A Review of

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN EVERYDAY LIFE: A Scientific Inquiry Psychology Press û2001

Raemie Noelani Monces

March 15, 2002

 

Instructions for this report

 

 

 

 

Emotional Intelligence

 

HISTORY

 

The beginning of Emotional Intelligence began just as a flower blossoms into its being.  The History of Emotional Intelligence begins in:

 

1900-1969: (The Seed) Beginning the basics of “Emotional Intelligence” the term is not yet grown into its name or definition.  Taking emotion and intelligence as two separate entities that can be tested. 

1970-1989: (The Roots) Emotional Intelligence was taking hold in the Psychology community and beginning to grow further as the concept we know of today.  At this growing stage Emotional Intelligence is lightly being used as a term and the definition of it has deeper meaning.  Emotional Intelligence is viewed as something that is involved in cognitive and affect and related to feelings.

1990-1993: (The Stem) Mayer and Salovey brought to light the term and concept of Emotional Intelligence giving it empirical proof that it can be studied as an intelligence.  Stating ways it can be measured and giving it deeper meaning.

1994-1997: (The Bud) Goleman commercialized the term.  This introduced interest in the subject and also a slightly different meaning.  By presenting Emotional Intelligence in to the world as a “product” with books and interviews, the term became widely known.

1998-Present: (The Blossom) Emotional Intelligence emergence in the psychology field is showing its worth and getting acknowledgement.  Emotional Intelligence is being shaped into its meaningful form having research and measurements of it, to help it succeed as an important, relevant and valid concept.

 

 

DEFINITION

 

Emotional Intelligence according to Mayer, Caruso and Salovey consists of four basic components that create the concept they are:

 

The Ability Approach

1.     Emotional Awareness to perceive emotions accurately

2.     Use emotions to facilitate thoughts (expression)

3.     Understand emotions and there meanings

4.     Manage Emotions

 

Emotional Intelligence derives from these four components and all of these components deal with yourself and your relationship with others/world.  Emotional Intelligence is your basic intelligence of yours and others emotions and how it intertwines with our lives and the world.

In our lives we are constantly swerving from one emotion to the next, depending on the circumstances of the day, hour, minutes and seconds.  Our day is composed of life events that happen with in our day, which can be positive or negative.  From these events come life outcomes of how we adapt to such situations.  Emotional Intelligence plays into all of this by our adapting abilities to our life events.  Those who are Emotionally Intelligent are said to change their life events and life outcomes.  In fact it seems illogical, however it truly is rational.  I will give an Example:

 

Emotionally Intelligent Individual

There is a boy who did not write his assignment down and hence forgot to do his homework.  When he is sitting in class he realizes what happened (life event).  In his internal dialogue he tells himself that next time he needs to write his assignments down in a notebook, perhaps listening more attentively in class or take better notes lessening the chance of forgetting to hear what the teacher announces in class etc.  He then takes responsibility for not doing the homework, preventing friction between himself and the teacher (which then might cause the teacher to react negatively towards him and the students).  The boy also prevents his body from tensing up and putting him into problem solving mode to deal with the situation (adapting in emotionally intelligent way). 

By doing all of this he will have fewer headaches from less stress of falling behind in class.  Better relationship with his teacher and students who appreciate his attitude.  He will probably find better grades in school because of turning in homework on time and listening more in class (life outcomes).  He will also find that his Emotional Intelligence is related to his life events because he will have fewer negative life events such as forgetting to do his homework, studying for a test and having fights in class with the teacher. 

 

 

THE THREEFOLD SELF (affect)

 

Emotional Intelligence involves the threefold self: Affect, Thinking (Cognition) and Behavior (Acting Out).  The affect of the threefold self involves how we go about interpreting and dealing with a situation.  This goes along and precedes how we think, judge and act in the specific circumstances.  Emotional Intelligence plays in by the way we handle our threefold self in particular situations. 

Affect can have a huge role in our thinking and behavior because it is where people develop the way they perceive, judge and understand the situation ultimately leading to their reaction towards it.  Experiences throughout your day can have an effect on affect.  If a person’s day is positive then supposedly when he/she encounters a daily life event this person will start off looking at the event in a positive way. However by doing this one might judge or remember such an event in the wrong context. 

 

Lets say a mother who had a horrible day at work: criticized by the boss, Messed up left and right and then had a relationship with a loved one crumble, all in one day.  When she arrives home, her 7-year-old child drops a glass of milk breaking the glass and spilling the milk through out the floor.  The mother might judge the situation in a negative way blaming the child for her horrible day, thinking her child is bad and clumsy.  The mother might then remember the incident the child did as one of the many bad things the child has done through his/her life and also recall previous mistakes the child has made. 

 

All of these affect experiences in life can change as long the person themselves recognizes what their emotions are at the previous time of the incident and focusing on the event at hand in an Emotional Intelligent way.  Doing this means escaping from either positive or negative feelings and maybe entering into the neutral zone when encountering a life event, this way the view of the situation will not be based on your negative or positive experiences at the time.

 

 

TESTS

 

Emotional Intelligence is a concept that is understandable and logical but, if Emotional Intelligence is an intelligence there has to be some way to measure it and there are several ways that psychologist do this.  There are two basic ways in which you would measure E.I. (1) Performance Test and (2) Self-Report Questionnaires.  Performance tests are what many of us would think of regular tests.  One that the teacher administers with specific questions wanting to determine your intelligence in the subject.  Then goes on to score it according to specific guidelines and criteria.  Performance tests have set standards for questions, answers and grading criteria.  The second is Self-Report Questionnaires which someone would then report their own level of Emotional Intelligence.  Both of these testing measures have their faults but equally do their best to measure the Emotional Intelligence of the individual.

 

Performance Test

There are three main tests

1.     Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Test (MEIS)

2.     Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT V.1.1. & V.2.0)

3.     Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS)

There are also other tests that are administered for Emotional Intelligence such as, Measuring Emotion Expression Skill and Measuring Emotional Intelligence in Children

 

Self-Report Test

There are four main tests

1.     Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I)

2.     Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS)

3.     Schutte Self-Report Inventory (SSRI)

4.     Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS)

There are also other measurements Self-Report Tests also have other E.I. Measurements.  They are; Emotional Control Questionnaire, Emotional Quotient (EQ) Test, Repression-Sensitization Scale, The Response Styles Questionnaire, Monitoring-Blunting Scale and COPE inventory.

 

 

 


     LOW E.I (negative-blue-self)

 

Those who have low Emotional Intelligence could have a mental illness of Alexithymia.  It is important to understand this mental illness in order to understand the importance it has with Emotional Intelligence.  Since Emotional intelligence is perceiving, expressing, understanding and managing emotions, one would have to be able to do all of these variables in order to have an Emotional Intelligence.  Alexithymia is a mental disorder that literally translates in to lack of words for emotion.  Those who have Alexithymia have trouble identifying and perceiving emotions in themselves and others.  They also have difficulty explaining their emotions and their thinking style to an emotion and events is not highly structured, but very minuscule when looking at the situation at hand.  From this mental illness can stem many other psychiatric disorders that doctors may overlook or treat incorrectly due to the misunderstanding of the patients’ mental illness.  The way to help those that have this disease is by understanding that these patients have low Emotional Intelligence levels.  This way the doctor can implement programs that would help increase a patient’s emotional intelligence and help them in a more effective manner.  Understanding Alexithymia can help others understand how important E.I. is and that perhaps implementing programs for children at an early age teaching them this concept can prevent many other people from developing this illness.

 

    

     HIGH E.I. (positive-blue-self)

 

Where Alexithymia correlated with low E.I., Self Actualization correlates with High E.I.  Abraham Maslow has been accredited to phrasing the term giving it a clear meaning for understanding. There are four main variables that make up of self-actualization.  The first is the ability and drive to set and achieve goals.  The second is being committed to and involved with interests.  Then comes actualizing your potential and enriching your life.  It is important to understand these basic variables to help yourself to become emotionally intelligent.  Self-Actualization goes along with being positive towards self and helping you cross that blue bridge. Self-Actualization is not said to cause Emotional Intelligence nor is Emotional Intelligence the cause of self-actualization, it is simply a factor in achieving the overall Intelligence in emotion that one can gain.

 

 

FUNCTION OF E.I.

