What is Emotional Intelligence? [Infographic]

What is Emotional Intelligence (EI)? It can maybe break down into four areas which we should consider, Managing Emotions, Understanding Emotions, Reasoning with Emotions, and Perceiving Emotion.

The ability to manage emotions effectively is a very important part of EI. Regulating emotions, responding appropriately and responding to the emotions of others are key elements of EI.

The emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. It is up to the observer of the emotion to interpret the cause of it and figure out what it may mean.

Emotions can be used to promote thinking and cognitive activity. They help prioritize what we pay attention and react to;
in other words: something we respond to emotionally, is something that grabs our attention.

The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. This may involve understanding nonverbal. signals such as body language and facial expressions.

Marketers who use emotional intelligence to develop highly successful campaigns share these three elements:

1. They are honest about their motives for marketing
2. They deeply empathize with their audience
3. They bridge the gap between what they want and what their audience wants

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A Brief History

1920s: Renowned psychologist Edward Thorndike describes the concept of “social intelligence” as “the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls, to act wisely in human relations.”

1940s: David Wechsler suggests that factors other than intellectual ability are involved in intelligent behavior.

1950s: Humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow describe how people can build emotional strength.

1980s: In 1983 Howard Gardner publishes Frames of Mind The Theory of Multiple Intelligences which introduces the concept of multiple intelligences. According to Gardner. humans have several different ways of processing information and these ways are relatively independent of one another.
In 1985 Wayne Payne introduces the term “emotional intelligence” for the first time in his doctoral dissertation entitled “A Study of Emotion: Developing Emotional Intelligence”.

In 1990 Psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer publish their landmark article, “Emotional Intelligence,” in the journal Imagination, Cognition, and Personality. They propose a model that identifies four different factors of EI.

In 1995 Psychologist and New York Times science writer Daniel Goleman makes emotional intelligence mainstream with the publication of his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than 10. But his book was predominantly based on the 1990 work by Salovey and Mayer on the areas of social and EI.

To learn more about the topic read the complete infographic below. It compares EQ – Emotional Quotient versus IQ – Intelligence Quotient, while one is all about understanding emotion, the other one is understanding information.

Bookmark our page to make sure you have this information on hand when you need it. The infographic was put together by DAVITT.