What Is Emotional Intelligence

What Is Emotional Intelligence

Being a relatively new area in psychology, emotional intelligence is still on its way to be fully
recognized. It is likely that you may find various definitions of emotional intelligence since many
experts are still on the disagreement of what this area of intelligence truly measures. However, it
is clear that lately, people have shown signs of great interest on this area of personality since
they create fruitful products in them.

Intelligence and cognition are two distinctly separated components of human intelligence. IQ is
the parameter of measuring cognitive capacities and is said to be constant at any moment it is
measured. It may be improved and maximized though. Nonetheless, it would still be limited by
the constant value the Intellectual Quotient presents. Say, if a person has an IQ score of 118,
then it is possible that this would remain the same throughout the person's life. A change of a
point or two may occur perhaps due to developmental factors or margin of error given to a
specific IQ test.

But the case is different with Emotional Intelligence

It has been observed how quickly one change from a single emotion to another. But this of
course depends on the person subjected to the test or in a given situation. We all react
differently to different conditions and there is till no concrete parameter available. Emotions
themselves are inconsistent. They largely depend with the person experiencing them.
Due to inconsistencies, no one can still accurately determine how to measure emotional
intelligence fully.

There is no complete demarcation line between knowledge and intelligence
(using the parallelism to describe emotions). Various definitions say the emotional intelligence is
dynamic and changes invariably depending on what condition the person is faced to. It
therefore, can be increased or decreased, at times it may even be lost. Other experts disagree
saying that emotions are stable and therefore, cannot be affected by any condition.

One thing is central to these though, emotions are developed and we are not innately equipped
with them at the time of childbirth. Emotions were not even implanted in us during our prenatal
stage nor are they recorded in our genes. In a way, they are developed only according to the
experiences we had during growth. They only arise when specific stimuli arise.

Emotional intelligence is the capacity of an individual to define his own emotions and to become
sensitive to those that he perceives from the environment and the circle of people he is
interacting with. It may also be that emotional intelligence is the use of knowledge of these
emotions to control situations and create plans and decisions based on the perceived emotions.
Other resources would further add that emotional intelligence is part of our personality that
dictates us to become more aware of what triggered a specific reaction, both done by the self
and people surrounding the "self".

It is also known to be the use of emotions to reason out. There are too many definitions on what emotional intelligence truly is. So far, we have gathered two constants, emotion and understanding the context and concepts of emotions. In the end, emotional intelligence is much too focused on one's understanding and utilization of his or her emotions and in identification of another person's emotions. These combined will help
him determine the proper actions he must make in order to create viable decisions. But emotional intelligence is of course, broader than this interpretation.