Emotional intelligence helps with anger management.
Emotional intelligence is a concept popularized by the American psychologist Daniel Goleman that refers to the ability to recognize one's own and others' feelings. The person, therefore, is intelligent (skilled) in managing feelings.
For Goleman , emotional intelligence involves five basic capabilities: discovering one's own emotions and feelings, recognizing them, managing them, creating one's own motivation, and managing personal relationships.
The concept
From the Latin intelligentĭa , the notion of intelligence is linked to the ability to choose the best options in the search for a solution . It is possible to distinguish between different types of intelligence, depending on the skills that come into play. In any case, intelligence appears related to the ability to understand and process information to use it appropriately.
Emotional , on the other hand, is that belonging to or relating to emotion (a psycho-physiological phenomenon that involves an adaptation to recorded changes in environmental demands). The emotional is also the emotive (sensitive to emotions).
Teamwork requires people with good emotional intelligence.
Characteristics of emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence has a physical basis in the brain stem , responsible for regulating basic vital functions. The human being has an emotional center known as the neocortex , whose development is even prior to what we know as the rational brain.
The cerebral amygdala and hippocampus are also vital in all processes linked to emotional intelligence. The amygdala, for example, secretes norepinephrine that stimulates the senses.
Beyond the physical substrate, emotional intelligence is linked to empathy and the ability to develop social skills . It is associated with the self-regulation of behavior based on the recognition of emotions, stress control, active listening and effective communication.
Thanks to emotional intelligence, conflict resolution is facilitated. The person, in addition to experiencing compassion, achieves a tolerance for frustration and demonstrates adaptability, with which he has greater possibilities of understanding others and adapting to the context without suffering harm. That is why emotional intelligence is also related to resilience .
Emotional intelligence allows you to act assertively.
Signs of identity of the people who manage to enhance it
Due to the important benefits that anyone with high emotional intelligence has, many studies have been carried out in order to understand how it works. These investigations made it possible to determine the main identifying characteristics that characterize those who have an advanced level of this type of intelligence:
- They flee from monotony as they always try to find alternatives to have a fuller and happier life.
- They are firm when required.
- They always look forward when it comes to continuing to live.
- They love to be continually learning.
Unlike what happens with the IQ, there is no study that allows measuring the capacity or degree of emotional intelligence of a subject. In this sense, the appreciation of this ability is rather subjective.
Importance of emotional intelligence
It is important to make it clear that a person who has significant levels of emotional intelligence is an individual who, thanks to it, achieves multiple objectives in his or her relationship with others :
- May those around him feel comfortable with him.
- That those who are next to him do not experience any type of negative sensation.
- Let them trust him when they need advice on both a personal and professional level.
Someone who has emotional intelligence, in short, is someone who:
- You are able to recognize and manage the negative emotions you experience.
- He has a greater ability to relate to others because he has the advantage of being able to understand them by putting himself in their positions.
- He manages to use criticism as something positive, since he analyzes it and learns from it.
- He is someone who, precisely because he has that emotional intelligence and knows how to properly channel negative emotions, has a greater capacity to be happy.
- He has the necessary qualities to face adversity and setbacks without collapsing.
Of course, emotional intelligence must be complemented with other types of intelligence for personal empowerment and well-being . If we think about Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence (as the set of postulates proposed by the North American Howard Gardner is known), we must consider the relevance of intrapersonal intelligence (which is related to self-knowledge), linguistic intelligence (the mastery of language), logical-mathematical intelligence (the ability to solve mathematical problems and apply logic in reasoning) and spatial intelligence (focused on location in space and observation from different perspectives), among others.
It is interesting to note that Gardner refers to interpersonal intelligence to name the skills that make it possible to notice and understand the emotions and needs of others. Interpersonal intelligence can, therefore, be linked to Goleman's emotional intelligence , although the latter also includes the recognition of one's own emotions.