Emotional Intelligence�

A combination of self-awareness, self-regulation and empathy

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Emotional Intelligence:�

• Emotional Intelligence is defined as the abilities of managing one's own emotions as well as the ability to understand others feelings and emotions.
• Emotional intelligence help a person identify as well as regulate his own emotions (Norboevich, 2020)
• It is an important cognitive aspect that helps building relationships, reducing stress, defusing conflicts and improving job satisfaction.

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Aspects of emotional intelligence:�

• Self-awareness
• Empathy
• Motivation
• Self-regulations (Norboevich, 2020)
• Social skills

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Basic emotions within a person:�

Six (6) basic human emotions have been coined by Ekman, namely:

• Fear
• Anger
• Sadness
• Joy
• Disgust, and
• Surprise (Jamli and Salim, 2019).

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Joy

• It is basically a pleasant state of emotion which tends to elicit feelings of contentment, joy and satisfaction.
• When a person is joyful, he tends to feel pleasure that may come from success, good luck, or any other sense of well-being
• Joy is defined as a settled assurance that one’s life is going on beautifully and they feel a sense of gratefulness towards the almighty (Jamli and Salim, 2019)

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Sadness�

• It is an emotional state which is characterised by feelings of grief, disappointments, and hopelessness.
• More precisely, sadness is characterised by an emotional pain which is associated with or something that is featured by the feelings of disadvantages, losses, disparity, grief, sorrows, or disappointments (Alsharari and Alshurideh, 2020).
• It is to be noted that a sad individual is often lethargic and tends to withdraw from the others.

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Fear�

• Fear is referred to as a very powerful emotion which can play a very significant role in one’s survival.
• When a person faces some sort of danger, he or she often experiences fear.
• This feeling is also coined as “flight” or “flight response” and when a person exhibits fear, one's muscles tend to become tense and the heart rate and respiration rate increases and also the mind becomes more alert (Lesha, 2020).

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Anger�

• Anger is referred to as a powerful emotion which is characterised by the feelings of “hostilities”, “agitation”, “frustration”, as well as “antagonism” towards other people.
• Anger also tend to play a role in one’s bodily flight or fight responses
• When the feeling of anger is triggered by a threat, people might be inclined towards fending off the danger for protecting themselves (Mosca, 2019).

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Surprise�

• The feeling of surprise is another basic human emotion which is originally described by Ekman and this feeling is generally brief and featured by several physiological startle responses followed by something unexpected.
• Emotions can be either positive or negative or neutral. Unpleasant surprises for example, may tend to involve someone experiencing a sudden stimulus such as if a person jumps out from somewhere and tries to scare the other person (Karimpour et al., 2019).
• Surprises can be pleasant, for example, when a person returns back home, he or she finds many people gathering together to celebrate his or her birthday or anniversary.
• Facial expressions entailing surprises may include raising the brows, jumping up or back, gasping or yelling and so on.

Disgust

• It is to be noted that disgust is another basic human emotion as suggested by Eckman and this feeling is often displayed in various ways such as through body language, facial expressions, and physical reactions.
• The feeling of disgust is further defined as a sense of “revulsion” which may be caused by various things such as a bad taste, a foul smell or an unpleasant sight (Krishnan and Awang, 2020).
• As per researchers, this emotion had arisen in the form of reaction to food which could be fatal or dangerous

How is emotional intelligence is measured:

• Several assessments have emerged as tools for measuring the levels of emotional intelligence, amongst which the most popular ones include “self-report tests”, or the “ability tests”.
• Self-report tests are referred to as the most common tests as in these tests, administration and scoring is quite easy (Alzoubi and Aziz, 2021).
• Ability tests are also another test for measuring emotional intelligence that involve people to respond to various situations and then measure the skill.

Key levels of emotional intelligence:�

As suggested by the researchers, emotional intelligence generally includes four basic levels. These levels are:

• Perceived emotions:
• Reasoning with emotions (Goleman, 2020)
• Understanding one’s emotions
• Managing one’s emotions

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Perceived emotions:�

• The most fundamental or the first level of emotional intelligence is that a person must be able to understand and perceive the emotions in a correct manner.
• In a number of cases, it is seen that perceived emotions involve understanding of various non-verbal signals like “body language” or “facial expressions” (Valente and Lourenço, 2020).
• For example, a mother may notice in her child that he or she is happy or sad just by seeing the facial expressions and body language.

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Reasoning with emotions�

• “Reasoning with emotions” is the second level in emotional intelligence and it tends to promote thinking as well as “cognitive activities”.
• It is important to note that emotions help a person in prioritising what one pays attention to and reacts to (Valente and Lourenço, 2020).
• People respond emotionally to the things that tend to garner their attention

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Understanding one’s emotions�

• The emotions that are perceived may hold a broad range of meanings and understanding those meaning is the third level of emotional intelligence
• If a person is expressing anger, the observer of the emotions should interpret the causes of the anger of that person and what it might mean (Valente et al., 2019).
• When a person understands one’s emotions, they would be also able to know what they need or what they want or don’t want.

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Managing one’s emotions�

• Managing one’s emotions is referred to as the ability to manage emotions in a more effective manner and this level of emotional intelligence is a vital part and hence is placed at the highest level.
• The level of emotional management is associated with effective regulation of emotions and appropriately responding to the emotions of others.
• When a person is in this level of emotional intelligence, it can be said that the person has the skills of dealing with one’s emotions before they overpower and stop one from taking “positive actions”.

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Consequences of emotional intelligence�

• It is worth mentioning that interest in emotional intelligence helps improve a person’s health and well being.
• A good level of emotional intelligence amongst the students also helps them in succeeding in academics and prevents them from committing wrong behaviour such as bullying, throwing tantrums (Valente and Lourenço, 2020).
• The typical impact of emotional intelligence can be categorised into 3 main outcomes, namely, “thinking before any reactions”, “highest level of self-awareness”, “empathy for others”.

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Thinking before any reaction�

• This is one of the most vital characteristics of emotional intelligence and people know that the emotions can be utterly powerful, but it goes without mentioning that they are also “temporary”.
• When any emotional incident takes place, which is highly charged, for example, “becoming angry at a co-worker”, an emotionally intelligent person would take time before reacting (Valente et al., 2019).
• This consequence of emotional intelligence helps a person calm their feelings and impulses and thus fosters logical thinking regarding all the factors around the argument.

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Higher level of self-awareness�

• It is another vital aspect or impact of emotional intelligence and it is said that the people who are emotionally intelligent tend to have greater level of self-awareness
• With high level of self-awareness, objective evaluation of oneself is is possible and this quality also helps a person to manage their emotions better
• Self-awareness is an important consequence of emotional intelligence and it is to be noted that the people who are self-aware, will be able to well interpret their actions, feelings as well as thought in a more objective manner (Valente et al., 2019).

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Empathy for other people�

• Last, but not the least, one of the most important consequences of emotional intelligence is that a person gains empathy for others.
• As a result of good emotional intelligence, a person can think about as well as can empathize with the way people tend to feel and this generally involves considering the way one feels and the way one would react of they had been in the same or similar circumstance (Goleman, 2020)
• Again, strong emotional intelligence fosters the ability of considering the perspectives, abilities and feelings of others and this can be used as information for demonstrating why people behave in a certain way.

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Application of emotional intelligence�

Emotional intelligence can be used in various ways within one's daily life. Some of the most significant applications of emotional intelligence include:

• To be able to embrace criticism and shoulder responsibilities
• To be able to move on after committing mistakes
• To be able to share or express feelings with others (Goleman, 2020)
• To have empathy for others and ability to solve problems
• Having good listening skills
• To have good listening skills

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Signs of low emotional intelligence:�

• There are several signs and symbols that signify that a person have low emotional intelligence as shown in the figure below:

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How to handle low emotional intelligence�

• In order to deal with someone having low emotional intelligence, it is first important to respond to their needs quickly
• It is important to give them love and warmth in order to keep their behavior subtle
• It is also important to demonstrate strong emotional regulation skills to them (Karimpour et al., 2019)
• They must be encouraged to talk about their feelings in correct ways

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How to improve emotional intelligence:�

• It is important to note that emotional intelligence can be both acquired as well as in-born.
• In order to acquire or improve one's emotional intelligence, they must listen, empathise, and reflect (Karimpour et al., 2019).
• Practising mindfulness can also help a person improve his or her emotional intelligence skills

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Actively listening�

• Active listening skill is a very important practice towards improving one’s emotional intelligence.
• If one wants to understand what other people are feeling, it is important to first pay attention to what they have to say
• Therefore, it is important to take time to listen and understand both verbal as well as non-verbal languages (Mutuku, 2019).

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Empathising improves EI�

• It is important to note that it is sometimes difficult to be able to put oneself on someone else’s situation so as to truly understand their perceptions
• It is also to be noted that in order to improve emotional intelligence, one must try to imagine how he or she would be if they were in the other person’s situation (Lesha, 2020).
• These types of activities can help a person to build an overall emotional understanding of a specific situation and develop strong emotional intelligence in the long run (Lesha, 2020).

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Reflecting�

• It is important to note that the ability of reasoning with emotions is a potential part of “emotional intelligence” and to improve one’s emotional intelligence, it is important to consider the way their emotions tend to affect their decision making styles and their behaviours.
• Therefore, it can be said that while thinking about the way other people respond, it is first important to assess the roles of their emotions in their behaviours and attitude (Krén and Séllei, 2021)
• A very important practice for improving one’s reflective practices, is to think of how their emotions tend to differ from that of their own and hence it will be easier for that person to understand the role of emotions in shaping one's thought and behaviours.

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Potential pitfalls of having very high emotional intelligence�

It goes without mentioning that having low levels of emotional intelligence may result in numerous problems, it is also important to note that having very high emotional intelligence also have some potential pitfalls, and they are listed below:

• Very high emotional intelligence might lead to lesser creativity and innovation
• A person with very high emotional intelligence might face difficulty in delivering negative feedback due to “fear of hurting” others’ feelings (Iryhina et al., 2020).
• In addition, high emotional intelligence can also be used for some manipulative or deceptive purposes sometimes.

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Why should leaders be emotionally intelligent?�

• It goes without saying that an emotionally intelligent leader tends to develop a positive work culture within the organisation which further fosters efficiency and productivity within an organisation.
• Leadership is incomplete without emotional intelligence as emotionally intelligent leaders tend to instigate innovation, growth and creativity within an organisation as well as the team members.
• The leaders having a good level of emotional intelligence are always ready to put their best foot forward (Maxim, 2021)

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Emotional intelligence and human brain:�

• As per Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence (EI) model, there are basically two important areas of brand that are involved in regulating one’s emotional intelligence, namely, “Amygdala” and the “prefrontal cortex” (Goleman, 2020).
• It is to be noted that the amygdala is responsible for triggering emotions and the prefrontal cortex tends to help in “reasoning”, “inhibition” and “decision-making”.
• An amygdala hijack takes place in the case of a threat stimulus and activates this region
• The prefrontal cortex can help to regulate emotions with the inhibition of “amygdala’s signals”.

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Daniel Goleman’s emotional intelligence theory�

• It is important to note that “Daniel Goleman’s emotional intelligence theory” tends to outline 5 most important components of emotional intelligence.
• The 5 components include: “self-awareness”, “self-regulation”, “motivation”, “empathy”, and “social skills” (Goleman, 2020).
• According to Goleman’s EI theory, an emotionally intelligent person is better able to meet his or her goals and targets in a more effective manner and a workplace, where the leaders are emotionally intelligent, they are able to establish a happier and a healthier work culture (Goleman, 2020).

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Self-awareness�

• It is the first component of emotional intelligence as defined by the theory of Goleman.
• According to the theory, Self-awareness is referred to as the ability of an individual to be aware of the current moods and their reasons.
• Self-awareness is the virtue by which an individual tends to understand his or her strengths and weaknesses and the factors that affect their mood, and emotion (Valente and Lourenço, 2020).
• Self-awareness relies on the skill of an individual to be able to recognize as well as monitor his or her emotions and properly identify the emotions within others such as friends, peers and colleagues.

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Self-management/regulation�

• Self-regulation is defined as the virtue of being able to control or regulate one’s “disruptive” and “unexpected” feelings and impulses by retaining a “positive look” towards all situations even if they are unplanned (Guerra-Bustamante et al., 2019).
• Self management is a virtue, which according to Goleman’s theory helps to prevent spontaneous judgement (Goleman, 2020).
• As per this EI theory, self-regulation tends to foster openness and acceptability towards changed situations (Goleman, 2020).

Motivation�

• Motivation is referred to as the “inner passion” that tends to drive the outward activities.
• Motivation is another important component of emotional intelligence as suggested by Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence theory.
• Motivation is also referred to as a virtue that considers benefits of engaging in various activities in the long-term, rather than instantaneous profits.

