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EI: What is emotional intelligence?

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Very briefly, Emotional Intelligence is about being smart. Smart with your own and others' emotions and with the application of emotional knowledge to your decision making and reasoning.

Emotional Intelligence is far more than just how you feel or what mood you are in.

There are many definitions of emotional intelligence. Some are more general than others and talk more about the applications of emotional intelligence rather than concentrating on the core of emotional intelligence, i.e. emotions.

The most accurate definitions are those that specifically focus on EMOTIONS and knowledge of emotions.

Emotional Intelligence is about being intelligent with emotions.

Here's my general definition of emotional intelligence.

Very simply put, Emotional Intelligence is your ability to:

Know how you and others feel.
Recognise the value and significance of these feelings.
Be able to apply knowledge of emotions wisely into your thinking, reasoning and decision-making processes.
Express emotions clearly, safely and productively.
Cultivate and manage your own and others' emotions so they help rather than hinder your work, relationships and life.

Let's now look in more depth at two key definitions of emotional intelligence from two of the leading research groups on emotional intelligence.

Here's the definition of emotional intelligence by Professor Peter Salovey and Professor John D. (Jack) Mayer.

Salovey and Mayer are the foundation researchers into Emotional Intelligence and are based in the USA. In their original article, in 1990, they first defined emotional intelligence as:

"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 actions."

They explain, in a 2008 article in American Psychologist, that
"The original idea was that some individuals possess the ability to reason about and use emotions to enhance thought more effectively than others."

They go on to say that their concept of Emotional Intelligence:
"includes the ability to engage in sophisticated information processing about one;s own and others' emotions and the ability to use this information as a guide to thinking and behavior.

That is, individuals high in Emotional Intelligence pay attention to, use, understand, and manage emotions, and these skills serve adaptive functions that potentially benefit themselves and others". (American Psychologist, Vol. 63, No. 6, 503-517 2008.)

Since 1990 they have further developed their definition of emotional intelligence. They now have a "four branch" model of emotional intelligence which identifies multiple levels of skills that they believe are required in order to be emotionally intelligent.
These include the abilities to:

Perceive emotions in oneself and others accurately.
Use emotions to facilitate thinking.
Understand emotions, emotional language, and the signals conveyed by emotions.
Manage emotions so as to attain specific goals.

They identify sixteen different stages of emotional intelligence which they say develop from childhood to adulthood.
The full description of these stages can be found in a book chapter in "Emotional development and emotional intelligence - educational implications" by Salovey P. and Slugter D.J. (Eds), Basic Books, New York, 1997.

Here's the definition of emotional intelligence used by the Genos Emotional Intelligence model by Dr Ben Palmer and Professor Con Stough.

Palmer and Stough are leading researchers in Emotional Intelligence in Australia.
Their definition of emotional intelligence is as follows:

"Emotional intelligence is the skill with which you perceive, express, reason with and manage your own and others' emotions."

Within this definition they have identified seven levels of emotional intelligence:

Level 1. Emotional self-awareness.
Level 2. Emotional expression.
Level 3. Emotional awareness of others.
Level 4. Emotional reasoning.
Level 5. Emotional self-management.
Level 6. Emotional management of others.
Level 7. Emotional self-control.

I find their model of great practical use when working with clients.
It is possible to spend many days, weeks or months debating exact definitions of emotional intelligence. However, my interest is not in the refined academic arguments surrounding the topic but in the practical ways that we can each apply, develop and benefit from emotional intelligence in our working and everyday lives.

The next few pages will therefore look at each of the seven levels on the Genos model in more detail, and the advantages of having skills in each level, and the disadvantages if you don't.

Emotional Intelligence is about being smart with emotions. How smart are you with yours?

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Updated 16-Aug-2011