What is Emotional Intelligence? Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions.

Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an inborn characteristic. Since 1990, Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer have been the leading researchers on emotional intelligence. In their influential article "Emotional Intelligence," they defined emotional intelligence as, "the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and aThe Four Branches of Emotional Intelligence Salovey and Mayer proposed a model that identified four different factors of emotional intelligence: the perception of emotion, the ability reason using emotions, the ability to understand emotion and the ability to manage emotions.

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Perceiving Emotions: The first step in understanding emotions is to accurately perceive them. In many cases, this might involve understanding nonverbal signals such as body language and facial expressions.

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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.

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 boss is acting angry, it might mean that he is dissatisfied with your work; or it could be because he got a speeding ticket on his way to work that morning or that he's been fighting with his wife. 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 aspect of emotional management. According to Salovey and Mayer, the four branches of their model are, "arranged from more basic psychological processes to higher, more psychologically integrated processes. For example, the lowest level branch concerns the (relatively) simple abilities of perceiving and expressing emotion. In contrast, the highest level branch concerns the conscious, reflective regulation of emotion" (1997).

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A Brief History of Emotional Intelligence

1930s Edward Thorndike describes the concept of "social intelligence" as the ability to get along with other people.

1940s David Wechsler suggests that affective components of intelligence may be essential to success in life.

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

1975 - Howard Gardner publishes The Shattered Mind, which introduces the concept of multiple intelligences.

1985 - Wayne Payne introduces the term emotional intelligence in his doctoral dissertation entitled A study of emotion: developing emotional intelligence; self-integration; relating to fear, pain and desire (theory, structure of reality, problem-solving, contraction/expansion, tuning in/coming out/letting go).

1987 In an article published in Mensa Magazine, Keith Beasley uses the term emotional quotient. It has been suggested that this is the first published use of the term, although Reuven Bar-On claims to have used the term in an unpublished version of his graduate thesis.

1990 Psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer publish their landmark article, "Emotional Intelligence," in the journal Imagination, Cognition, and Personality.

1995 - The concept of emotional intelligence is popularized after publication of psychologist and New York Times science writer Daniel Golemans book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Measuring Emotional Intelligence "In regard to measuring emotional intelligence I am a great believer that criterion-report (that is, ability testing) is the only adequate method to employ. Intelligence is an ability, and is

directly measured only by having people answer questions and evaluating the correctness of those answers." --John D. Mayer

Reuven Bar-Ons EQ-i A self-report test designed to measure competencies including awareness, stress tolerance, problem solving, and happiness. According to Bar-On, Emotional intelligence is an array of noncognitive capabilities, competencies, and skills that influence ones ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures.

Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS) An ability-based test in which test-takers perform tasks designed to assess their ability to perceive, identify, understand, and utilize emotions.

Seligman Attributional Style Questionnaire (SASQ) Originally designed as a screening test for the life insurance company Metropolitan Life, the SASQ measures optimism and pessimism.

Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) Based on an older instrument known as the Self-Assessment Questionnaire, the ECI involves having people who know the individual offer ratings of that persons abilities on a number of different emotional competencies.

References:

Beasley, K. (1987) "The Emotional Quotient." Mensa Magazine - United Kingdom Edition

Gardner, H. (1975) The Shattered Mind, New York: Knopf.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam.

Hein, S. "Emotional Intelligence." Found online at http://eqi.org/.

Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2000). Models of emotional intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.). Handbook of Intelligence (pp. 396-420). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Payne, W.L. (1985). A study of emotion: developing emotional intelligence; self-integration; relating to fear, pain and desire (theory, structure of reality, problemsolving, contraction/expansion, tuning in/comingout/letting go). A Doctoral Dissertation. Cincinnati, OH: The Union For Experimenting Colleges And Universities

Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, cognition, and personality, 9(3), 185-211.

Thorndike, R. L., & Stein, S. (1937). An evaluation of the attempts to measure social intelligence. Psychological Bulletin, 34, 275-284.

Wechsler, D. (1940). Nonintellective factors in general intelligence. Psychological Bulletin, 37, 444-445.

What is your emotional IQ?

For decades, a lot of emphasis has been put on certain aspects of intelligence such as logical reasoning, math skills, spatial skills, understanding analogies, verbal skills etc. Researchers were puzzled by the fact that while IQ could predict to a significant degree academic performance and, to some degree, professional and personal success, there was something missing in the equation. Some of those with fabulous IQ scores were doing poorly in life; one could say that they were wasting their potential by thinking, behaving and communicating in a way that hindered their chances to succeed.

One of the major missing parts in the success equation is emotional intelligence, a concept made popular by the groundbreaking book by Daniel Goleman, which is based on years of research by numerous scientists such as Peter Salovey, John Meyer, Howard Gardner, Robert Sternberg and Jack Block, just to name a few. For various reasons and thanks to a wide range of abilities, people with high emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in life than those with lower EIQ even if their classical IQ is average.

This emotional intelligence test will evaluate several aspects of your emotional intelligence and will suggest ways to improve it. Please be honest and answer according to what you really do, feel or think, rather than what you think is considered right in this test. Nobody is there to judge you, just yourself...and besides, there are many trick questions.

Read every statement carefully and indicate which option applies best to you. There may be some questions describing situations that you may feel are not relevant to your life. In such cases, select the answer which you would most likely choose if you ever found yourself in such a situation.

After finishing the test, you will receive a Snapshot Report with an introduction, a graph and a personalized interpretation for one of your test scores. You will then have the option to purchase the full results.

Emotional Quotient or EQ is one of the ways to measure a persons ability to be successful in life. The phrase was first developed in the 1980s and asserts that emotional quotient or emotional intelligence is as valuable as intellectual quotient (IQ). According to theories of brain function, a high emotional quotient means someone is self-confident, self-aware, and able to navigate through trying emotional times. EQ is often tied directly to the degree of success one may have in the workplace and in personal relationships. Some companies offer services to test the emotional quotient of employees. Intelligence quotient measuring has existed for much longer than EQ measuring. Alfred Binet developed the first modern IQ test in the early 20th century. Since then, many modifications on intelligence quotient testing have been made. Currently an IQ test involves a set of standardized questions for which one receives a score. While the IQ can measure concepts like logical reasoning, word knowledge and math skills, many feel it is not adequate in measuring creative abilities or emotional abilities. In fact, some with high IQs do not seem to be particularly adept at maintaining relationships or seem socially awkward at best. For example IQ measurements on most children with autism are typically very high, yet it is well known that these children are burdened by their inability to communicate in other forums. Thus other tests may be administered to evaluate such a childs ability according to other standardized testing methods.