Emotional Intellgence

• Emotions are feelings that both have cognitive and behavioral components, which may be overt (displayed) or covert (concealed).
• Voluntary: communication of emotions by choosing to avoid other people because he/she feels uncomfortable seeing them, or by smiling at people to communicate that he/she is happy to see them.
• Involuntary: communication of emotions can be seen in one’s facial expressions.
• Cognitive and behavioral talks about what you think of and is manifested on the actions exhibiting emotions.
• Voluntary means to think carefully.
• Involuntary emotions are hard to conceal, thus are visible.
• Ekman and Rosenthal (1997) explains this clearly by proposing that when an emotion is felt, impulses are always sent to the facial muscles.
• Primary emotions (basic emotions) are innate emotions that are experienced for short periods of time and appear rapidly, usually as a reaction to an outside stimulus, and are experienced similarly across cultures. These include: joy, distress, anger, fear, surprise and disgust (Sabini & Silver, 2005).
• Emotions can be expressed verbally and non-verbally.
• Verbal expressions include face to face communication and text-based communication (letters & emails).
• Non-verbal expressions include facial expressions, acoustic properties of speech and other body movements.
• Secondary Emotions are processed by the different part of the brain, and require higher order thinking, and are therefore not reflexive. These include love, guilt shame, embarrassment, pride, envy and jealousy. They are influenced by thoughts and can therefore be managed so that people become more competent communicators by becoming more aware of how they choose to express them.
• Emotional sharing involves the communication of our thoughts and feelings that surround an emotional event. This occurs almost immediately following an emotional episode. It offers intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits as individuals report an inner sense of satisfaction and relief after sharing, and strengthens social bond through the interaction.
• Intensity is about how one strongly feels emotions.
• Marc Brackett (2014) proposed a tool that would help students identify their emotion, He called it a mood meter.
• Mood meter: a roadmap of our emotions. It measures the energy (high/low) and the pleasantness (pleasant/unpleasant) of your emotions.
• Positive emotions: pleasant and provide one with good feeling.
• Negative emotions: unpleasant and cause discomfort.
• Emotional Intelligence is defined as a set of skills for processing emotional information and using this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.
• Emotional Intelligence (EI) was a term first coined by Peter Salovey & John D. Mayer (1990). They described EI as a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action”.
• Goleman later popularized emotional intelligence by proposing that it is “understanding one’s own feelings, empathy for the feelings of others and the regulation of emotion in a way that enhances living”.
• A key component of emotional intelligence is self-awareness.
• The Personal Skills/Competencies are Self-awareness, Self-regulation or Self-management and Self-motivation.
• Self-awareness: the skill of being aware of the emotions as they occur and evolve.
• Emotional Awareness: the ability to recognize one’s own emotions and their effects.
• Accurate Self-Assessment: having a good understanding of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly, one’s own limitations.
• Self-confidence: means having a strong sense of self-worth.
• Self-Regulation or Self-Management is the ability to manage one’s emotions appropriately and proportionately.
• Self-control: the ability to recognize and control one’s emotions appropriately; the ability to not make rash decisions or overreact to a situation.
• Trustworthiness: the ability to maintain one’s integrity and how thoughts and behaviors are consistent with one’s own personal values.
• Conscientiousness: entails taking responsibility for personal performance by making sure that it matches up to one’s ability and values.
• Adaptability: being flexible in response to change. The ability to adapt to one’s responses and the way he/she fits different situations effectively.
• Innovation: being open to different new ideas ; new ways of solvingthe problems and preparedness to see things from a perspective that is different from what one is used to.
• Self-motivation is the force that drives one to do things.
• Social skills are used to interact and handle relationships with other people such as the ability to communicate appropriately and build and maintain meaningful relationships. These include empathy and social skills.
• Empathy: the ability to communicate and lead by understanding other’s thoughts, views, and feelings.
• Social Skills refers to the skills needed to effectively handle and influence other people’s emotions. They include building bonds, communication skills, conflict management skills and change management skills.
• Primary emotions are universal.
• Acoustic properties of speech means your tone of voice.
• Secondary emotions are not instinctive. These can vary from one culture or another and emotional upbringing.