The phrase "emotional intelligence" is increasingly heard in the media and flashed in social networks. But if with intelligence and emotions separately everything is relatively clear, then with emotional intelligence it is not very good. What is it and why do we need it?
DISCONNECT AND CONNECT
We are taught from childhood to divide and classify everything in a row and according to various criteria: countries, communities and people, ideologies and religions, political beliefs and philosophical views, natural phenomena, art and literature … The list is endless. This is how a person is arranged: it seems to him that only by breaking down a certain subject of study into its constituent parts and giving these parts clear and precise definitions, he will receive an exhaustive idea about this subject. Thank God, from time to time (with the development of science more and more often) it comes to a person that such a method does not give full knowledge of the subject. For one simple reason: everything in the world is so interconnected that in order to obtain true knowledge about it, it is just right not to separate, but to connect in order to see seemingly different parts in a single interaction. Especially if these parts already belong to a single whole. In this case, to the person. So there is nothing strange in the very origin of the concept of "emotional intelligence". On the contrary, it is a natural result of the development of the science of psychology and our understanding of the world around us and ourselves.
ABILITY TO SURVIVE
One should not think that emotional intelligence is a certain property of a person that has developed in the course of evolution and manifested itself only relatively recently. No, the term appeared relatively recently, and the property, more precisely, the ability of this or that person to recognize their own and other people's emotions, to control them, to understand where and why their own desires, motivations and intentions come from, has been inherent in it for centuries. Charles Darwin, in his work "On the Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals" in 1872, dealt with this topic and wrote that the manifestation and understanding of one's own and other people's emotions is an extremely important property in the difficult matter of survival and adaptation. Since then, little has changed, and today's scientists assign a decisive role to emotional intelligence not only in the historical aspect (they say, without this property, a person would not be able to survive at all and, in fact,become human), but also in the modern. And this is understandable. We are still struggling for survival and a better place in the sun, and the ability to manage our and others' emotions in this struggle is often invaluable.
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EXCURSION TO THE PAST
In fact, you guessed it, it's about control. Including self-control. There is no doubt that a person who is able to control his emotions, understand the desires of others, feel their strengths and weaknesses and take advantage of them is much more likely to succeed than someone who has such an ability in its infancy. We note right away that emotional intelligence is an immanent property of a person, that is, not inherent in everyone. Another thing is that "succeed" is not the same as "become happy", but more on that later. In the meantime, a little excursion into the past.
Sigmund Freud was still involved in the problems of controlling emotions, who believed that the first legislative attempt to curb them in the history of mankind was the famous "Code of Laws of Hammurabi", created in Ancient Babylon almost 4 thousand years ago. About "social intelligence" - the ability of a person to understand other people and live in society - was first spoken about by the American psychologist, Professor Edward Thorndike 100 years ago, in 1920.
The concept of "emotional intelligence" first began to appear in the scientific works of Western psychologists in the 60s of the last century, and in 1975 the famous American psychologist Claude Steiner, one of the authors of the famous transactional analysis (a psychological model used to analyze human behavior - as one or in a group), developed and introduced the concept of "emotional literacy". And finally, in 1995, a book by the famous and again American writer and scientific journalist Daniel Goleman was published, which was called Emotional Intelligence. The book quickly became popular (it was republished in 2015), and since then the concept of "emotional intelligence" has gone widely around the world, taking root in the masses.
MODELS, MODELS, MODELS
Of course, as soon as the phenomenon has received its well-established definition, many models have emerged that claim to provide an exhaustive description of emotional intelligence and the classification of its components (remember our inescapable desire to separate everything into pieces? This is what it is). One of the most widespread and recognized by current psychologists models of EI (emotional intelligence) is considered today the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso model, which is also called the model of abilities. According to her, EI is divided into only four basic abilities.
The first is the perception of emotions, the ability to recognize them by various factors (gesture, facial expressions, gait, appearance, behavior, etc.). Remember the show "Lie to Me"? The main character, Dr. Lightman, played by the magnificent Tim Roth, possessed this ability and used it to the fullest.
The second is the use of emotions (most often unconscious) to activate the thinking process.
The third is understanding emotions. That is, the ability to see the connection between thoughts and emotions, understanding complex emotions, the subtle differences between them and how and why one emotion flows into another.
The fourth is emotion management. Both ours and others. Most often it is used directly to achieve the set goals.
Once again, we clarify that this model is most often used by professional psychologists. Ordinary people prefer the so-called mixed model that Daniel Goleman proposed in his book. It has five components, they are more "blurred" in comparison with the model of abilities and largely duplicate each other. For example, self-regulation and self-knowledge or social skills and empathy.
There are several more models of EI of this or that complexity, we will not talk about all of them as unnecessary: it seems that the reader has already grasped the essence. We will only add that for each model there are specially designed tests designed to reveal the level of development of EI in a particular personality.
TO DEVELOP OR NOT WORTH?
At first glance, it seems that developing EI is necessary. And on the second and on the third too. Still would! Apparently, our success in life depends on him. And first of all, success in a profession or business, career growth and other components of what is meant by the word "success". And it was not for nothing that Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva, with the insight characteristic of genius poets, once said: "Success means being in time." To have time to learn to recognize emotions and manage them, in order, using powerful motivation (money, respect, power, etc.), to achieve the set goal. At the same time, if necessary, manipulating the feelings and emotions of those people who surround you. Doesn't sound too moral, does it? But EI has a very indirect relationship to morality. As, in fact, and fortunately (although we admitthat some models - in particular, Reuven Bar-On's model - consider happiness as one of the components of EI). At the same time, however, specifying that "happiness" means well-being. I mean, satisfaction with oneself and life in general. Which, I think, is not quite the same thing. So, if it seems to you that your EI is not good enough, then you can start developing it - there are enough techniques. However, for those who have everything in order with emotions and motivations, you can calm down and live on, enjoying and at times happiness from a job well done and the love of loved ones.then you can start developing it - there are enough techniques. However, for those who have everything in order with emotions and motivations, you can calm down and live on, enjoying and at times happiness from a job well done and the love of loved ones.then you can start developing it - there are enough techniques. However, for those who have everything in order with emotions and motivations, you can calm down and live on, enjoying and at times happiness from a job well done and the love of loved ones.
Akim Bukhtatov