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Empathy�

• Empathy is referred to as the ability of a person to react to other people on the basis of their emotional reactions or make up (Goleman, 2020).
• In addition, it is to be noted that empathy also refers to the show of concerns towards other people when they go through any kind of negative experiences (Alzoubi and Aziz, 2021)
• Empathy requires feeling others’ emotions, enabling them to share the way they tend to feel and understand them on the basis of their perspectives.

Social skills�

• The social skills of an individual tend to determine the extent to which the relations and the links are formed as well as maintained.
• The social skills of an individual entail the ability of an individual about finding some common grounds with the other people under various situations (Goleman, 2020)
• A person with good social skills is able to leverage their perceptions about the world for building effective and strong relationships.

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Closing lines:�

• It is to be noted that the topic of “Emotional Intelligence” had been gathering much attention and had been capturing public interests since it had become a significant field in psychology along with businesses and education.
• It is to be noted that emotions play a very important role in determine the way one lives his or her life and emotions also tend to influence the way people engage with others on a day to day basis and also affect the decisions made by them
• By having an understanding of different types of emotions, one can gain a better understanding about how these emotions are expressed and their impacts on one’s behaviour.

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References:�

• Alsharari, N.M. and Alshurideh, M.T., 2020. Student retention in higher education: the role of creativity, emotional intelligence and learner autonomy. International Journal of Educational Management.
• Alzoubi, H.M. and Aziz, R., 2021. Does emotional intelligence contribute to quality of strategic decisions? The mediating role of open innovation. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7(2), p.130.
• Brooker, J., 2020. An investigation of interpersonal and emotional intelligence competencies for early-career insurance professionals across mutual insurance companies (Doctoral dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University).
• Goleman, D., 2020. Emotional intelligence. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Guerra-Bustamante, J., León-del-Barco, B., Yuste-Tosina, R., López-Ramos, V.M. and Mendo-Lázaro, S., 2019. Emotional intelligence and psychological well-being in adolescents. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(10), p.1720.
• Iryhina, S., Sbruieva, A., Chystiakova, I. and Chernyakova, Z., 2020. Іmplementation of Emotional Intelligence Theory in Future Musical Art Teachers Training. Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 9(2), pp.50-60.
• Jamli, N.F.A. and Salim, S.S.S., 2019. Development of an Instrument to Evaluate Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Style of Headmasters across Primary Schools in Malaysia. International Journal Of Academic Research In Business And Social Sciences, 9(7).
• Kanesan, P. and Fauzan, N., 2019. Models of emotional intelligence: A review. e-Bangi, 16, pp.1-9.
• Karimpour, S., Sayad, A., Taheri, M. and Sheibani, K.A., 2019. A Gender Difference in Emotional Intelligence and Self-Regulation Learning Strategies: Is it true?. Novelty in Biomedicine, 7(2), pp.38-44.
• Krén, H. and Séllei, B., 2021. The role of emotional intelligence in organizational performance. Periodica Polytechnica Social and Management Sciences, 29(1), pp.1-9.
• Krishnan, H. and Awang, S.R., 2020. Role of emotional intelligence in teaching. Jurnal Kemanusiaan.
• Lesha, J., 2020. Emotional intelligence to achieve success: a theoretical approach. European Journal of Social Sciences Studies, 5(5).
• Maxim, L., 2021. Emotional intelligence: Theoretical analysis of the conceptual framework.
• Mosca, C.K., 2019. The relationship between emotional intelligence and clinical teaching effectiveness. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 14(2), pp.97-102.
• Mutuku, L.M.K., 2019. Emotional Intelligence and Adjustment to Community Living Among Consecrated Women Religious in Karen, Nairobi, Kenya.
• Norboevich, T.B., 2020. Analysis of psychological theory of emotional intelligence. Eur J Res Reflect Educ Sci, 8(3), pp.99-104.
• Valente, S. and Lourenço, A.A., 2020, February. Conflict in the classroom: How teachers’ emotional intelligence influences conflict management. In Frontiers in education (Vol. 5, p. 5). Frontiers Media SA.
• Valente, S., Monteiro, A.P. and Lourenço, A.A., 2019. The relationship between teachers’ emotional intelligence and classroom discipline management. Psychology in the Schools, 56(5), pp.741-750.