A Review of
Joseph Ciarrochi, Joseph P.
Forgas, & John D. Mayer, Emotional Intelligence in Everyday Life,
Psychology Press, 3/19/02
By Latte
See the Instructions for this Report
ÀÀÀÀÀÀÀÀ In reviewing this book, there appeared to be three major topics encompassing the main idea, emotional intelligence.À Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, interpret, and modify one?s own emotions, along with those of others.À This can enable an individual to let their emotions work for them, helping them in a positive way, instead of working against them in a negative way.À The first topic of emotional intelligence is the basic elements and arguments regarding it.À This can be defined as the history and development of the concept, its definition and characteristics, various tests and evaluations, and descriptions and definitions of affective intelligence, a major component of emotional intelligence.
The second topic is the various functions, practices, and relevance of emotional intelligence in a person?s daily life.À This section spans from the malfunctions of emotional intelligence, i.e., alexithymia, to the epitome, i.e., self-actualization.À It also describes and argues the benefits of integrating emotional intelligence into education, the workplace, and most importantly intimate and casual relationships via empathic accuracy.À Finally, it brings it all together by discussing its relevance to maintaining one?s health and economic status.À
The third topic is a compilation and summary of all the chapters presented.À This can be defined as a conglomeration of systematic, practical, and innovative values that make-up the various aspects and components of emotional intelligence.
The topics regarding emotional intelligence are definitely considered relevant in today?s society.À This is evident by the numerous research studies, articles, books, and psychological tests put out on the web, questioning the effects of emotional competency in life. Emotional intelligence almost seems like the solution to all of society?s social and emotional problems.À It is emphasized that those who are emotionally intelligent are more likely to be successful in life.À As a result, the many articles, online tests, and books, analyze the benefits of integrating emotional intelligence into relationships, communities, schools, and the workplace.À This is recommended because if one is emotionally intelligent, he/she should be able to manage and express his/her feelings and emotions in an effective way.À This would only help in communicating with each other in almost any situation, i.e., marriage, friends, employees or employers, teachers and students, etc.
I feel that emotional intelligence is almost necessary in today?s society.À Everybody could use a more effective way of expressing and controlling their emotions, in almost any situation.À In my opinion, emotional intelligence would be most beneficial in education where it would start early and have an increasing effect on children.À These children would grow up to become emotionally intelligent adults, who could integrate their selves into the community. This is important because we already have so many children with numerous psychological problems, mainly because they do not know how to control and manage their feelings and emotions.À As a result, they react in maladaptive behaviors like aggression.À These children grow up to become aggressive adults who go out into the workplace, or have children that end up just like them.
I also think that emotional intelligence should be integrated into the workplace, so that employers can be more aware and empathic of their employee?s needs.À This should be essential in providing an overall better work environment.À Lastly, I think that emotional intelligence should be offered in the community.À There could be established classes that were setup to teach emotional intelligence as a way to help parents teach their children, spouses solve marital problems, and people deal with real their relationships and emotions.
There are a couple problems that the book discusses regarding the testing and validity of emotional intelligence.À To begin, there are no established ways of successfully testing for emotional intelligence.À According to the book, the MEIS and the LEAS tests seem to be the most reliable.À However, although they satisfy the current criteria, research still needs to be done to see if there are any other criteria that need to be satisfied.À As a result, this presents another problem, how can we tell who is and is not emotionally intelligent?À Through various observations and studies, the book presents many characteristics developed over time through comparisons of people with low emotional intelligence and alexithymia, to more successful people with a proposed higher emotional intelligence.À In general, there are certain characteristics that are said to be indicative of an emotionally intelligent person.À For example, an individual can have certain personality traits or behaviors, i.e., optimism, self-confidence, and compassion that promote effective control, modification, and expression of emotions.À Or, an individual can lack these traits and behaviors, displaying pessimism, depression, and rage that cause a lack of control, regulation, and suppression of emotions.À In essence, this is probably the most popular way of defining whether or not a person displays emotional intelligence.
Unfortunately, the book does not have any sort of exercises or tests for the reader to try.À This is probably because there are no established tests or exercises that can successfully test for emotional intelligence.À Also, the authors may have felt that this would have detracted from the readings.À However, I think that it would have been useful and helpful to the reader if there were at least one sample exercise or test.À It didn?t have to be entirely valid, but it could have been used to give the reader a better idea of what they are looking for when testing for emotional intelligence.
Within the book, there weren?t any literature reviews.À However, on the back cover of the book, there were about three reviews.À Two of the reviews were mostly recommendations, while the last review summarized and proposed other questions regarding emotional intelligence.À
Throughout the book, there were endnotes referencing to the back of the book where the bibliography or reference section is.À This section is composed of all the references that were used to discuss this topic.À Also in the back of the book is an author and subject index.À Both of these sections give a listing in alphabetical order, of either the authors or subjects that were discussed or quoted in this book.