 

RELATIONSHIPS    

 

In relationships an Emotional Intelligence of an individual is a key factor in how one might perceive, understand and manage their emotions towards the ones they love.  Giving their relationships strength or weaknesses.  If a person in a relationship is able to perceive the emotions of their loved one it opens the door to greater and much more positively stimulating communication between the two of them increasing the chances that they will grow as a couple.  In all relationships one must learn when and how to forgive and apologize.  Understanding on an Emotional Intelligent level provides each individual with rational, cognitive appraisal of the situation.  Understanding brings about empathy towards one another evaluating the cost and benefits towards situations whether it is positive or negative that might arise.  Through perceiving and understanding of loved ones and managing emotions in the relationship, a healthy relationship will occur with great ease.  Managing emotions emerges from perceiving and understanding.  There are many examples sprawled across the news and television of what a relationship looks like when there is a partner with low Emotional Intelligence.  Managing their emotions is difficult causing them to act out through destructive behavior towards loved one or acting in by committing suicide because of their inability to be emotionally intelligent and manage their emotions properly.

 

EDUCATION

 

Emotional Intelligence in schools is essential to the growth of a healthy child.  Implementing Emotional Intelligence in school help with addressing a lot of concerns of society about school children today due to the increasing violence, killings and suicides occurring in schools.  Specific guidelines to implement Emotional Intelligence have been set for schools called SEL (Social and Emotional Learning in Schools).  This tackles four essential variables involved in implementing E.I. in to the schools enabling a firm structure to establish in the lives of the school children.  SEL involves (1) Life Skills/Positive social competencies (2) Health promotion, problem prevention/risk reduction skills (3) Conflict resolution and coping and social support for transitions and crises (4) Positive, contributory service.  All of these can provide the school with a stable network of teachings providing the student with a much more advanced Emotional Intelligence than they would have otherwise.  By understanding what is involved in E.I. you can see what benefits it brings towards the child’s self and their relationship with others.  Emotional Intelligence will be a long process and those involved in wanting to incorporate it in the school system will have to be dedicated to the work.  But there has to be an effort from all sides of a child’s life: the school, teachers and especially the parents themselves.  There is evidence to the benefits that Emotional Intelligence has and there can only be advantages to implementing the SEL program in the schools.  

 

WORKPLACE

 

In the workplace were people are supposed to job oriented being productive and successful for the benefit of the company.  A worker should not have to be concerned with conflict between one another, low morale or poor work environment.  There are numerous problems that can occur in the work environment and Emotional Intelligence may find a way to provide a premium work environment. 

Testing in E.I. using the MEIS, MSCEIT can help identify strong and weak points of a person’s ability in Emotional Intelligence.  By testing an individual, an employer can find the right placement and use the abilities the employee already possesses to further job satisfaction and productivity.  Using Emotional Intelligence for career development involves three steps in the selection of an employee: Specifying the job description, selecting assessment tools and finally evaluating and recommending specific jobs.  Testing can also be done on the bosses of the company finding out what they may lack emotionally to better the morale of their employees.  Keeping the good employees they have and positively boost the working environment.  By perceiving emotions of others the employee can better understand clients, co-workers, the boss etc.  By the employee expressing their emotions everyone can come together elaborating and creating ideas to further the companies success.  Managing emotions in the work environment also plays a big role.  By managing emotions the employer and employee can hear out good ideas and deal with bad ones in a logical, decent way. 

 

SELF

 

Being Emotionally Intelligent not only helps in your affairs with others and the world (relationships, school and workplace), but it also provides you as an individual a good life as well.  Health is something that most of figure is do to chance.  If you get sick you really can’t do much, besides taking the right medication doctors prescribe to you.  But, what if you could have some way to make yourself feel better without even having any negative side effects.  Emotional Intelligence is said to have a role in all of this.  By perceiving your emotions, expressing your emotions (writing in a journal or talking with a support group), Understanding what your emotions are and managing them effectively you may have a chance of decreasing certain diseases of the heart and lowering your risk to cancer.  These studies are not conclusive and emotional intelligence has not been found to cause either finding, however there is a high correlation of such events that deserve the right to take notice of the topic. 

When dealing with money Emotional Intelligence can help you in investing and controlling your money.  Allowing conscious judgment and not emotions to facilitate your thinking.  Sometimes peoples stubbornness and their inability to see the situation for what it is causes a lot of people to loose control of the money situation and loose much more than gain. 

Emotional Intelligence helps us in our health and wealth, because E.I. causes us to be wiser about our emotions.  Helping individuals to deal effectively and rationally towards the situation even if negative life events happen your way.  It is important for an individual to be emotionally intelligent, because they are not only helping others/world, but also themselves.

 

 

 

 

THOUGHTS ON THE BOOK

 

This book provides many outlooks to the subject of Emotional Intelligence, not just a definition and some examples.  One of its strong points would have to be that there are so many different kinds of Quality authors of each chapter.  Mayer and Salovey both who, “Drew together much of the above research and developed a formal theory of E.I. and a coordinated measurement demonstration” (P.7; Para 3).  Have contributed to the writing of the book.  They have also developed a test of E.I. that is an improvement from the previous MEIS called, Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT).  Another strong point would have to be that there were a variety of topics that can be applied to my life and others.  The chapters on relationship, school, work and health & wealth were relevant to today’s concerns.  In the E.I. and Education Elias, Hunter and Kress wrote about the program SEL that help build and can reinforce skills that will help teen’s problem solve situations they would encounter in real life, also prevention/risk programs helping them turn from unhealthy behaviors and lifestyles. In addition I believe that reading this book will help you get a strong grasp on the concept of E.I. by reviewing it in each and every chapter.  In some way or the other Emotional Intelligence was reviewed so that the reader would remember its main concepts: perceiving, expressing, understanding and managing emotions.  If you are unable to understand E.I. in the first chapter you will surely be able to understand it in the up and coming chapters.

This book had many strong points and it was very hard to find weaknesses because it is a subject that I have never heard about in my other classes.  This book seemed to have the right writers and topics seemed endless.   However I thought one of its weaknesses was that it put a lot of emphasis on tests.  How important it is to administer.  “Our career development process relies heavily upon assessing, or testing” (P. 151; Para 2).  Every chapter seemed to talk about various tests and specific outcomes, but there were no examples of an E.I. test at all.  Another weaknesses would have to be that when there was information about E.I. they would put something that’s almost like a warning, examples of this would be:

“Overall, then the MSCEIT V2.0 shows substantial promise.  However, because the test is so new, further research is still needed to fully explore its potential” (P. 34; Para 1). 

“Despite this emcouraging initial evidence, E.I. research is still in its infancy and much more research needs to done to fully establish the validity of E.I. measures” (P. 45; Para 1(there is also a spelling error here on this page)). 

“Although the above two studies suggest an important relationship, between self-actualization and occupational performance, we still do not know for certain if the former is a cause, an outcome of the latter, or both” (P. 94; Para 3). 

“Although the findings presented in this chapter suggest promising directions for applying E.I., they need to be reexamined…” (P.97; Para 2)

While reading I found these tid-bits through out the book.  For me it was not discouraging nor did I have no reason to question if anything was valid in the book, but I thought that perhaps if they are going to write information on the topic it there should be more conclusive evidence.

 

 

HOW CAN THE BOOK HELP?

 

Through out this book there were a lot of problems that people encounter or have and provided explanations or solutions to them.  The ones I found most helpful would be the one on Alexithymia.  Alexithymia actually means lack of words for emotions.  Many people that you encounter through your life have probably had such characteristics described in the book, “difficulty identifying feelings and distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations of emotional arousal, difficulty describing feelings to others, a poor fantasy life, and a cognitive style that is literal and focuses on minute details” (P. 68; Para 3).  The chapter on Alexithymia explains what can happen when it goes undiagnosed and different unhealthy ways that the person may cope with life events. It also discusses the correlation with low E.I.  At the end of the chapter it discusses solutions treatment and prevention.  Treatment to Alexithymia first begins with the correct diagnosis of the disease.  This way the patient can be out in a specific program that helps them become better.  Some suggestions the book gives for treatment is: “It would be better to focus on treatment that helps the patients to increase emotional self-awareness and the ability to tolerate distressing emotional states and to look at and use emotions as sources of information for managing stressful situations.  Clinicians must also teach their patients how to become more attuned to their feelings of others, along with ways to enhance their own creative imagination that will further help them contain and regulate their emotions” (P. 80; Para 2)

Another problem they discussed was relationships and how you would go about creating a healthy relationship.  Since many of the marriages end in divorce I thought this chapter had various solutions to small problems that couples can overcome together, with out taking it to, Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Hatchette, Peoples’ Court or any other television court room.  Suggestions to becoming more emotional intelligent in relationships were using your emotional intelligence of perceiving emotions to help with the communication in the relationship.  Understand when your partner is sad, upset or happy to help guide in discussing problems both of you have towards one another.  Chapter 6 also reviews understanding and reasoning about emotions, this will help in forgiveness of the other person showing empathy towards each other turning it into a caring relationship rather than a hateful one.  Managing and regulating emotions in marriage is another key issue that involves emotional intelligence and also keeps the fighting to a minimum.  There are many benefits from this, “In the marital context, emotion management involves the frequent expression of positive emotions like love, and a willingness to empathize and engage with one’s partner in a climate of trust and affection” (P.109; Para 3).

