. It is not in vain that human beings are a highly social species, so we have a rich emotional facet that expresses our internal states in various ways and makes us able to connect with them. To waste this type of information (which cannot always be expressed in words or numbers) would be to lose the ability to respond to the demands of day-to-day living in society and aspiring to achieve medium and long-term objectives, beyond what can be achieved. be attended to by giving in to our impulses.
Emotions play a vital role in our daily lives.
If we think carefully about the significance of our emotions in our daily lives, we will quickly realize that there are many occasions in which they decisively influence our lives, even if we do not realize it. We could ask ourselves: (1) Did I buy my car making calculations about profitability and compare them with other models and brands? (2) Did I choose my partner because he was objectively the best option? (3) Is my job the one that offers me the best salary? Many of our decisions are influenced to a greater or lesser degree by emotions
Given this reality, it is worth highlighting that there are people with a much more developed control of their emotional facet than others. And the low correlation between classical intelligence (more linked to logical and analytical performance) and Emotional Intelligence is curious. 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 on the other hand they manage to have a successful life in the sentimental sphere, and even in the professional sphere.
These couple of examples taken to the extreme are unusual, but they serve to realize that it is necessary to pay more attention to this type of emotional skills, which can influence our life and our happiness as much or more than our ability to score high on a test. conventional intelligence. For this it is important to delve deeper into Emotional Intelligence.
Elements of Emotional Intelligence
The main popularizer of Emotional Intelligence, the American psychologist Daniel Goleman points out that the main components that make up Emotional Intelligence are the following.
It refers to knowledge of our own feelings and emotions and how they influence us. It is important to recognize how our mood affects our behavior, what our abilities are and what our weaknesses are. Many people are surprised at how little they know themselves.
For example, this aspect can help us not make decisions when we are in an unbalanced psychological state. Whether we are too happy and excited, or if we are sad and melancholic, the decisions we make will be mediated by little 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)
He emotional self-control It allows us to reflect and master our feelings or emotions, so as not to be blindly carried away by them. It consists of knowing how to detect emotional dynamics, knowing which ones are ephemeral and which are long-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 take away the power of another that harms us more than usual. that benefits us.
To give an example, it is not unusual for us to get angry with our partner, but if we were slaves to the emotion of the moment we would continually be acting irresponsibly or impulsively, and we would regret it later. In a certain sense, a good part of regulating emotions 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 objectives more than others that have to do with giving in to the impulses of the immediate. This fits with the fact that Emotional Intelligence shares a lot 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 focus on goals instead of obstacles. In this factor, a certain degree of optimism and initiative is essential so we have to value being proactive and acting with determination and positively in the face of unforeseen events.
Thanks to the ability to motivate ourselves to reach the goals that we rationally know benefit us, we can leave behind those obstacles that are only based on habit or unjustified fear of what may happen.
Furthermore, Emotional Intelligence includes our ability to not give in to short-term goals that can overshadow long-term objectives, even though the latter would be much more important than the former if they were also offered to us. 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 that they often emit non-verbally. The detection of these other people’s emotions and their feelings that they can express through signs that are not strictly linguistic (a gesture, a physiological reaction, a tic) It can help us establish closer and lasting bonds with the people we interact with
Furthermore, 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 of our personal happiness and even, in many cases, for good work performance. And this involves knowing how to deal and communicate with those people who are friendly or close to us, but also with people who do not suggest very good vibes to us; one of the keys to Emotional Intelligence.
And 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 we experience emotions is mediated by our social relationships, and by our way of understanding what others say.
Thus, thanks to Emotional Intelligence we are beyond thinking about how others make us feel, and 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 feel envy, or because they simply need to base their social influence on this type of behaviors. In short, Emotional Intelligence helps us think about the causes that have caused others to behave in a way that makes us feel a certain way, instead of starting by thinking about how we feel and from there deciding how we will react to what we do. what others say or do.
Nowadays There are many corporations that invest large sums of money in training their employees in Emotional Intelligence. The reason for this commitment is 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 workers are able to recognize and control their emotions, as well as the of their clients.
It is almost unthinkable to conceive of a sales representative who lacks skills in dealing with clients, a businessman without motivation to manage his company or a negotiator who does not know how to control his impulses and emotions. All the technical knowledge based on the best relationship between academic studies and experience will not be a guarantee for these people, because sooner or later they will fail economic operations due to poor knowledge of their emotions.
Employees with EI, the most in demand
It should be noted that in the personnel selection process of companies the tendency is focused on putting 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 García-Allen explains: “The era when personnel selection processes were based on work experience and technical knowledge is over. Currently, the method has evolved and the aspects related to Emotional Intelligence, such as interpersonal skills and the emotion management, have taken on a key role. This growing relevance of the emotional aspect at work is motivated by the tendency to outsourcing of the economy in Western countries, where economic exchange is mediated by trust between both agents.”
From this it follows, according to García-Allen, that employees with high Emotional Intelligence are much more productive for corporations. Deep down, it is normal: emotion management plays a very important role both in the ability to motivate yourself and in the ability to avoid conflicts and communicate adequately with the rest of the team members.
Is there empirical evidence to support it?
The concept of Emotional Intelligence has empirical evidence of two types. On the one hand, The parts of the brain that intervene in its appearance have been detected and not so much in that of other types of mental processes. On the other hand, when using standardized tests for its measurement and analyzing the data obtained, it has been seen that Emotional Intelligence has its own factorial structure, so that it correlates positively with the general IQ scores, but statistically it does not behave exactly the same. what are you.
In other words, the psychological construct of Emotional Intelligence is based both on the observation of brain functioning and on information obtained through psychometrics.
Of course, the same problems when defining general intelligence remain when explaining what Emotional Intelligence is. It is neither a part of the brain nor a specific way of processing information, but its existence is basically established by observing how we act under certain conditions and how this leads us to obtain advantages or disadvantages in a situation. The nature of what Emotional Intelligence is remains largely a mystery.
A report to better understand EI
Eduard Punset, Elsa Punset and Spanish Television bring us closer to Emotional Intelligence in this small but interesting report:
