Examining Emotional Intelligence

Running head: EXAMINING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

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Examining Emotional Intelligence

EXAMINING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

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Examining Emotional Intelligence

When one hears the term Emotional Intelligence, perhaps for the first time, thoughts of a type of person who is responsible emotionally, both in and of themselves and also with respect to other people would quite possibly come to mind, a person who would know the appropriate way to respond in any given situation and how to interact appropriately with other people around them as they strive to make the best of each situation. The concept of emotional intelligence appears to be relatively new compared to other areas of psychology with concentrations of research developing different, and sometimes conflicting results, mostly depending on who is doing the research. The concept might not have been around long enough yet to have developed a set of standards that can be unanimously agrees upon for the most part. Finding a definition of the term, again, just depends on who you ask; for the most part, the definitions that can be found use many of the same words and express many of the same ideas. Generally, a definition would be similar to: The ability (natural or learned) to acquire and apply knowledge from our emotions and the emotions of others in order to help us make better decisions about what to say or do next. Byron Stock and Associates LLC (2007-2009). The difference between our emotional intelligence and our cognitive intelligence, sometimes termed our I.Q., is that our cognitive intelligence includes intellectual abilities such as logic, reason, reading, writing, analyzing, and prioritizing. These abilities all take place in our heads using only the neocortex and do not require any social skills, in other words we can perform them all by ourselves.

EXAMINING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

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True emotional intelligence would require the ability to analyze not just our own emotions, but the...