 

 

MY TESTS

 

I decided to take three different tests in order to get an idea of what is my Emotional Intelligence score.  I believe it would be interesting if the students enrolled in 409a&b and 459 took these tests during the first week of the course and then at the end to see if there are any improvements.  My hypothesis would be that after the Emotional Spin Cycle Report 2 there would be a higher score achieved because of the application of the Spin Cycle and because of the deeper knowledge of the Emotional Intelligence subject.  When I took the tests on line they seemed similar, but with different questions.  I found it to be reliable, meaning that from the three tests my score stayed about the same.  I’ve learned that overall I am an emotionally intelligent individual scoring above average on the tests.  I copied the results of the tests below.  I plan on taking similar tests or perhaps the same ones after report 2, in order to see if applying the emotional spin cycle and crossing the blue and red bridges have changed my E.Q. in any way.

 

EQ TEST #1

YOUR SCORE IS 120
( 200 is the highest score and 100 is average )

WHAT YOUR EQ SCORE MEANS (HYPOTHETICALLY)

·  200 -- Highest Score

·  175

·  150

·  125

·  100 -- Average

·  75

·  50

·  25

·  0 -- Best to try again another time

 

 

EQ TEST #2

 

You scored 90% correct!

Your score falls in the high EQ range.

 

 

EQ TEST #3

 

SCORE:

Ruler

-----------------------------------------127

 

 

 

Health and Stress

 

Mental Health is a concern when looking towards individuals that have a low E.I.  There is a whole chapter dedicated to the topic of Alexithymia a mental health issue.  Those that have Alexithymia are prone to psychiatric disorder such as substance abuse, eating disorders, somatoform disorders, anxiety and depressive disorders and borderline personality disorders.  If Alexithymia patients have been found to have mainly low Emotional Intelligence, imagine the outcomes if Emotional Intelligence is learned at an early age and developed while attending work or school.  These psychiatric disorders can be prevented before it begins.

Chapter 10 brought up some good points of Emotional Intelligence and how it can help with your physical health.  Since understanding your emotions and expressing them appropriately is part of E.I. there are health benefits.  It is discussed that people who have cynical hostility a failure of emotional self-management takes a harmful health toll on your body.  Those that have such low emotional intelligence, “Creates excessive cardiovascular reactivity.  The heart and vascular system tend to overreact to minor stressors, and this is especially true in situations involving other people…increase in blood cholesterol and triglycerids creates a risk for the buildup of plaques, which can block arteries feeding heart muscle and result in heart attack”  (P.169; Para 3) It is different for people who have high emotional intelligence.  Suppressing feeling is not good, but releasing them in a healthy way is, such as writing in a journal or going to support groups.  There was a study done by David Spiegel on women who had cancer.  Half of the group was enrolled in “support groups that met weekly and, in part, helped women to learn to express their feelings about having cancer, extract meaning from the experience, and develop a social support system” (P. 170; Para 3).  The other would not have this type of treatment.  The study had found that those that were enrolled in what can be called an emotionally intelligent program had lived 37 months as compared that had not had treatment who lived 19 months.

Emotional Intelligence helps with health, but also with stress.  As we grow up we understand that even if you are in school or at work you will have stress.  Teenagers in school deal with a variety of stressors such as handling schoolwork, peer pressure, rejection and a variety of other stressful situations from home or school.  By implementing Emotional Intelligence programs in the school children can help themselves cope and overcome stressful situations.  Chapter 6 discusses the many programs that were integrated in the school system to build E.I. skills. There is a program they discuss called Promoting alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) a trial of 200 second and third graders were taught emotional intelligence concepts and how they could apply it to themselves and their life.  Their findings were fascinating.  In the two years they had found improvements in children coping abilities in transitioning in to middle school and teachers reports of the students’ behavior.  During the follow up six years later it was found that those students enrolled in the PATHS program as 2nd and 3rd graders continued to appear better adjusted.  When compared with other schools those that did not receive the program had higher rates of drinking alcohol, behaving violently and having self destructive/identity problems, showing poor coping abilities to life events.  By these programs teenagers can deal with life stressors more effectively.

