Emotional Intelligence

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Emotional awareness
Emotional expression
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Psychologists have identified a variety of intelligences over the years (Gardner, 1983). Most of these can be grouped into one of three clusters, “abstract”, “concrete” or “social” intelligence. Abstract intelligence is an ability to understand and manipulate verbal and mathematical symbols, whereas concrete intelligence is an ability to understand and manipulate objects. Social intelligence, which was first identified by Thorndike in 1920, is an ability to understand and relate to people (Ruisel, 1992). Emotional Intelligence has its roots in social intelligence (Young, 1996).

A quick recap through history suggests that the term was first used by a literary criticism book in 1961, which proposed that some of Jane Austin’s characters in her novel ’Pride and Prejudice’ displayed an “…intelligence, which informs the emotions…” A couple of decades later, in 1985, an unpublished dissertation referred to the term Emotional Intelligence (Hein, 2003). This brings us to Peter Salovey and John (Jack) Mayer, who were attempting to develop a scientific way of measuring different individuals’ emotional abilities, such as identifying their own feelings, identifying those of others and solving emotional problems. Thus in 1990, Emotional Intelligence was presented as "a type of social intelligence, which involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' emotions, to discriminate among these emotions and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions” (Salovey & Mayer, 1990).

As yet, a theoretical concept is still lacking (Young, 1996). However, by conceptually integrating the available research, Emotional Intelligence’s role in Psychology can be more easily seen. Salovey and Mayer argued that Emotional Intelligence subsumes both inter- and intrapersonal intelligences, as proposed by Howard Gardner (1983). Their Proposal indicates that Emotional Intelligence has five principal features:

Mental processes include appraisal and expression of emotion in the Self, which suggests that people skilled in this process can recognize and so respond more appropriately, to their own emotions. Such emotionally intelligent individuals can better express these emotions to others. They tend also to be more talented at recognising others’ emotional reactions, thus producing empathic responses to them.

Individuals skilled at accurately gauging affective responses in others are usually talented at choosing socially adaptive behaviours, in their response. Thus, others should see them as warm and genuine. In contrast, individuals who lack such skills can often appear impolite or diffident.

Emotionally intelligent individuals are said to be particularly adept at regulating emotion. This process is often used as a means to meeting particular goals, as it can lead to more adaptive mood states. In other words, such emotionally intelligent individuals may improve their moods and the moods of others’. As a result, they can even go so far as motivating others to achieving worthwhile objectives. Sometimes however, these skills are sometimes channelled antisocially and used to manipulate others.

Finally, emotional intelligence can be utilized in problem solving. Salovey and Mayer (1990) proposed that individuals tend to differ greatly in their ability to organise their emotions, in order to solve problems. Both emotions and moods have a subtle influence over the strategies involved in problem solving. They came to the conclusion that positive mood enables a greater degree of flexibility in future planning, which enables better preparation for making the most of future opportunities. Similarly, they claimed that a good mood is beneficial in creative thinking, as it increases an individual’s ability for developing category organising principles. Unfortunately, the reverse of these abilities have a tendency to hold true for individuals in negative moods.

Moods may also be used to motivate one in the face of a challenge. Some people can positively channel their anxiety experienced in situations, such as exams, while others may imagine the possibility of failure, to better motivate themselves. In general, individuals with an optimistic attitude towards life construct interpersonal experiences, which result in improved outcomes for themselves and those around them. All in all, it can be said that emotionally intelligent individuals should be at an advantage in adaptively solving problems encountered in life.

The second definition of Emotional Intelligence, known as the “corporate version”, includes almost everything except IQ, such as conscientiousness, self-confidence, optimism, communication, leadership and initiative (Goleman, 1995). This approach, which is extremely popular in the business world, emerged following David Goleman’s 1995 book, aptly named “Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ”. Emotional Intelligence was catapulted into the headlines as an ability, which could lead to success at home, at school and in the workplace. Goleman’s book proposes ways individuals can become more effective and co-operative team members, as well as improving their technical skills and IQ for jobs of all levels. He hypothesizes that Emotional Intelligence can be learned and that it improves with age. Salovey and Mayer also believe that Emotional Intelligence develops with age, alongside which they suggest emotional knowledge can be enhanced and emotional skills can be learned. Goleman’s book claims that “…Emotional Intelligence can matter more than IQ…” He believes that skills, which are most critical to success, include self-awareness, empathy and sociability associated with an emotional kind of intelligence (Goleman, 1995). Regrettably, there was no known research to date that has managed to measure improved Emotional Intelligence scores, as determined by the Mayer, Salovey and Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test. However, in the Somerville study of 450 Massachusetts-raised boys, which took place over 40 years (Cherniss, 2000), IQ was shown to have little impact on success in later life. Childhood abilities, for instance being able to handle frustration, control emotions and get along with other people, were shown to be the most influential factors for later success, which broadly supports Goleman’s (1995) contentions.

In 2002, Vitello-Cicciu conducted a study, which examined both Emotional Intelligence and leadership skills in nurse leaders. Eleven leaders scored highly in Emotional Intelligence and three scored low. Upon interview with these participants, 90% of the high scoring nurses said they read self-help books and 72% of them used meditation, as ways of managing their emotions. These nurse leaders also suggested that the use of strategies, which include not taking things personally, employing stress management techniques and expressing empathy for others, help to develop Emotional Intelligence. In comparison with the low scoring individuals, high scoring nurses appeared to have heightened emotional awareness of both themselves and others. The researcher identifies emotional awareness of self and others, as the underlying cornerstone of an individual’s ability to be emotionally intelligent. In other words, one’s ability to be aware of their own and others’ emotions, being sensitive to these emotions, evaluating why these emotions exist, understanding their impact on others and lastly being able to appropriately respond to them. Emotionally intelligent nurse leaders exemplified the ability to manage their own emotions, whilst simultaneously managing the emotional responses of their staff, patients and family. It is inferred that nurse leaders who lead with both their head and their heart, encourage optimal environments, which promote teamwork, collaboration and a high quality of nursing care, with desired outcomes.

In short, Emotional Intelligence is based on a long history of research within a variety of areas, in particular, Social Psychology. This impressive body of research continues to grow and develop. It may veer more in the direction of Goleman’s ‘corporate’ approach, which focuses on personality traits and implies that emotionally intelligent individuals are ambitious, enthusiastic and committed to achieving their goals. Alternatively, it could veer more towards Salovey and Mayer’s ‘academic’ model (Hein, 2003). Which direction it takes, remains to be seen (Mayer & Salovey, 1993).

The meaning of Emotional Intelligence continues to develop over the years. In 1997, Salovey and Mayer refined their definition as: “the ability to process emotional information, more specifically an ability to recognize the meanings of emotions and their relationships, as well as being able to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them. In particular, it involves one’s capacity to perceive and assimilate emotional feelings, to understand the information of these emotions and lastly, the management of them.” Their ‘academic’ model focuses on intelligence, information processing and importantly, the potential for learning, understanding, developing, and growth (Hein, 2003).

More recently, Mayer and Cobb further developed the definition of Emotional Intelligence, into the following four branches (2000):

Hein defines Emotional Intelligence as: “being able to know how to separate healthy feelings from unhealthy ones and how to turn negative feelings, into positive ones.” He believes Emotional Intelligence refers to an individual’s innate potential, with a core formed by four inborn components: emotional sensitivity, emotional memory, emotional learning ability and emotional processing (Hein, 2003). He claims this innate intelligence is affected, either developed or damaged, by life experiences. It appears to be particularly affected by the emotional lessons taught by parents, teachers, caregivers and family. Hein considers emotional processing as one of the four core innate components, which affects individuals’ natural intelligence and potential. Therefore, to improve an individual’s Emotional Intelligence, perhaps one needs first to develop their emotional processing abilities.

Emotional processing was defined by Rachman (1980), as “a process whereby emotional disturbances are absorbed and decline to the extent that other experiences and behaviour can proceed without disruption.” Thus similarities are seen with Salovey and Mayer’s recent definition of Emotional Intelligence, which focuses on the ability to process emotional information, more particularly the ability to recognise their meanings and relationships. However, emotional processing does not involve the conscious management and manipulation of emotions, to the extent that Emotional Intelligence does. Rather, it refers more to the psychological mechanisms involved in processing. According to Bucci (1997), these underlying mechanisms are often unconscious, non-verbal, sub-symbolic (Teasdale, 1999), passive and automatic (Epstein, 1998). Goleman (1995) considers Emotional Intelligence to be a skill, which can be learned. Whereas emotional processing is regarded as a natural, and largely unconscious, process (Baker, Thomas, Thomas & Owens, submitted).

In 2003, Peter Salovey and David Pizarro concluded that Emotional Intelligence is beneficial for two reasons. Firstly, it provides an organizing framework that enables the field to synthesize a large body of research on affective phenomena. Secondly, Emotional Intelligence reaches beyond traditional views of Intelligence, by incorporating the emotional system. This provides a theory of individual differences in emotional abilities. Emotional Intelligence has a strong interpersonal focus and works on positively improving individuals’ own skills and successes. Therefore, an important distinction between these two concepts is that emotional processing has its roots in clinical psychology, rather than social or business psychology (Rachman, 1980). It focuses on processes related to disorders, rather than self improvement. Baker’s Emotional Processing Scale (EPS) measures individuals’ abilities at accurately identifying, and dealing with, their own emotions (Baker, 2004), in particular deficits or blockages, which can hinder the processing of emotions. From a therapeutic stance, this identification of deficits allows therapy to be better focused on providing the individual with release from their problems. Emotional processing aims to improve our understanding, and ability to predict, both physical and psychological disorders. It has the ability for measuring change in individuals’ emotional processing abilities over time, for example, before and after therapy. Thus, it has the potential to contribute new ideas to therapeutic programmes.

Emotional processing is applicable to mental health, psychosomatic disorders and physical illness. Baker’s ongoing work endeavours to gain a deeper understanding of the role of emotional processing in each of these areas. In conclusion, emotional processing has the potential for bringing together very diverse schools of psychological therapy, by offering a reformulation of the therapy process (Baker, 2004). Developments in this area could potentially see the exciting emergence of an encompassing concept, which leads to improvements in future clinical practice.