On emotional intelligence

The concept of emotional intelligence began to take hold in the mid-1990s with Daniel Goleman, with the publication of a book that contains the same title. Although in previous years we had already been talking about it, this new concept, in which the influence of emotions is taken into account, begins to take shape; bringing a completely new vision of intelligence. In this PsychologyOnline article, we will talk On emotional intelligence.

Index

1. Definition of emotional intelligence
2. goals
3. What is emotional intelligence?
4. When does emotional intelligence develop?
5. To develop emotional intelligence it is essential ...
6. What is emotional intelligence for?
7. Why and why do we need emotional intelligence?
8. Are women more emotionally intelligent than men?
9. What are emotions?
10. What are emotions for?

Emotions begin to be considered as determining factors both in the evolution and in the complete development of the person, in their ability to cope and adapt to daily life

Emotional intelligence is, therefore, the capacity that we all have or can develop to effectively manage emotions and generate, from them, beneficial motivations for the person. There are many applications of emotional intelligence in people's daily lives, undoubtedly its training can be very beneficial in many situations that can allow us to adapt much better to all kinds of problems that we continually have we have to face, preventing as much as possible the harmful effects of negative emotions and adopting a positive attitude towards the lifetime. In this way we will be able to face much better the challenges and objectives that we can set ourselves, in addition to enhancing personal and social well-being.

• Know what are emotions and knowing how to identify them, Both positive and negative.
• Identify our emotions and those of others.
• Be able to detect how we express each of our emotions and learn to control them.
• Develop certain social skills, such as the empathy and assertiveness, as a way to regulate our emotions.
• Develop skills to motivate yourself, challenge yourself, reinforce yourself and adopt a positive attitude towards life.
• Provide theoretical and practical knowledge on emotional control techniques (relaxation, stopping thinking, problem solving, cognitive restructuring, coping and coping with problems…).

It is the human capacity that allows us to:

• Have a positive attitude towards life.
• Perceive, know, understand, express and regulate our emotions by managing them appropriately.
• Detect and manage feelings, both your own and those of others.
• Understand, express and manage these feelings with empathy and assertiveness.
• Above all, it allows us to adapt effectively to both our inner and outer world, taking appropriate decisions through motivation, interest and enthusiasm to face and face problems or situations ...

It includes a set of learnable skills that are structured around five basic dimensions:

1. Knowledge of one's own emotions.
2. Self-control capacity.
3. Self-motivation capacity.
4. Recognition of the emotions of others.
5. Emotional control of interpersonal relationships.

Emotional Intelligence enhances social competence, through empathy and emotional control, by increasing the feeling of efficacy in the actions undertaken (Salovey and Mayer (1990).

Emotional Intelligence develops throughout our entire life, with each of the experiences that we acquire, day by day, minute by minute, second by second... We never finish learning and this also works for emotions and feelings.

• Identify our emotions through behaviors, feelings and thoughts.
• Recognize them in others, through language, tone, appearance, behavior... and learn to enhance all those that may be useful and beneficial for ourselves and for others.
• Train ourselves in skills that allow us to communicate, have, maintain and enjoy interpersonal relationships.
• Develop tolerance and endurance to daily frustrations.
• Use useful resources and tools that allow us to develop the process of emotional self-regulation.
• Learn to prevent and resolve conflicts personal and interpersonal as well as risk behaviors.
• Empower self-esteem, self-motivation, effort, tenacity and perseverance, recognition and rectification of errors, problem solving, self-reinforcement, security, perception of control ...

Emotional Intelligence is the rudder that allows us to navigate adequately and effectively to life events.

• It allows us to control our feelings and our emotions
  Directed all this towards a common goal.
• It helps us to identify and guide appropriately our emotions, feelings and thoughts.
• Contributes to generating and enhancing self-esteem.
• Provides autonomy, security and perception of control.
• Power and stimulate the interpersonal relationships.
• Improve performance personal, school, work, physical and mental health ...

• Obviously Emotional Intelligence is not going to solve our problems as if it were a magic wand, but yes it will help us manage ourselves better.
• Emotional Intelligence is not going to prevent us from arguing with our colleagues or with our friends, or our children from doing whatever we ask and want, but undoubtedly “YES” will help us reduce psychological wear and tear and will allow us to better cope with the difficulties that may arise in our lives.
• Emotional Intelligence will allow us to acquire emotional resources and skills to handle both "positive" or pleasant and "negative" or unpleasant emotions, because both are necessary.

The essence of emotional intelligence is to have our emotions working for us but never to turn them against us!

• Women have always been considered more emotional than men.
• Traditional stereotypes of women made it clear that “Women got excited much more easily”, “they were more intuitive and perceived much earlier than men what other people were feeling”, “they gave more thought to things ”,“ they spoke more about their problems and communicated their things more easily ”,“ they were more expert than men in terms of emotions and intelligence emotional"...
• Studies show that indeed "YES" that there are differences in terms of emotional intelligence (and logically these differences have to do with the emotional socialization that has been transmitted to us), but it is also true that these differences are becoming more and more diluted, as emotional education becomes increasingly androgynous.

• An emotion is an affective state, is a rapid and intuitive alteration of our state of mind that we experience, almost without realizing it, before certain situations, stimuli or thoughts that come from the environment or from the interpretations that we make of the same.
• Emotions are natural reactions that allow us to adapt to certain environmental stimuli, they are automatic and involuntary impulses, they are reactions to certain events that lead us to act automatically and subjectively, and often unconsciously and irrational.
• Emotions can be both positive and negative. The negatives such as hatred, anger, pessimism..., maintained over time, affect our mood and seriously damage our emotional health. The positives such as joy, satisfaction, pride, happiness... allow us to be more emotionally intelligent and adapt much more easily to any situation.
• The emotion produced gives way to states of mind that we call feelings. For example after a sudden emotion of sadness due to bad news (death of a loved one, natural disaster, accident ...) feelings of helplessness, frustration, decay, defenselessness appear... feeling that we cannot do anything, the state mood derived from emotion is prolonged in time, resulting in the feeling that turns out to be much more durable than the own emotion.
• An emotion carries a subjective reaction that will depend on each person, depending on their own interpretations or personal experiences.
• Emotions are behind any thought-related process (attention, perception, motivation, desire, concentration, memory ...) and this allows us to make a subjective estimate of everything that surrounds us.
• Emotions act in a complex, automatic way and on many occasions without rational control of them producing desires, needs, anxieties, fears, rejections, incapacity, defenselessness... with respect to the world that surrounds us and with respect to ourselves.
• Emotions are accompanied by cognitive changes (thoughts that respond to the interpretation that each person makes in each situation) organic changes (physiological and endocrine, of innate origin and influenced by experience) and behavioral changes (behaviors that will be different depending on the emotions triggered).
• Natural reactions (sweating, respiratory problems, facial changes, muscle changes ...) allow us to put ourselves on alert in certain situations that indicate a real or imaginary danger, a threat, a frustration... or quite the opposite, satisfaction, joy, optimism ...

Emotions can help us solve problems when we learn to differentiate between states! positives from negatives and especially when we learn to control them and take advantage of everything it!

Psychologically: they enhance or alter attention, concentration, increase or reduce certain behaviors, activate associations, influence our way of seeing and interpreting the world ...

Physiologically: they provoke somatic responses including cardio-respiratory and digestive alterations, affect facial expressions, muscles, voice, activity of the Central and Endocrine Nervous System ...

Behaviorally: They serve to establish our position with respect to the environment, they drive us or move us away from certain people, stimuli, objectives, actions, ideas ...

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to On emotional intelligence, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotions.