Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is most often defined as the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions. Several models have been developed in order to measure it.

What those models are will be explained in this article.

The information from this article will be useful in the GS-4 segment of the UPSC Exam,

Definition of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence has been defined, by Peter Salovey and John Mayer, as “the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior”. This definition was later broken down and refined into four proposed abilities: perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions.

These abilities are distinct yet related. Emotional intelligence also reflects abilities to join intelligence, empathy and emotions to enhance thought and understanding of interpersonal dynamics. However, substantial disagreement exists regarding the definition of EI, with respect to both terminology and operationalizations. Currently, there are three main models of EI:

1. Ability model
2. Mixed model (usually subsumed under trait EI)
3. Trait model

Different models of EI have led to the development of various instruments for the assessment of the construct. While some of these measures may overlap, most researchers agree that they tap different constructs.

Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence

Salovey and Mayer’s conception of EI strives to define EI within the confines of the standard criteria for a new intelligence.Following their continuing research, their initial definition of EI was revised to “The ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand emotions and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth.” However, after pursuing further research, their definition of EI evolved into “the capacity to reason about emotions, and of emotions, to enhance thinking.

The ability-based model views emotions as useful sources of information that help one to make sense of and navigate the social environment. The model claims that EI includes four types of abilities:

1. Perceiving emotions – the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts—including the ability to identify one’s own emotions. Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of emotional intelligence, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.
2. Using emotions – the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem-solving. The emotionally intelligent person can capitalize fully upon his or her changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand.
3. Understanding emotions – the ability to comprehend emotion language and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions. For example, understanding emotions encompasses the ability to be sensitive to slight variations between emotions, and the ability to recognize and describe how emotions evolve over time.
4. Managing emotions – the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.

Mixed Model of Emotional Intelligence

The model introduced by Daniel Goleman[25] focuses on EI as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive leadership performance. Goleman’s model outlines five main EI constructs (for more details see “What Makes A Leader” by Daniel Goleman, best of Harvard Business Review 1998):

• Self-awareness – the ability to know one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and goals and recognize their impact on others while using gut feelings to guide decisions.
• Self-regulation – involves controlling or redirecting one’s disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.
• Social skill – managing relationships to get along with others
• Empathy – considering other people’s feelings especially when making decisions
• Motivation – being aware of what motivates them.

Trait Models

Konstantinos V. Petrides (“K. V. Petrides”) proposed a conceptual distinction between the ability based model and a trait based model of EI and has been developing the latter over many years in numerous publications.Trait EI is “a constellation of emotional self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality.” In layman’s terms, trait EI refers to an individual’s self-perceptions of their emotional abilities. This definition of EI encompasses behavioral dispositions and self-perceived abilities and is measured by self report, as opposed to the ability based model which refers to actual abilities, which have proven highly resistant to scientific measurement. Trait EI should be investigated within a personality framework. An alternative label for the same construct is trait emotional self-efficacy