There were a couple of topics in this book that were related to health and stress.À In general, people with more emotional intelligence are better able to cope with life, and therefore should have better mental health.À One malfunction of this ability is having low emotional intelligence, or alexithymia.À People with this disorder are at high risks of developing physical and mental illnesses, due to their inability to cope with stress and express their emotions.À Another less extreme problem is the inability to regulate emotions, i.e., the suppression or expression of emotions.À Those that tend to express their emotions too much, in an angry or hostile way, are at a greater risk of developing coronary heart disease.À This is because the emotional arousal leads to an increased heart rate, and stimulates the secretion of lipids and cholesterol, which leads to plaque formation.À In addition, these people usually don?t have effective coping styles, so they increase their risks by smoking, drinking, or eating fatty foods.
The last problem that leads to decreased health is the suppression of negative emotions.À This suppression leads to an increased vulnerability to stress, which eventually leads to an increased risk of developing cancer.À In summary, too much negative emotional expression can lead to heart problems, whereas too much negative emotional suppression can lead to cancer.ÀÀÀ As a result, the regulation of emotions, i.e., emotional intelligence, is very important in maintaining one?s health.
As a psychology major, I would have to say that this book fits into any social context of learning, research, and everyday life.À Although it does have a biological basis, there seems to be a more effective relationship in the social aspects, i.e., communicating and expressing feelings and emotions.À In essence, the contents of this book could almost be considered a manual for life.À Emotional intelligence applies to almost any situation whether it is at home, at work, at school, or even within oneself.
VX.À Benefits
of the Book
À ÀÀ There were so many things that I enjoyed about this book.À Particularly, I enjoyed its application to everyday life.À Often, I?ll come across classes that discuss psychology topics, but don?t really pertain to my life.À On the contrary, this book investigates aspects of life in which this can be used.À For example, this book discusses the relationship and effects of its topic on health, money, education, work, and intimate or casual relationships.
ÀÀÀÀ ?In particular, marital researchers have demonstrated that the better the spouses are at perceiving, accurately identifying, regulating, and expressing emotions, the happier their relationships are.À These findings are consistent with the hypothesis derived from the EI literature, that people differ in their abilities to accurately perceive, identify, and express emotions; understand and reason about emotions; and effectively regulate and manage emotions.À Thus it may be argued that the marital literature supports the suggestion that some individuals are indeed more ?emotionally intelligent? than others.À Moreover, these differences in emotion-related abilities are reliably associated with what may be considered an adaptive and desirable life outcome: marital happiness and stability.?
ÀÀÀÀ ?A primary principle of EI is that caring relationships form the foundation of all genuine and enduring learning [358].À A moment?s reflections on one?s own educational experiences will reveal the fundamental truth of this point of view.À We all have learned under adverse conditions, but it is not the best way to produce regular and lasting learning, and we need to bring our educational systems into alignment with this reality.?
There are numerous ideas and concepts that I learned from this book.À Specifically, I learned what emotional intelligence is.À Before this class, I had not heard of the term œemotional intelligence.?À Now, I am more than familiar with the concept and how it can influence and promote a person?s emotional competency.À People with emotional intelligence are not necessarily smarter as in IQ, but they are better adapted to deal with most situations.À These types of people are generally positive, optimistic, compassionate, and empathic.À They can interpret and perceive their emotions as well as those of others, and use this information to modify or maintain their emotions to effectively deal with people and situations.À Although this seems like the epitome, emotional intelligence can be taken one step further into self-actualization.À Self-actualization is the ability to fulfill and surpass all of our basic needs, and maximize our goals and potential.À However, even though this idea sounds very promising, very few people reach it.À As a result, my attention tended to focus more on the practical applications of emotional intelligence.À In general, I try to be more patient and compassionate with my family, my friends, my co-workers, and especially my boyfriend.
In general, I felt that this book had an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses.À Some of the books strengths were its sufficient explanation of the material and subject matter.À I felt that the authors and editors did a really good job in providing a variety of viewpoints and opinions on the various topics.À This variety of opinions helped me to understand the material better.À For example, the book didn?t give just one theory or opinion, and describe it as the only way of looking at emotional intelligence.À Instead, it proposed many theories, and confronted them with different problems and solutions.À
On the contrary, some of the books weaknesses were the way it was organized.À Although the material was interesting and well supported, I felt that the arrangement of the topics and material within the book and chapters were kind of scattered.À For example, this book was broken up into three broad parts, i.e., fundamental issues, applications of emotional intelligence research to everyday life, and integration and conclusions.À However, I didn?t feel that the chapters within these parts were very organized.À I felt that some of the chapters belonged in different parts, or in completely new sections/parts that were more descriptive of the information it entailed.
Emotional Intelligence: Popular or Scientific Psychology
The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations
Is Emotional Intelligence the Key to Success in Life?
Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
I would definitely recommend this book to any adult, and I would especially recommend that this book be taught at the high school level.À Although high school students may not be able to understand everything, a teacher could easily help them along.À I feel this is necessary because the earlier a person can begin to learn about this material and be able to apply it, the better off he/she will be.À On the other hand, adults of any age can certainly benefit from this book.À Because emotional intelligence is learned, it is never too late to start interpreting and regulating one?s own emotions and those of others.
This book considers the medical or health-related aspects of emotional intelligence, but it does not suggest any ways of integrating it into the health or medical field.À If too much negative emotional suppression and expression is suspected to cause physiological problems, than why wasn?t a theory provided to teach doctors, nurses or any kind of medical staff, how to implement it into their profession, i.e., advising at-risk patients?