Emotional Intelligence Article

What is Emotional Intelligence

from: christine Gray




Being a relatively new area in psychology, emotional intelligence is still on its way to be fully recognized. It is likely that you may find various definitions of emotional intelligence since many experts are still on the disagreement of what this area of intelligence truly measures. However, it is clear that lately, people have shown signs of great interest on this area of personality since they create fruitful products in them.



Intelligence and cognition are two distinctly separated components of human intelligence. IQ is the parameter of measuring cognitive capacities and is said to be constant at any moment it is measured. It may be improved and maximized though. Nonetheless, it would still be limited by the constant value the Intellectual Quotient presents. Say, if a person has an IQ score of 118, then it is possible that this would remain the same throughout the person's life. A change of a point or two may occur perhaps due to developmental factors or margin of error given to a specific IQ test.



But the case is different with Emotional Intelligence.



It has been observed how quickly one change from a single emotion to another. But this of course depends on the person subjected to the test or in a given situation. We all react differently to different conditions and there is till no concrete parameter available. Emotions themselves are inconsistent. They largely depend with the person experiencing them.



Due to inconsistencies, no one can still accurately determine how to measure emotional intelligence fully. There is no complete demarcation line between knowledge and intelligence (using the parallelism to describe emotions). Various definitions say the emotional intelligence is dynamic and changes invariably depending on what condition the person is faced to. It therefore, can be increased or decreased, at times it may even be lost. Other experts disagree saying that emotions are stable and therefor, cannot be affected by any condition.



One thing is central to these though, emotions are developed and we are not innately equipped with them at the time of childbirth. Emotions were not even implanted in us during our prenatal stage nor are they recorded in our genes. In a way, they are developed only according to the experiences we had during growth. They only arise when specific stimuli arise.



Emotional intelligence is the capacity of an individual to define his own emotions and to become sensitive to those that he perceives from the environment and the circle of people he is interacting with. It may also be that emotional intelligence is the use of knowledge of these emotions to control situations and create plans and decisions based on the perceived emotions. Other resources would further add that emotional intelligence is part of our personality that dictates us to become more aware of what triggered a specific reaction, both done by the self and people surrounding the "self". It is also known to be the use of emotions to reason out.



There are too many definitions on what emotional intelligence truly is. So far, we have gathered two constants, emotion and understanding the context and concepts of emotions.



In the end, emotional intelligence is much too focused on one's understanding and utilization of his or her emotions and in identification of another person's emotions. These combined will help him determine the proper actions he must make in order to create viable decisions. But emotional intelligence is of course, broader than this interpretation.



Christine P Gray is a recognized authority on the subject of emotional intelligence. Her website www.selfimprovementsguide.com provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you will need to know about self improvement. All rights reserved. Articles may be reprinted as long as the content and links remains intact and unchanged.