Adults experience a lot of their stress at work.  Implementing Emotional Intelligence in the workplace can eliminate a lot of those stressors that an employee doesn’t need such as not getting along with co-workers, uncaring boss, Unhappy with job situation etc.  There are many stressors that can arise in work other than the work you need to accomplish.  Implementing emotional intelligence in to the workplace can provide an understanding towards the needs of the employee, which will help the employer have a better company.   If co-workers are trained in becoming more empathetic, understanding each others emotions and managing their own emotions the workplace environment can become more productive and taking away lot of the stress between the employees and creating extra work around the office.  The benefit of having a boss that is emotionally aware of them selves also helps.  Because they will be more willing to except good ideas, they will less likely act out in a negative way because they will be able to manage their feelings appropriately.  Often times when the boss is having a bad day they tend to relate and dump it all on the nearest or lowest class employee causing more stress towards the employee and perhaps causing them to find jobs elsewhere.

In health or in stress Emotional Intelligence can help a person prevent, handle or cope with the situations they encounter, providing them with a step up in life.

 

 

Internet Reviews

 

I have listed and quoted some reviews found over the Internet:

 

Review 1: Amazon

 

Editorial Reviews
Book Description
The notion of Emotional Intelligence (EI) - the ability to perceive, understand, and manage emotions - has become enormously popular, generating numerous books, articles, TV talk shows, and websites. Despite the extensive interest, this is the first book to provide a serious, comprehensive review of the field and the ways in which EI is important to everyday life. Written in an engaging and accessible style, the book sets out clearly what Emotional Intelligence is (and what it is not), as well as describing the basic skills and knowledge that are needed to achieve high EI. It goes on to discuss the important applications of EI to everyday life, addressing such key questions as: DT How can emotional intelligence be used to improve health, financial decisions, friendships marriages, and career success? DT How can training programs in emotional intelligence be implemented in schools and in the work force?

Book Info
(Psychology Press) Univ. of Wollongong. Provides a comprehensive review of the body of psychological research on the concept of emotional intelligence and the ways in which it is important in daily life. Discusses the functions of emotional intelligence in marriage, careers, and other significant life circumstances. Hardcover, softcover also available.

 

Review 2: Review on Emotional Intelligence in Everyday Life

A very good book on the topic (2001) is Emotional Intelligence in Everyday Life. It is edited by J. Ciarrochi, J. Forgas, and J.D. Mayer and is published by Psychology Press. The book is designed for academic as well as non-academic audiences, but it is research and theory based.  Click here for the full-text Introductory chapter from Emotional Intelligence in Everyday Life.  A full Table of Contents is also available.

 

This book is full of information and research is cited on mostly every page.  On pages 195-216 you will find numerous amounts of references pertaining to each chapter and topic.  This will help in research that you might want to do on specific topics, for instance if you’re interested in education flip to the back and look on references on chapter 8.  You could probably take a closer look at the studies that were done checking for validity or checking on more research done on the topic.  As a psychology major I find that names arise that are familiar or mentioned in a lot of the textbook readings.  Pages 217-222 provide an author index if you are interested in finding out what psychologist has done studies and on what field of interest they are in.  In most books I find the subject index to be the most helpful.  It provides you with terms that are found through out the book.  If you are interested in anxiety and emotional intelligence you will be able to find it wherever it is listed in the book.  This book is extremely well versed on the subject of emotional intelligence and just skimming through the final pages you will see all the work put in to it. 

 

 

 

RELEVANCE?

 

This book caters to all individuals.  It can help students, educators, business men/women, parents etc.  It can be beneficial because this book shows how important Emotional Intelligence plays in to our lives.  I believe it explains and reviews E.I. in a way that anyone can understand and it makes sense.  The book can help people look towards themselves and apply some knowledge learned towards their relationships, school and work.  In fact if people become aware of what EI is and begin to try to apply what they read in the book they can become conditioned to it and in some way raise their E.I.

