EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

                              EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

The capacity to comprehend and utilize emotions as well as emotional knowledge to improve thought is known as emotional intelligence (EI). Learning emotional intelligence (EI) indicates that you will develop the capacity to think accurately about emotions. The six basic emotions are; fear, anger, sadness, happiness, surprise, and disgust. EI is quite different from other mental processes, as it’s majorly involved in problem solving.

Emotional intelligence approaches in scientific literature

Theoretical approaches to EI can be grouped into three;

1. Specific-ability approaches to EI; this emphasis on unique mental abilities is crucial to EI.
2. The integrative-model approaches; describes EI as a universal, integrated ability.
3. The mixed-model approach; blends several non-EI characteristics and frequently seems to be off the mark.

1. Specific ability approaches to emotional intelligence
2. Emotional perception and identification; more concerned about the fundamental skills to EI. Understanding how emotions are portrayed precisely as well as social cues like power dynamics and interpersonal interactions are all part of Nonverbal perception.
3. Use of emotional information in thinking; this describes ways in which emotions aid thinking. How to bring emotions into thought and keep them out of it.
4. Reasoning about emotions; emotional appraisal, labeling and language. Emotional understanding include being able to understand our personal and others’ feelings.
5. Emotion management; it is also an important to develop one’s emotional self-management ability. By reframing the way we see/become aware of a situation

• Integrative-model approaches to emotional intelligence
• Izard’s emotional knowledge approach; Integrative models of EI put considerable emphasis on combining a few distinct skills to get an overall picture of EI. Izard’s Emotional Knowledge Test provides a comprehensive assessment of EI with a focus on emotional perception and comprehension.
• The four-branch model of emotional intelligence; it views EI as joining abilities from four areas: (a) accurately perceiving emotion, (b) using emotions to facilitate thought, (c) understanding emotion and (d) managing emotions

• Mixed-model approaches to emotional intelligence

The model often considers mixed traits and assesses one or more EI characteristics.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND IT’S CORRELATION WITH LIFE OUTCOMES

Studying EI also requires us to relate it to life outcomes. How it generally affect, or simply put, its effect on social relationship, academics, family and in relation to well-being. Below are results from accumulated findings, and its correlations.

1. Better social relations for children: Among children and adolescents, EI positively correlates with good social relations and negatively correlates with social deviance, measured both in and out of school as reported by children themselves, their family members, and their teacher
2. Better social relations for adults: Adults with higher EI have stronger self-perceptions of social competence and utilize fewer harmful interpersonal tactics.
3. High-EI Individuals are perceived more positively by others: Others believe people with high EI are more likable, compassionate, and socially competent than those with low EI.
4. Better family and intimate relationships: EI is associated with several aspects of family and intimate relationships.
5. Better academic achievement: Teachers find a correlation between EI and higher academic achievement, but once IQ is taken into consideration, this correlation often disappears.
6. Better social relations during work performance and in negotiations: According to some preliminary study, EI is linked to more successful performance and negotiating outcomes in the lab as well as better success at work.
7. Better psychological well-being:  EI is correlated with higher life satisfaction, self-esteem, and lower levels of depression. EI also shows an inverse link with several poor physical health behaviors, but this has not yet been found to be a significant set of relationships.

Research on EI has grown over time, and a remarkable amount has been learned. EI is still a young field of study, therefore much work needs to be done.