The Friday Funda (TFF) No. 16, Date: 19th Aug. 2022 Theme: Emotional Intelligence (EI) – Part - II

 Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a multi-dimensional concept which has a significant influence on the behaviour of human beings.

 

Emotional Intelligence w.r.t. Human Personality

 

Three components of Human Personality (by Ajay K Jain, MDI, Gurugram)

I. Cognition II. Affect III. Conation 

 Cognition

 Cognition refers to an implicit process of knowing the real world and it is related to our rational and logical thinking, learning and remembering, analysis and prediction etc. The concept of intelligence belongs to cognitive aspects of human personality, wherein “Intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with the environment.

 Affect

 Affect refers to the emotional interpretation of perceptions, information or knowledge. It is generally associated with one’s attachment (positive or negative) to people, objects, ideas etc. Mood and feelings are related to affective aspects of human personality. In several social psychological experiments, it is confirmed that mood or emotions directly affect the cognitive skills or functioning of the memory. For example, people tend to forget things quickly when they are exposed to highly irritating or depressive situations while remembering things better under positive mood conditions. It means there is a complex interrelationship between cognitive and affective processes.

 Conative

 Conative (or motivation) refers to the personal, intentional, planned, deliberate, goal-oriented or striving component of motivation, the proactive (as opposed to reactive or habitual) aspects of behaviour.

 Cognitive, affective and conative aspects interact with each other in any situation, but one may dominate the other in some cases. Cognitive aspects were emphasized more because of its link with IQ and decision-making.

  Definitions and Concept of Emotional Intelligence

 “Emotional Intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.” -  Mayer &  Salovey

 “Emotional intelligence is a different type of intelligence. It‘s about being - heart smart, not just book smart.” – Jeanne Segal

 “Emotional Intelligence is the ability to identify, assess and control one’s own emotions, emotions of others and that of groups.” – Daniel Goleman

 “Emotional Intelligence can help in understanding ourselves and others. It can bring meaning to an age of math and reduce the “algos” which in Latin means “pain” in the algorithmically tuned streams that colonize our minds.” - Rishad Tobaccowala

“Emotional Intelligence is an ability to perform under stressful conditions through cognitive controlled affective processes.” – Ajay  K Jain

Emotional intelligence is the product of two main skills: Personal and Social competence. Personal Competence focuses on an individual and is divided into self-awareness, and Self-management. Social competence focuses more on how one behaves with other people and is divided into social awareness and relationship management

The three internal hallmarks of emotional intelligence pertinent to self are:

• Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand one’s moods, emotions and drives, as well as their effect on others.
• Self-regulation is the ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses and moods and the propensity to suspend judgement and think before acting.
• Motivation is a passion to work for reasons that go beyond the external drive for knowledge, utility, surroundings, others, power or methodology and are based on an internal drive or propensity to pursue goals with energy and persistence.

Externally, EI is a measure of what goes on between self and others.

• Social-awareness is the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people and how one’s words and actions affect others.
• Relationship Management is one’s ability to influence the emotional clarity of others through a proficiency in managing relationships and building networks.

Cognitive intelligence works well under normal conditions of life; however, emotional intelligence is needed under stressful conditions.

An appropriate combination of cognitive and affective processes leads to a better understanding of the situation and problems before attempting to solve them.

Emotional Intelligence is balancing emotional and rational thinking.