What is Emotional Intelligence
What does your emotional intelligence tell about yourself?
Most humans have the innate ability to read emotions.
Happiness, anger, sadness, fear, disgust...they're all emotions. We discern these feelings through cues such as facial expression, body language, gesture, and intonation of voice.
The recognition of these emotions affects our thinking, behavior, and actions.
By being aware of one's own feeling and that of others, it is possible to empathize, think better, control these emotions, and react appropriately in a given situation.
@healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan
Emotional intelligence
This is where emotional intelligence or emotional quotient comes in.
According to Peter Salovey and John Mayer, emotional intelligence is the:
"the ability to monitor one's own and other people's emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior"
Emotional intelligence is a controversial topic. It is widely debated that people with higher emotional intelligence fare better in personal and work life compare to those with lower emotional intelligence. There are skepticism about this notion considering emotional intelligence is not a measure of what a person knows, academically speaking.
Measure of emotional intelligence
The popularity of emotional intelligence can be seen among companies and schools that choose to use this concept as a valid measure of one's success, which they critically assess among job applicants and students.
There are various tools used to measure emotional intelligence, although not a single one is universally recognized:
- Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0)
- Situational test of emotion management (STEM)
- Situational test of emotional understanding (STEU)
- Malovey-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional Intelligence test (MSCEIT)
