Edited by Joseph Ciarrochi, Joseph P. Forgas, and John D. Mayer
Psychology Press, 2001
The authors of this book have offered a look at the history of emotional intelligence, how it is measured, and how it plays a role in our everyday lives. I really enjoyed reading about the history of emotional intelligence. Quite often in my Psychology classes I learn about new theories or ideas and have no idea where these ideas came from. This book does a great job of describing how emotional intelligence developed over time. I also like the way that the authors point out that there are different definitions used to describe emotional intelligence today. It is important to understand which definition is being used when discussing emotional intelligence. The authors own definition of emotional intelligence is as follows:
"Emotional intelligence refers to an ability to recognize the meanings of emotions and their relationships, and to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them. Emotional intelligence is involved in the capacity to perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them. [34, p. 267]" (Ciarrochi, p. 9)
***Add info. from other book about how it is important to understand the question in order to use correct test for measurement.
The text does not contain any actual tests for emotional intelligence. It does, however, refer to several tests that can be used to measure emotional intelligence. Through research on the internet I was able to find various sites offering some of these tests on emotional intelligence. Here are a few of the available sites that you can refer to if you would like to see where you are on the scale of emotional intelligence.
One strength of the book is the way the authors decided to divide the topics being discussed. They describe the evolution of emotional intelligence and how it can be measured. I found the most informative sections to be those that refer to how emotional intelligence can be applied to our everyday lives. Emotional intelligence plays a role in our intimate relationships, our education, and our workplace. These authors help show how raising our levels of emotional intelligence can improve our relationships with our loved ones and those we work with. Higher levels of emotional intelligence can also improve our