Good Emotional Intelligence Research Paper Example

Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is one of the two intelligences of people, the other relating to the intellect . It refers to the ability of a person to understand his own and others’ emotions and the ability to relate and respond to other people as a result of this understanding
There are three popular models of emotional intelligence. The first is the ability emotional intelligence (EI), a theory developed and promoted by Peter Salvoney and John Mayer. The second is the traits EI by K.V. Petrides. The third combines the two models as popularized by Daniel Goleman.

Emotional Intelligence and Trait Emotional Intelligence

Peter Salvoney and John Mayer are among the leading proponents of emotional intelligence especially in defining it as a combination of ability EI and traits EI. They thus define EI as a subset of social intelligence concerning the “the ability one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and use this information to guide one’s own actions and thinking.” In this context, ability EI refers to how a person relates to other persons. Essentially this is a result of what that person is and how he perceives his environment and other people. So, that person would respond to any stimulus according to his emotions and intelligence. Traits emotion in this context
K.V. Petrides is one of the leading proponents of trait EI. In his paper, he takes off form Gardner’s definition of interpersonal EI and intrapersonal EI. The first refers to a person’ social or interpersonal skills; the latter to introspection or one’s ability to understand oneself. Interpersonal EI essentially refers to ability EI; while interpersonal EI, to traits EI. He concludes that ability EI is not really a kind of intelligence; traits EI can be considered one.
Ability EI, as it is defined and measured now, does not seem to be a real intelligence because of the measures used. It measure mainly social ability. A person who scores high on the tests means that the person has good interpersonal skills. A person who scores low on the tests, however, does not mean that the person has low or poor emotional intelligences. He has high intelligence in fields—such as research—that do not require socializing and demand silence.
Meanwhile, traits EI can be considered a real intelligence and measures used for it can be truly diagnostic and help persons improve themselves.

Parental Skills Supporting the Development of a Child’s Emotional Intelligence

Children first develop their emotional intelligence at home. They learn everything first from the family, most importantly the parents. According to Daniel Goleman, parents should learn positive attitudes and feelings toward their children. For instance, they should take a more empathetic understanding of their children rather than taking harsh disciplinary action. They should show warmth instead of difference. In short, they should care and show that they care.
Parents too should undergo some self-examination or measurement. This is so they could understand themselves, know their weaknesses and their strengths. That way, thy would be able address certain personal issues or problems so they could properly relate to their children’s emotions.

Parental Skills Hindering the Development of a Child’s Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman parents’ ineptitude could hinder the development of a child’s emotional intelligence. He cites three factors or situations that could result in such hindrance:
“Ignoring feelings altogether”: Some parents tend to dismiss their children’s feelings. They dismiss feelings as an important. As a result, these parents are not able to take advantage of certain situations to help a child mature in his emotions.
“Feeling too laissez faire”: These parents let their children be and wrongfully think that whatever their children do is fine. They are thus unable to make corrections when necessary or guide children to properly interpret certain situations.
“Being contemptuous”: These parents condemn certain expressions of feelings and are very harsh in their treatment of these. They forbid expressions of certain emotions.
In short, parents can hinder a the development of a child’s emotional intelligence if they ignore or condemn their children’s feeling and do not use certain situations to teach their children how properly handle things.

The Classroom and My Own Emotional Intelligence

As Daniel Goleman stressed in the introduction of his book, there are two important roles that emotional intelligence plays in the family and in society. First is self-restraint. This is “the base of will and character”. Second is empathy. “The root of altruism lies in empathy, the ability to read emotions in others; lacking a sense of another's need or despair, there is no caring.”
It is in caring where the success of education lies. An educator must understand the needs of the pupils, he must understand his pupils as he should any loved one. Understanding the person is key in finding out how one can fulfill that person’s education needs.
However, it can be difficult practicing this in the classroom as there can be as many as more than 20 persons involved. Still, a teacher or any instructor or any educators should exercise as much as possible these two principles. And that is how I should be guiding myself. I should exercise sensitivity of the pupil’s needs. Generally, most of the students would have similar attitudes and outlooks as they come from the same community. So, I will have to apply the appropriate stimulus to get the correct response. Caring is important in nurturing and developing young people. I must exercise as much caring as I can. This doe s not mean that I will have to compromise anything. I can be firm at the same time. I can be firm but need not be unkind or uncaring. As there would be exceptions in the classroom, I will have to exercise a more caring attitude toward these people. In doing so, I will find out which is the best way to get that student to learn.
As Goleman concludes the paragraph in the introduction, “And if there are any two moral stances that our times call for, they are precisely these, self-restraint and compassion."

References

Goleman, D. (1996). Emotional intelligence. New York, NY, USA: Bantam Books.
Petrides, K. (2011). Ability and trait emotional intelligence. In T. Chamorro-Premuzic, S. von Stumm, & A. Furnham (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Individual Differences (First ed., pp. 656-678). Hoboken, NJ, USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Retrieved Feb 28, 2015, from http://www.psychometriclab.com/admins/files/trait%20ei%20-%20hid.pdf
Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. In P. Salovey, M. A. Brackett, & J. D. Mayer (Eds.), Emotional intelligence: Key readings on the Mayer and Salovey model (pp. 185-211). New York, NY, USA: Baywood Publishing Inc. Retrieved Feb 28, 2015, from http://www.unh.edu/emotional_intelligence/EIAssets/EmotionalIntelligenceProper/EI1990%20Emotional%20Intelligence.pdf