Emotional intelligence….Is it needed?

Tue, Feb 17, 2015

The concept of emotional intelligence has become a very hot topic of psychological research in recent years, especially in regard to how it affects today’s workforce. Emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success; it is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships empathetically and in a manner characterized by sound judgment.

The ability to express and control our own emotions is important, but so is our ability to understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others. {{more}}Let us imagine for a moment, SVG as a place where no one took the time to understand when a friend or family member was feeling sad or even when a co-worker was angry…Our interactions on a daily basis would have been met by indifference, hostility, selfishness and persons just merely on a quest to fulfill their needs at the risk of causing another person much pain.

Psychologists characterize emotional intelligence, as being more important than IQ. Psychologists Peter Salovey and John D Mayer, in 1990, proposed a model that identified four different factors of emotional intelligence: the perception of emotion, the ability to reason using emotions, the ability to understand emotion and the ability to manage emotions.

1. Perceiving Emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. In many cases, this might involve understanding non-verbal signals such as body language and facial expressions. Paying attention to the simple things….Let’s say for instance, you asked someone “how are you?” Then the fitting thing to do is to wait keenly for the response. Look at their expression to see if it is congruent with the words coming out of their mouth.

2. Reasoning with Emotions: The next step involves using emotions to promote thinking and cognitive activity. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention. Foster positive emotions which will encourage resilience and empowerment.

3. Understanding Emotions: The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. If someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean. For example, if your supervisor at work is acting angry, it might mean that he or she is upset with your work; or it could be because of something that took place on the way to work that morning or something may have happened at home.

The onus, therefore, is on each individual to find out the basis of the anger and not lash out defensively; likewise, persons are to be mindful not to transfer/direct inappropriate feelings on others whom it is not meant for.

4. Managing Emotions: The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional intelligence. Regulating emotions, responding appropriately and responding to the emotions of others are all important aspects of emotional management.

I would like to encourage everyone to be empathetic and make it their personal and professional business to demonstrate kindness to others. It is important that we maintain the integrity of our interpersonal relationships by showing respect to one another; use tact in expressing opinions which are not popular and understand that there is a time and place for everything under the sun.

Prepared by

Dr Jozelle Miller
Health Psychologist
Milton Cato Memorial Hospital