Of course by reading the book you find its relevance to society and our lives.  In the previous paragraphs above I discussed how E.I. helps with topics such as relationships, school, work, mental/physical health and stress.  Clearly you can find from that information the relevance it can have in people’s lives.  Some websites I found demonstrating the relevance it has in Education and Work are listed below.

 

Education:

Reading, Writing and Social Development     Internet, March 17, 2002   available

http://www.eq.org/cgi/frames.pl?id=195&title=Reading,%20Writing,%20and%20Social%20Development

 

Emotional Intelligence in Schools     Internet, March 17, 2002   available

http://www.connected.org/learn/school.html

 

Benefits of EQ a Compelling Compilation of Research     Internet, March 17, 2002   available

http://www.6seconds.org/main.php3?TN=s/dynamic.html&id=269

 

Work:

Do Programs Designed to Increase Emotional Intelligence at Work-Work?     Internet, March 17, 2002  available   http://www.eiconsortium.org/

 

Human Resource Management Trends and Issues: Emotional Intelligence in The Workplace     Internet, March 17, 2002   available  http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/research/personnel/ei_e.htm

 

Does ‘Emotional Intelligence’ Matter in The Workplace?     Internet, March 17, 2002  available

http://www.apa.org/monitor/jul98/emot.html

 

From the amounts of information on these two topics alone you can find how much the media plays a role in educating the public about Emotional Intelligence.  In each of these articles you will find concern of Education in the schools or Environment in the workplace.  From the shooting in high schools, teen suicide and pregnancy these articles show how much Emotional Intelligence would be beneficial in the school system.  There is also the importance of E.I. Education in the workplace.  It shows the concern about employees and their welfare.  This is important because there are also shootings that occur at work from disgruntled employees.  It seems that there is so much literature on the topic, because people want to improve the school environment for kids and the work environment for adults and many believe emotional intelligence is the key

 

 

 

ME

 

Reading Emotional Intelligence in Everyday Life: a scientific inquiry as someone who is interested in E.I. and as a psychology major it opened my eyes into a fairly ‘new’ concept.  This book helped me to recognize what E.I. is and if I had such factors as perceiving, expressing, understanding and managing emotions.  In the psychology profession you are in it to ultimately help others and how will I be able to accomplish that with out being emotionally intelligent.  Those who are going to be in or are already in professions that help others should be or take classes in emotionally intelligence.  Because how can you help others if you can’t even help yourself.  In many of my psychology classes we go over what makes people think, act and behave the way they do and this book is another way to help me understand this and people in general.  This Emotional Intelligence book seems to be different than the widely renowned books of Goleman.  It provides many experiences individual writings on the same topic from many experienced authors on the subject.  The part of the book I enjoyed reading about was the E.I. and the applications to everyday life.  It involved talking about the life events that we encounter daily ranging from positive to negative, big or small.  It expressed the importance of having emotional intelligence and from diagram 2.1 on page 26 the concept of E.I. became real clear.

Here is an example of this diagram:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


I also enjoyed a quote that Julie Fitness put at the beginning of chapter 6 about Emotional Intelligence and Intimate Relationship (P. 98; Para 1):

 

To keep your marriage brimming

With love in the marriage cup

Whenever you’re wrong,

Admit it

Whenever you’re right,

Shut up

-- Ogden Nash, 1962

 

This quote summed up a lot of what she discusses in her chapter.  Being emotionally intelligent in a relationship is perceiving your partners emotions and knowing when to speak and when to stay quiet.

A lot of times partners think of themselves before they realize their partners needs.  Especially when strong emotionally eliciting circumstances arise.  Here is where emotional intelligence needs to be at your best.  Managing these emotions for instance: admitting you were wrong when your were wrong and letting go of rubbing it in to prove to your partner that you were right, are very good tips addressed in the book.  I found this chapter to be beneficial to me not only with intimate relationships, but relationships with people as well.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

In conclusion there is so much that we can learn from Emotional Intelligence, and still so much more we need to find out about the subject.  This book has recently been published which makes it a good textbook to gain information from.  There is a lot research sited and many authors that have been studying the concept for years.  I found it to be up and coming with the times and relevant to our concerns today.  This book shows how emotional intelligence applies to all facets of life and living.  Emotional Intelligence is a concept, which I find extremely interesting and worthwhile to teach in homes, schools, and workplace environments.  I believe that this book is beneficial to read for all people, but not all ages (perhaps for the younger ones a simpler version). 

 

 

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